Ex-Christians: Why did you leave?

Aldebaran said:

Ok, I started in under Philosophy, but after about 7 posts (all very good and respectful), the mods closed it for review, then deleted it without explanation.

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St_Worm2 said:

Hi Aldebaran, you would probably have more luck getting people to reply to this on one of the Discussion & Debate boards like Philosophy. These boards are for Non-Christians to ask questions to and get answers from Christians about the Christian faith. There are plenty of atheists and others over there who say they were once Christians.

--David

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Hekate said:

I did not just leave Christianity, I was also a Gentile/Pagan. I pray not to God or Jesus, but to a goddess. There were many reasons for the change. I now call the three main reasons:

Reason 1: In my church, they had a very strange understanding of gender roles. Men are to rule, women should serve men. Thus, the talents of women have not been used, and even punished if women wanted to break out.

Reason 2: In my former church and many other churches, there was a hateful attitude toward homosexuality. And coupled with a fundamentalist understanding of the Bible, that was a "pick & choose". Neither the cultural, nor the textual background would be seen not even the original meaning of a word.

Reason 3: Two cases of sexual child abuse by a priest, and how the church dealt with it. It was disgusting, as the perpetrators protected, and the victims were accused of being homosexual.

Another reason, though not so important to me; was; that many Christian teachings does not correspond to current scientific knowledge. One has to believe unconditionally something (like the miracles of Jesus), without having any proof.

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Aldebaran said:

Ok, I started in under Philosophy, but after about 7 posts (all very good and respectful), the mods closed it for review, then deleted it without explanation.

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Hekate said:

To me it looks more like fear than by real reasons that would be understandable. More and more is consolidated with me the suspicion that only one opinion is true in this forum: The fundamentalist Christians!
It's not about an open exchange of views, not a respectful discussion but solely concerned with proclaiming their own opinion as the only "truth".
And therefore, I would ask angrily at me the forum to delete my account. With fundamentalist idiots who wear blinders, I will have nothing to do!

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St_Worm2 said:

Hi Aldebaran, you would probably have more luck getting people to reply to this on one of the Discussion & Debate boards like Philosophy. These boards are for Non-Christians to ask questions to and get answers from Christians about the Christian faith. There are plenty of atheists and others over there who say they were once Christians.

--David

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pastor marty said:

Hekate (good Egyptian goddess choice)

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Aldebaran said:

Someone suggested I start this thread, so I did!

I understand that there are quite a few people on the forum who used to be Christians but have decided to leave the faith for a variety of reasons. Here's your chance to give your testimony--either about how you came to Christ, or about why you decided to leave, or both.

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morningstar2651 said:

FYI Hekate is Greek, not Egyptian.

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Aldebaran said:

Unfortunately, the new thread I started was deleted by the mods. This one will probably go away too when they discover it.

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morningstar2651 said:

Well I'd better get my story in before the thread goes away. For the sake of not getting this thread deleted like the others, I will not share the story of my finding my way to Paganism and keep it limited to just my path away from Christianity.

I used to be a pretty conservative Calvinist. As a child I was an active member of my congregation and a member of the Reformed Church in America. I regularly attended both Sunday school and youth group.

It was in high school when we began studying the Heidelberg Catechism that I began to realize that I didn't believe as other Christians believe. I refused to believe in the total depravity of mankind and the idea of inheriting original sin seemed ridiculous. The more questions I sought answers for, the further away I realized my beliefs were from the other members of my congregation.

I began questioning my beliefs and researching the beliefs of others during high school, but I didn't actually have the means to join a non-Christian congregation until I moved away for college. I grew up in a small town with a Christian church on almost every block but no non-Christian congregations.

It wasn't so much a matter of choosing not to believe - it was more like attempting to believe the impossible. It's like when you're a child and you discover for the first time that Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny aren't real. No matter how much you REALLY want to believe, you just can't suspend your disbelief without facing cognitive dissonance.

When I moved away to college, I was agnostic. I wasn't sure if God existed, but I knew that the incarnation of God that I had been raised believing in did not make sense to me.

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morningstar2651 said:

Well I'd better get my story in before the thread goes away. For the sake of not getting this thread deleted like the others, I will not share the story of my finding my way to Paganism and keep it limited to just my path away from Christianity.

I used to be a pretty conservative Calvinist. As a child I was an active member of my congregation and a member of the Reformed Church in America. I regularly attended both Sunday school and youth group.

It was in high school when we began studying the Heidelberg Catechism that I began to realize that I didn't believe as other Christians believe. I refused to believe in the total depravity of mankind and the idea of inheriting original sin seemed ridiculous. The more questions I sought answers for, the further away I realized my beliefs were from the other members of my congregation.

I began questioning my beliefs and researching the beliefs of others during high school, but I didn't actually have the means to join a non-Christian congregation until I moved away for college. I grew up in a small town with a Christian church on almost every block but no non-Christian congregations.

It wasn't so much a matter of choosing not to believe - it was more like attempting to believe the impossible. It's like when you're a child and you discover for the first time that Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny aren't real. No matter how much you REALLY want to believe, you just can't suspend your disbelief without facing cognitive dissonance.

When I moved away to college, I was agnostic. I wasn't sure if God existed, but I knew that the incarnation of God that I had been raised believing in did not make sense to me.

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morningstar2651 said:

Well I'd better get my story in before the thread goes away. For the sake of not getting this thread deleted like the others, I will not share the story of my finding my way to Paganism and keep it limited to just my path away from Christianity.

I used to be a pretty conservative Calvinist. As a child I was an active member of my congregation and a member of the Reformed Church in America. I regularly attended both Sunday school and youth group.

It was in high school when we began studying the Heidelberg Catechism that I began to realize that I didn't believe as other Christians believe. I refused to believe in the total depravity of mankind and the idea of inheriting original sin seemed ridiculous. The more questions I sought answers for, the further away I realized my beliefs were from the other members of my congregation.

I began questioning my beliefs and researching the beliefs of others during high school, but I didn't actually have the means to join a non-Christian congregation until I moved away for college. I grew up in a small town with a Christian church on almost every block but no non-Christian congregations.

It wasn't so much a matter of choosing not to believe - it was more like attempting to believe the impossible. It's like when you're a child and you discover for the first time that Santa Claus, the tooth fairy, and the Easter bunny aren't real. No matter how much you REALLY want to believe, you just can't suspend your disbelief without facing cognitive dissonance.

When I moved away to college, I was agnostic. I wasn't sure if God existed, but I knew that the incarnation of God that I had been raised believing in did not make sense to me.

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pastor marty said:

This Morningstar gal has some solid mesna ideas. Look into her site.

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Aldebaran said:

I didn't know Morningstar was a gal. Looking at his/her profile, I still can't tell.
Upon looking up what mesna was, I think I'll stick with Turmeric.

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Aldebaran said:

I didn't know Morningstar was a gal. Looking at his/her profile, I still can't tell.
Upon looking up what mesna was, I think I'll stick with Turmeric.

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