#leaving christianity

[escaping-amish]

💀💀💀💀

[gramarobin]

[cornyjail]

The Truman Show (1998) hits different when you are an deconstructing exvangelical

[delphinidin4]

I find it interesting to look back and see that one of the many things that eventually led to me leaving Christianity was a sermon my pastor gave on how you were ALLOWED to doubt, you were ALLOWED, and in fact encouraged, to explore your doubts.

So I did. And.... yeah.

Other things that played a part:

Parental abuse

Probably a subconscious desire to not be like my parents

C-PTSD

The fact that going to church had been triggering my PTSD for literally years at that point (I eventually stopped going, obvs) ((please note that I was not abused by the church! I actually had a pretty positive experience of Christianity! It was other associations that caused this.))

Feeling like my entire life was coming unmoored

Intense anxiety, including existential anxiety (and losing my faith DID NOT HELP OMG IT WAS AWFUL)

The specific way I was taught to view the Bible: IE not literalist (I was taught to believe in evolution, for instance), but that the Bible was historically accurate, and we could trust God BECAUSE we knew how he had behaved with people in history (supposedly)

Good background knowledge of the discipline of archaeology + learning about the actual academic archaeological consensus about Palestinian/Israeli archaeology

The specific way I was taught to view Christianity: IE, if you don't believe in the historical truth of the Bible, then you're not really a Christian. Very black and white.

Intense interest in the Truth and Getting Things Right, and an inability to let something lie when I knew it was Incorrect

The fact that Christianity had never really felt emotionally, spiritually, or aesthetically fulfilling to me (and that more esoteric beliefs/practices, like paganism and witchcraft, DID feel fulfilling)

[cavorta]

April 7, 2024 My novella "Dreams of Loki" is now also available as a print. It is about spirituality, modern paganism and the struggles and joys of being queer. The Norse deity Loki plays an important part in it and some of the characters are witches.

🔥 Why did I write this novella? Several times, I heard stories about people who left a conservative or fundamentalist Christian cult or congregation and later explored a pagan path. But I do not know any fiction books which deal with this topic, so I decided to write such a story myself. This is also a devotional work dedicated to Loki. 🔥 The ebook and print on Amazon:

Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/

Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/

Amazon.com.au: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/

Also available in all other Amazon shops worldwide.

[secretlyanocelot]

Show and tell (indoctrination edition) These are the cringey Christian dork diaries my mother bought me in middle school. She said “Jesus always has a better alternative.” Or something like that. Now they sit lovingly on my shelf next to my gl manga and ice planet barbarians 1-4☺️

[edenisodd]

I'm so glad I changed my name. I let my old self lay to rest, her burdens are buried.

I'm reincarnated, a new vessel. A vessel that knows who they are, knows where to go for love and support. I've been making steps forward, to take care of myself.

I still carry her pain as a reminder of how cruel people can be. She cried because anger was unbecoming of a christian woman. She shrunk at the sight of a man, hoping for their approval. Waiting for someone to tell her that she was doing it right because she felt so wrong.

Whenever I see or hear mention of christianity I only become angry. I'm angry for her suffering. I carry her pain with me, but I'm stronger for it. I'm proud of who I am and I'll never let them hurt her again.

[christ-our-glory]

Can you lose your salvation? No. As Charles Spurgeon said, "If God has loved me once, then He will love me forever."

However, not all who claim they believe are truly saved. As R.C. Sproul said, “It's the possession of faith, not the profession of it that translates a person from the kingdom of darkness into the kingdom of light.”

Another point to consider is that not all who walk away from the faith will stay forever gone. As Martyn Lloyd-Jones wrote, “What is backsliding? A child of God being disobedient... He may do it to such an extent that if you just look at him at that point you'd say this man is not a Christian... How do you know if they are Christian? A backslider always comes back [to Christ].”

We see many once well-known Christian celebrities reject Him, and if they die without ever coming back to the faith, that merely proves they never truly belonged to Him (1 John 2:19).

To be eternally secured in Christ means you are growing in holiness, not stagnating or avoiding holiness. Beware of the ones who say they are saved and yet remain as lost in sin as the unregenerate world around them.

[luckylucariosblog]

One of the things that woke up me.

I was at an Wednesday Youth Group. The pastor said that some people come here just to cause problems and distrupt everyone else. Then told us to ask our selves why we where really coming to events.

​​It made me think about why I was actually going. I wasn't going for the right reasons. So that is when I started thinking for myself more.

I had been thinking about why I was going to youth church for a long time. Ironically that Pastor who was trying to discourage people from acting out. It gave me a big push to look inward as to why I was really going.

I was also getting to the age. Where the cutesy stories aren't told anymore. The harshness of the church's doctrine was starting to show.

I was also at the age of figuring myself out. Coming to terms with the fact that I might not be straight. That my understanding of the social parts of life was low. There where other things that happened around that time. Things that deserve there own post.

[jarredlharris]

A few thoughts while reading "Theologizin' Bigger" by Trey Ferguson.

[escaping-amish]

Hung out with an old church friend yesterday… dating came up

He really emphasized the need to find someone within the religion. And asked me questions to determine if I was prioritizing that too. I felt so bothered lying. “Of course I ask about religion” “yea it’s total deal breaker” “agnostic? Psh as if” but that’s what I’m tired of. I thought I could tell him the truth until he showed me I couldn’t. The way he talked about “real / fake Christians” I knew what he’d say about me. That’s what sucks, what the ppl closest to you will inevitably say. I know it ultimately does not matter but it still kinda hurts.

[gramarobin]

[mysteriouslyimportantdreamer]

Okay, my mental state has been crap for like, quite a while now, and during walks that I take with my dog i talk to myself out loud, and I am very philosophical in the winter, why I do not know, but it helped me make a few realizations about myself and my beliefs, so here is my little blabber.

I questioned the universe and it gave me an answer.

"When I was younger, I told myself many times that I wanted to be Christian, so that my family would love me more, but now I have realized that Christianity goes against my morals, "

Here is where I need to explain something. Before this, I had never strictly thought about my own morals, so this was me first seeing my moral compass

" I believe that people that are kind, or have at least tried their hardest, deserve to love, be loved, and live. I feel as if I am a protector to those around me, and in the minds of Christians, not everyone i think deserves protection does according to them. I believe that most people deserve protection, I do not care if they are weak, or strong, because even the strongest who have been fighting for as long as they remember deserve rest and peace."

Than my brain began to wander, as it always does, and I began to think about how emotions connect to seasons, and also how just like seasons, emotions are thought about unfairly.

" Winter is beautiful, I think that many people do not understand the peace that comes with the slight bite of the cold, and the beauty that comes from the quiet nature of winter. I feel as if people tend to think that summer is better then winter, and I feel as if this has to do with how temperatures are related to emotions. People often think of warmth being comforting and happy, but I personally think that warmth can become burning, and hostile, just as the cold can cause frostbite, the warmth can hurt just as much. "

"I feel as if summer and heat can relate to both love and hate, and winter relates to fear and peace."

There is more than this that I would like to share, but I don't know how long you have to read this, so let me know if you want to hear more of my brain dump.

[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

[cavorta]

New book release: "Dreams of Loki"

I have published a novella, about spirituality, modern paganism and the struggles and joys of being queer: The young lesbian woman Vera leaves a conservative Christian cult, starting a new life in Hamburg. There she must find a place to live and a job. But Vera has an additional problem: in her dreams, a mysterious person appears who finally reveals to be the Norse deity Loki. Vera mistrusts this deity – is this some kind of demon? In Hamburg, Vera gets to know more queer people and also a Norse pagan …

Why did I write this novella? Several times, I heard stories about people who left a conservative or fundamentalist Christian cult or congregation and later went on a pagan path. But I do not know any fiction books which deal with this topic, so I decided to write such a story myself. This is also a devotional work dedicated to Loki. The ebook on Amazon (release on April 1, 2024, can be pre-ordered): Amazon.com: https://www.amazon.com/-/de/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/ Amazon.co.uk: https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/Amazon.com.au: https://www.amazon.com.au/dp/B0CZ7G16S5/ Also available on all other Amazon shops worldwide.

A print edition will also be available on Amazon, on April 7, 2024.

[torahcoursesfree]

Jewish Festivals III Rosh Hashanah and the Non-Jew  Lesson 28

Jewish Festivals III Rosh Hashanah and the Non-Jew  Lesson 28 https://ypsnetiv.org

Check out this episode!