The New Believer Syndrome

This is a term I came up with. Basically it is when a person who has been without religion or been away from religion for a long time suddenly “sees the light” and becomes a new Christian. Suddenly they are very excited about everything to do with God, the Bible, Church, etc. I doubt this happens with Islam because most people who are Muslim are born in countries where pretty much everyone practices the religion from the day they are born to the day they die. But with the Christians, I’ve seen these people become very excited and they start trying to get involved in as many activities as they can at church. Instead of just going on Sunday morning, pretty soon they are going on Sunday evening, then Wednesday evening, and every extra-curricular activity they can find. Before long they get to where they don’t talk about anything besides God or Church, and they start to alienate the people they work with and their family. After all, not everybody is interested in talking about God and Church all the time. And in doing so, they actually wind up alienating other people from their religion which is the exact opposite thing that God commands them to do. But just like any new-found infatuation, it will eventually reach a climax and then usually a big crash. Give them a year or two and they’ll be burned out and you won’t see them in a church again for years. Obviously, all new believers go through a certain period of infatuation, since everything is new. But only a small percentage will fall into this category.