Why I Left Christianity

[hereticzero]

I was a rabid Christian for over 45 years and a Protestant minister for close to 22 years before leaving the church. I started a ministry in which we planted 41 churches in over six countries in four of those years. We raised money for the persecuted church in other countries and, that is what got me started to rethink this whole 'true and without error' thing. While raising money for one ministry called 'Voice of the Martyrs', (VOM) I sent them e-mail and asked them if they thought Christians in the USA were also being persecuted and they sent back a very nice reply that stated Christians in the US were not persecuted, they were just 'inconvenienced'. Soon after that, VOM received its tax exemption status--which means the govt. was paying them to keep their mouth shut. I began to see then that Christianity was propaganda spread by governments as a false facade of morals to show the rest of the world how holy we were as a country and that the US had little to do with protecting Christians, much less the rest of the population so long as the image of the Christian nation was upheld. There are no persecuted people in the USA, period, according to VOM, the govt. and the rest of the Bible-thumpers. When I expressed my concerns to people in my ministry I was told I needed to go to school and learn more about my faith so I would better understand our theology and doctrine. That turned out to be a big mistake for them and a bonus for me. Through education I learned the horrific facts about just how bad Christianity really was throughout history, how badly we have been deceived through the church's doctrine concerning many things, including the treatment of homosexuals. I have made many adjustments to my beliefs about my fellow man since leaving the church and I am totally fine with gays and lesbians, whether they want to get married or not, I do not care as that is a private issue best left to them. In fact, I am now ordained through the Church of Spiritual Humanism and have no qualms about marrying anyone. What is a marriage license but a tax you pay to be married. If gays and lesbians feel obligated to pay the tax that is up to them. My doctrine is now the Libertarian view that peaceful activity between two persons is no one's business, which is also a point taught in the Bible--which is mind your own business, judge not, etc.

I believe god did not create man to be heterosexual at the beginning of creation, otherwise why did he bring all of the animals for Adam to have sexual intercourse with before he made the poor fool a woman he could enjoy for himself? God showed more compassion to animals, providing them mates for themselves. And, where did the other people of the earth come from while Adam and Eve were in the garden? Aliens? The Christian god is cruel, petty and a spoiled brat. How can Christianity compare my earthly father with a heavenly father when mine is so much more forgiving and loving than god. When I do wrong, my father does not stone me to death, nor burn me for eternity in hell for not believing the fictitious stories of Jesus and his miracles. Let the Christians go to hell. I prefer to believe that death is the beginning of just one more adventure!

I have also come to realize the Bible is not all true and without error and that many errors in translation exists in it as well as blatant errors in doctrine from one book to the next that contradict each other. Before, I had only been taught the scripture that supports our church doctrine while ignoring the parts that did not. I also learned how the Bible was created and that was unsettling enough to make me understand that the Bible is a collection of fiction forged by authors who cannot be proven. How can a god so powerful use the least effective way of sending a message by one person at a time instead of announcing his will to all of us at one time? If he has such a tremendous voice, then he can surely speak loud enough for all of creation to hear him! In the end, I have come to believe that there is something else, not known, waiting for discovery that neither Christianity nor any other revealed religion has the answer for--who we really are and where are we really going. I do believe there is an afterlife but one that is not known and only the dead for certain whether it exists or not. Psychics can't even get anything right, where the hell were they on 9-11-2001? People were praying their asses off all over this country on that day, giving god ample opportunity to show himself, to do something, anything, and like the good little absentee god that he is, he did NOTHING! All of his financial ministers to whom we are enslaved due to ungodly interests rates and an unforgiving financial institutions, went straight to the bottom of the pile of concrete that fell on their heads. It appears that 9-11 may have been divine retribution after all.

My turning point was 9-11-01 and the years afterward, with every nation on earth claiming god was on their side while murdering each other with such orgiastic abandon in the name of their gods! The only difference between Christians and Islamist fundamentals is the hat they wear. We have a President that believes he is the voice and right hand of god and has almost every 'faith based initiative' feeding out of his pocket for the money he throws out like confetti to keep the Jesus freaks on his side while ruining the livelihoods for the rest of us. His war in Iraq was brought about through false pretenses, there is no way to excuse it. Saddam was no angel but the sanctions against him had been placed by the UN, not the US and we had no business invading Iraq following 9-11-01. George Bush single-handedly made such an impression on me that I left the Christian church and politics. If he, and others like him, were part of it, I wanted no part of it. Fascism has no part in our country no matter whose church brings it!

I believe all mankind is the collective mind of the divine--this is not atheistic and I do not claim to be an atheist. I believe we have yet to discover our purpose, perhaps we have no other purpose than just being here supporting each other in times of crisis whether personal, national, or global, that does not diminish our importance in the universe. We are miracles, all 6+ billion of us on the planet. Other miracles exist, plants, animals, water, germs, oceans of life, we are unique in our spot in the universe. This does not have to mean we were placed here by design or out of the whim of a god who had an existential meltdown and cursed all of creation over an ignorant girl who was given a magical fruit by a talking snake. Christianity is the combined collection of ancient religions into one super church bent on dominating the world.

Leaving a cult is like going through detox. Being free of mind control hurts only for a short time as I learned to think for myself instead of WWJD! I really hate smarmy slogans, too. I come from several generations of Southern Baptist ministers. Being born into the religion seems to be more difficult to break out of it than being converted into it from a different religion. I have been told that it would be more acceptable to believe the parts that are true and forget the rest--I am not sure what the person meant by that. One either believes the religion or one does not. I have tried to explain how I feel to others who are still Christian but their brains are fried from the theology and I do not believe any amount of explanations will convince anyone to deconvert. It is something a person has to come to recognize for one's self through exploration of history and personal growth. It may take years before that little light comes on in your head and the nagging feeling that the guy behind the curtain pulling the strings knows absolutely nothing about what he is teaching and why or where the teachings come from. One source that began making more sense in spite of being silly was the Flying Spaghetti Monster satire. It did more to make me think about religious teachings than many books I've read.

Go and watch the Golden Compass and pay attention to the story. It is truth disguised as fiction, rather than fiction disguised as truth. And, the writers will not murder you and your family if you do not believe it.

Have faith in yourself and you can overcome great adversity. Fail to act on your own behalf and you will perish.

I bid you all peace and good fortune.

[ballz2wallz]

Wow, interesting read, and I'm glad you have shared it with us. I look forward to your opinions and contributions to many discussions.

Do you happen to have a family of your own?

[hereticzero]

Yes, I have a family, married more than 15 years.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by hereticzero

Yes, I have a family, married more than 15 years.

Pardon my presumptious question, but is there something that happened to you that perhaps made you a bit bitter? It sounds as though you may harbor some bitterness inside as I read your writings, and that may have contributed to your turning on your belief in God.

It's hard for me to imagine that anybody would have such a strong belief in God but allow logic to push them away from a faith-based institution.

[DosEquis]

wow.

I am of the opinion that faith should be an individual thing. Sure, we can organize and share the same faith in a church some place. The problems start to come about when the organization turns to bureaucracy. Once those things are introduced there is so much money involved that human nature simply can't help but go corrupt. Whether its the church, government, or large corporations, greed seems to take over.

One thing that really bothered me was the catholic church actually had 600 million dollars to settle with when the child molesting thing went down. To me that is just completely and amazingly absurd amount of money for a 'tax free' 'charitable' organization.

[Linzyhop]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

One thing that really bothered me was the catholic church actually had 600 million dollars to settle with when the child molesting thing went down. To me that is just completely and amazingly absurd amount of money for a 'tax free' 'charitable' organization.

have you ever been to the vatican? the catholic church has shits loads of money, taken from all the centuries of persecution. i'd bet at least 30-50% was stolen from the jews (10% from the Inquisition).....

[DosEquis]

Originally Posted by Linzyhop

have you ever been to the vatican? the catholic church has shits loads of money, taken from all the centuries of persecution. i'd bet at least 30-50% was stolen from the jews (10% from the Inquisition).....

I haven't, only seen pictures.

But that leads me to ask... how christian is that? How can anyone try to take the moral high ground with that in their closet... just baffles me.

[Linzyhop]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

I haven't, only seen pictures.

But that leads me to ask... how christian is that? How can anyone try to take the moral high ground with that in their closet... just baffles me.

EXACTLY.

hence the reason i haven't been catholic since i was like... um... 12.

[Spideynw]

Excellent write up! Welcome to the fold of non-Bible-believers. You bring up some excellent points, which were some of the reasons I myself quit believing in the Bible. Religions do an excellent job at brain-washing. I myself believe there is a Creator or Creators, but that they just do not communicate with us. I also believe we are all just energy, and that once our die, our energy just transfers to a different form.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

I haven't, only seen pictures.

But that leads me to ask... how christian is that? How can anyone try to take the moral high ground with that in their closet... just baffles me.

It's important to make the distinction between Christianity and the Church. Christianity is a personal relationship with God. What the church does is up to them, and it's up to you to choose a church that shares your beliefs.

Catholicism does not represent Christianity. It may fall under a Christian denomination. I myself am Christian, but am not Catholic.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Spideynw

I also believe we are all just energy, and that once our die, our energy just transfers to a different form.

The Law of Conservation of Energy and Matter states clearly that this is the case. This is more a scientific fact, not a religious belief.

Science deals with matters of the physical, religion deals with matters of the soul. How is it you can so easily combine/confuse the two?

[Spideynw]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

The Law of Conservation of Energy and Matter states clearly that this is the case. This is more a scientific fact, not a religious belief.

Science deals with matters of the physical, religion deals with matters of the soul. How is it you can so easily combine/confuse the two?

Please forgive my poor use of grammar. If I said, "I understand we are all energy and that when we die our energy just changes form" would you be happy?

[hereticzero]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

Pardon my presumptious question, but is there something that happened to you that perhaps made you a bit bitter? It sounds as though you may harbor some bitterness inside as I read your writings, and that may have contributed to your turning on your belief in God.

It's hard for me to imagine that anybody would have such a strong belief in God but allow logic to push them away from a faith-based institution.

And you see logic in Christianity? I am tired of christians telling me what is of god and what is not. We are all of god. If there is a god, he needs no worship. Christian theology has had two thousand years to prove itself and it has failed miserably. Christians faint at the sight of a woman breast feeding her baby in public but they want to go to third world countries where, in some place, they hardly wear clothing at all, and then they come back and tell everyone what a splendid job they did but the people remain as bad off as they were before the missionaries came, or worse off, however you want to call it. It is much more than one incident, it is a life time of being controlled by a religion whose claim to authenticity is the story of the girl given fruit by a talking snake. The story of Jesus is as manufactured as the Mormon's belief, yet they fight tooth and claw over who is right, and they both have god on their side, just we have god on our side as a christian nation, yahoo. Lucky us! Christianity is not the answer to humanity's woes, it causes more problems. Then there are the misfits with intelligent design, that's a good one. Odds are just as good that everything was made from an invisible flying spaghetti monster.

[hereticzero]

Originally Posted by DosEquis

wow.

I am of the opinion that faith should be an individual thing. Sure, we can organize and share the same faith in a church some place. The problems start to come about when the organization turns to bureaucracy. Once those things are introduced there is so much money involved that human nature simply can't help but go corrupt. Whether its the church, government, or large corporations, greed seems to take over.

One thing that really bothered me was the catholic church actually had 600 million dollars to settle with when the child molesting thing went down. To me that is just completely and amazingly absurd amount of money for a 'tax free' 'charitable' organization.

The way churches are treated in America is obscene, they should all be taxed. I could bet our home-owner taxes would drop substantially across the nation if the govt. taxed churches. They are not protected by the Constitution from taxation, only the govt. protects the church. A nation of fascists living and working in the same church together. Christianity's power in politics needs to be crushed before we can ever have a decent country again.

[hereticzero]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

It's important to make the distinction between Christianity and the Church. Christianity is a personal relationship with God. What the church does is up to them, and it's up to you to choose a church that shares your beliefs.

Catholicism does not represent Christianity. It may fall under a Christian denomination. I myself am Christian, but am not Catholic.

'I myself am a Christian but am not a Catholic' ... Man, that's about as pompous a statement as one can make! Christianity is what you are taught in your denomination. The only difference between protestants and catholics are the hats they wear. Protestants teach only half the crap spewed from catholicism, big deal. The christian way is to disrupt family values in favor of their antiquated theology and doctrine. Hatred of people is disguised by their use of christianity as a cloak--'you are wrong because the bible says so.' They lead protests against everything that does not suit their way of life. What pathetic hogwash. Name a moral value not found among atheists? Nonbelievers are not cursed by god, the good Samaritan was not judged for not being a believer, Jesus did not even claim a person had to be a Christian--hell, Jesus wasn't even Christian. The NT has been written over centuries to claim whatever it wants to claim, just like the OT was written. Every where one looks the church--the religion, has deceived its believers in every possible way.

The PEOPLE respresent Christianity, the church, the religion. A building represents nothing but the shallow ideals preached within its walls. The PEOPLE don't know jack about their own history, otherwise many more would and should leave Christianity. Maybe life does not exist for you beyond the narrow confines of what you've been taught but for me, leaving the religion breathed new life into me.

The christian church wants to dominate the afterlife too. More hogwash. We are beings of energy and when we die that energy is released as something else in a different state. We become something else not spoken of in christianity or any other religion. Only the dead know what they have become, or not. There is no resurrection because we do not die because the body ceases, our energy lives on. Nothing shows we go to heaven or hell. Punishments and rewards are for the living, not the dead.

Christianity is crap. Organized religion is crap. People do not know what is right and what is wrong because their heads are filled with religious crap.

[hereticzero]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

It's important to make the distinction between Christianity and the Church. Christianity is a personal relationship with God. What the church does is up to them, and it's up to you to choose a church that shares your beliefs.

That's a load of crap. There is no personal relationship with god. God doesn't give a crap who you are. Even the bible says god is not partial to man, his blessings fall upon all of us--yeah we get rain. How loving is god when he cannot measure up to my own earthly father? I do not have to ask my earthly father for food for 20 years before he decides to help. On the other hand, with god, you never know when you are getting fed or when he might bestow his almighty mercy for you and you get what you need to have to live another day. My earthly father will give me if I ask for clothing, food, help with rent and utilities. God give me what?--tornadoes, pestilence, floods, hurricanes, and on and on. The earth does not destroy man because of sin but because of nature, the way it works. Don't want to get drowned by the next flood or hurricane, get the hell out of the flood plains and marshlands.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Spideynw

Please forgive my poor use of grammar. If I said, "I understand we are all energy and that when we die our energy just changes form" would you be happy?

And what of the soul? The 'energy' statements hold up when speaking directly of the physical body, but what of the non-physical entity? Is that energy too?

[Spideynw]

Originally Posted by ballz2wallz

And what of the soul? The 'energy' statements hold up when speaking directly of the physical body, but what of the non-physical entity? Is that energy too?

Well since there is no proof of some "non-physical" entity, I do not address it.

[ballz2wallz]

Originally Posted by Spideynw

Well since there is no proof of some "non-physical" entity, I do not address it.

What is it that makes you different from animals? Do you really need proof of your own soul?