In his book Witness Essentials, Daniel Meyer tells the story of meeting a man named Gary who had grown up in a harsh, legalistic Christian home.
On several occasions, [Meyer writes], Gary stressed that this was the reason why he was no longer interested in Christianity. For a long time, I just tried to resonate with how difficult his childhood must have been. One day, however, I felt led to press the matter a bit further. I recounted my own experience of growing up under the care of a dentist who physically abused me. For years, it made me avoid dentists altogether. When I related the story to Gary, I said, "One day the truth hit me. That man was a very bad dentist. But these are my teeth. Am I going to go my whole life bypassing the benefits of dentistry because that particular doc was a quack?" There was a moment of quiet at the table. "Gary," I said, "I like you a lot, so let me dare to ask you a difficult question. How long are you going to let the bad experience you had with certain Christians stop you from getting proper care for your soul? What if there are actually some great spiritual doctors out there?" Gary is now a regular at our church—not a believer yet, but he's seeking again.