#christian deconstruction

[alethianightsong]

My brain whenever I start to feel bad for losing my faith but God is supposed to be all-seeing so he saw me having a faith crisis & did nothing:

"IT'S NOT MY FAULT if in God's plan. He made the devil so much stronger than a maaaaaaaan!"

[hindahoney]

Unlearning christianity was something I spent months actively working towards before had even started to consider converting, and truly getting through the trauma of it all is something I'm still not finished with even though I'm about a month or two away from going in front of my beit den. I'm STILL unlearning the fear of "hell" even though I haven't actually believed in it for years atp. christians really see the world in such a black and white, completely defined way (if you ask a question they have a definite answer for you that's pretty much the same between a majority of christians) and my community and Rabbi have stressed to me that being Jewish is not all or nothing, it's more where you just try your best and work to continually improve yourself, so for me it's really comparative to going from parents who expect nothing less than straight A's in school to parents who are happy with Cs and even Ds and offer to help you with homework instead of yelling about how you should pay more attention in class, and every single thing I remember about my christian background is in direct opposition to my jewish future

Reposting because I think converts would be able to relate to this. Thank you for sharing, I've heard from a lot of people about how difficult and traumatic Christianity can be, and even more so trying to break away from it.

[deconstructing-christian-girl]

"The ultimate question for a responsible man to ask is ... how the coming generation is to live. It is only this question, with its responsibility toward history, that fruitful solutions can come, even if for the time being they are very humiliating. In short, it is much easier to see a thing through from the point of view of abstract principle than from that of concrete responsibility. The rising generation will always instinctively discern which of these we make the basis of our actions, for it is their own future that is at stake."

Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Letters & Papers from Prison, p. 7

In other words, the needs of real people must take a higher place than our ideologies, "abstract principles." How many have been killed or suffered at the hands of someone who couldn't see past their own abstract ideologies? I'd suggest most of them. This seems to be the root problem. When you fit a person into a box in your ideology, like women in an inferior position to men, you dehumanize them by turning them into a cog in your big machine. You're not interested in who they are in themselves. They have to be kept down in their place "for their own good." Much blood has been shed by those in grip of an abstract ideology.

[alienbycomics]

Content Warning: religion and transphobia⚠️

Happy Trans Day of Visibility 🏳️‍⚧️ I made a comic reflecting on my church upbringing as an eXvangelical trans person. The Jesus conservative Christians claim to represent looked lot more like many of the LGBTQ+ friends I know and love. Just some food for thought 💖

[protestantposting]

*pulling out the biblical inerrancy brick and/or putting in the cultural context is important brick into my theological framework*

*theological plinko ensues*

Oh shit, oh fuck I can be gay now?

[escaping-amish]

I love how he finds the words to describe the concepts that float around my head daily ❤️❤️❤️❤️ love him!

[adventism-atheism-orthodoxy-me]

I have no mouth. And I must Scream. by Harlan Ellison

Sinners In the Hands of an Angry God. by the Rev. Jonathan Edwards.

They Relate in the mind of an Atheist.

[seraphimfall]

i’ve read so much tradcath bullshit the last two years. i can confidently say tradcath men fit into one of two categories:

“protestant-raised and converted to catholicism because of his crippling porn addiction and racist tendencies. reposts crusader and conquistador memes. is hated in his local parish.” tradcath

“catholic-raised band kid who ate his lunches with the religion teacher. smells like mildew. cut off all his friends that came out as gay after high school. now larps as an aquinian scholar and cries after jerking off.” tradcath

[dirtyheathencommie]

DEAR EDUCATIONALLY NEGLECTED HOMESCHOOLERS

I’ve gathered some resources and tips and tricks on self-educating after educational neglect. This is only what I did and what I know helped me. I’m about to graduate college with honors after having no education past the age of 9. I wouldn’t be here without the following. Everything is free, and at/well above the standard for education in the US.

The holy grail: Khan Academy. Nearly every course you could take is available here, in order and by grade level. Their open-source free courses rival some of the college classes I’ve taken. This is your most solid resource.

For inattentive types: Crash Course offers a variety of courses that are snappy, entertaining, and extremely rewarding. They work for my ADHD brain. They also have college prep advice, which is essential if you’re looking to go to higher education with no classroom experience.

To catch up on your reading: There are certain books that you may have read had you gone to school that you’ve missed out on. This list is the most well-rounded and can fill you in on both children’s books and classic novels that are essential or at least extremely helpful to be familiar with. You can find a majority of these easily at a local library (and some for free in PDF form online low key). There are a few higher level classics in here that I’d highly recommend. If it doesn’t work for you, I’d always recommend asking your local librarian.

*BE AWARE* The book list I recommend suggests you read Harry Potter books, and given their transphobic author you may or may not want to read them. If you choose to, I’d highly recommend buying the books secondhand or borrowing from a library to avoid financially supporting a living author with dangerous and damaging views.

TEST, TEST, TEST: Again, Khan Academy is your go-to for this. I don’t personally like standardized testing, but going through SAT and ACT courses was the best way I found to really reveal my gaps so that I could supplement.

Finally: As much as you can, enjoy the process. Education can be thrilling and teach you so much about yourself, and help shape your view of the world. It can get frustrating, but I’d like to encourage you that everyone can learn. No pace is the perfect pace, and your learning style is the right learning style for you. In teaching yourself, be patient, be kind, and indulge in the subjects you really enjoy without neglecting others. You are your teacher. Give yourself what others chose not to.

[ardent-apostasy]

forceful reminder as we come up to easter weekend that you were not born bad. that it is good that you are alive. that you were not born to be evil, or born to die for the cause, or born to be broken.

[durnesque-esque]

Images on my mind tonight... the first: the Nativity scene in Bethlehem's Church this year. The second: José y Maria by Everett Patterson (2014).. almost 10 years ago, still relevant.

Christmas has been a weird time for me for a long time. I'm pretty unreligious these days. But the imagery still haunts. Especially when I think about how I got to where I'm at and wonder how my Christian friends and family can be - sometimes- so far away ideologically.

How did I grow up in a church that worshiped a little baby born in an occupied state to parents who became immigrants and learn, therefore, to love the stranger, the oppressed, the unhoused? And why do so many of the people who were churched around me fail to learn to love radically?

The entrenched hypocrisy of American Christianity is why I left. But I am still embedded in the traditions of this holiday, looking at a Christmas tree and thinking of all the suffering not only half a world away, but also right down the street.

[jesusinstilettos]

Sometimes people demand you justify being an atheist with a 200 page well-sourced thesis on biblical scholarship but one of the reasons I am not a Christian anymore is so fucking simple. It made my life worse. It made me unhealthy mentally. I’ve grown one thousand times more as a person without it. If it were really the one true wisdom from an all knowing infinite god, it would make my life better. And that’s enough proof for me. And it’s a valid reason.

[deconstructing-christian-girl]

"One of the signs of the present time is the idea of participation, the right that all persons have to participate in the construction of their own common good.

For this reason, one of the most dangerous abuses of the present time is repression, the attitude that says, "Only we can govern, no one else; get rid of them."

Everyone can contribute much that is good, and in that way trust is achieved. The common good will not be attained by excluding people. We can't enrich the common good of our country by driving out those we don't care for. We have to try to bring out all that is good in each person and try to develop an atmosphere of trust, not with physical force, as though dealing with irrational beings l, but with a moral force that draws out the good that is in everyone, especially in concerned young people.

Thus, with all contributing their own interior life, their own responsibility, their own way of being, all can build the beautiful structure of the common good, the good that we construct together and that creates conditions of kindness, of trust, of freedom, of peace.

Then we can, all of us together, build the republic--the res publica, the public concern--what belongs to all of us and what we all have the duty of building."

[pretentious-librarian]

i dont want god’s forgiveness. i want HIM to apologize to ME.

[hulahoopsoupgroup]

the seven deadly sins are such bullshit fear tactics. if youve left the church, embrace them.

be proud of who you are. be happy when you look in the mirror and see how hot you are. yeah i see you flexing in the mirror after a workout. nice progress btw honey you look nice today.

dont worry about getting seconds, or thirds even, at dinner. dont worry about eating what society says is "too much" or "too little". eat until youre full. set aside what you cant finish for later so you dont waste food.

its okay to be greedy. its okay to want things for yourself. sometimes we see things that people have and we're like "dude i wish i had that." thats just human. envy and greed on that level are normal.

take a rest day. dont bother going to church this sunday. take a shower, read a book, drink some tea, eat some good food, pet a cat or dog. take care of yourself; its not lazy.

be angry with those who wronged you. punch a punching bag, write about how much you hate them, go work out aggressively and take care of your emotions in a way that doesnt hurt yourself or others. its okay to not forgive the people who hurt you. you arent doing anything wrong, babe.

embrace your sexuality (or, if it applies, asexuality, cause yall need love too). stop feeling shame for wanting pleasure. go read or watch something that turns you on. explore your body. ask your partner to try something new. if youre asexual, then fucking step on the people who say you need to have sexual attraction to be human. you dont. you dont need to be allosexual (or alloromantic) to "qualify as a human." we all experience life in different ways. find your way to experience it.

thought crime isnt real

do no harm but take no shit

[spacelazarwolf]

btw you can’t hate “organized religion” without hating the people who they originated with. you cannot hate judaism without hating jews. you cannot hate islam without hating muslims. you cannot hate buddhism without hating buddhists. you cannot hate sikhi without hating sikhs. you cannot hate minority religions without hating the minorities who practice them or whose culture is tied to them. so if you tell me “i don’t hate jews I just hate organized religion” all i hear is “i hate jews i just know it’s not politically correct to say that and i need a way to give myself plausible deniability.”