For former Christians--how did you divorce yourself from the church?

Question

I've compared saying the word "goddamn" to filing for divorce from the Assemblies of God church, here and elsewhere. I sort of forced myself to "take the Lord's name in vain" when I left, and did so at every opportunity for a while. I also threw away Christian hip-hop CDs I didn't really like and got secular ones that I did want, and cancelled my subscription to a Christian teen girl magazine that first week away from the church.

What did you do when you "filed for divorce"? Or did you just carry on like normal, except for not going to church anymore?

Also, what did you leave the church *for*?

Not just a Christian magazine--Focus on the Family's teen girl magazine, Brio! Which is about what you'd expect.

http://www.briomag.com/

PPS--I left 14 years ago, at the age of 18. I was talking about this with my younger cousin last night, who felt the need to "do something special" because he's decided he doesn't believe in God.

Answer 1

I just quit going.
I got rid of the bulk of my christian music CD's (I had a ton) since they were cluttering my CD tower and I had no more interest in listening to them.
And I wrote a thing for my mother, at her request, explaining why I no longer believed in christianity. She showed it to my former pastor as well (come to think of it I wonder if the the essay was his idea to start with. . . )

And, yes, I do sometimes say 'Oh my God' 'cause mom told me when I was a kid that that was breaking the 3rd commandment :)

LOL You subscribed to BRIO too? LOL I was past the teenage years when I left the church, but I was reading that rag for from the time I was 13 to about when I was 17.
I've discovered some great music bands that I first heard of though that magazine, where they were trashing them as not being 'Christian' enough. One specific example I can think of was Soundgarden.

Answer 2

I simply stopped going and stopped having anything to do with that kind of thing.

But then I didn't quit over any specific incident, but rather because I lost interest over time, with my supernatural beliefs replaced by the better understanding of the world that I was developing in the process of studying in college. All of the god stuff came to seem less and less interesting - shallow, actually - as I came to understand statistics and cognitive science.

Now, the church that I was brought up in did eventually turn against the United States and allied itself with the religious right. If I were there today, I would have an "incident", as I take American patriotism seriously.

(Later: )

I just took the "What's your Bible Q?" quiz at the kid's magazine website you cited. I got a 23, putting me right at the upper end of "Bible Pro" and just a point short of "Bible Genius". So much for atheist ignorance.

18 to 23 points = Bible Pro
Good for you. You’ve obviously studied the Bible. Try keeping a journal of how you apply your Bible reading each day. Remember that James says that a person who reads the Bible and doesn’t apply it to his life is like a person who looks in a mirror and then forgets what she looks like. You wouldn’t walk away from the mirror without taking care of the glob of broccoli you see stuck in your teeth. Don’t walk away from the Bible without finding out what God is saying to you and taking action.

24 to 30 points = Bible Genius
You have a solid knowledge of the Bible. Super! Are you taking time to find out what the Word says to you? Pick a book of the Bible such as James or Philippians and study it verse by verse using a commentary. Keep a journal of what you’re learning, how God is changing you through it and how you’re daily applying it in your life.

Answer 3

In my opinion, the purpose of going to church is to bring balance or happiness to my life. However, church is not the only thing that provide happiness, there are budhism, islam, scientology, etc. Those religions are like a different kind of beat in music. You can sing the same song with country music style, a rock and roll style, or pop music style.

So, instead of creating hate and focus on ditching the "Christian", try to focus on the positive side... what's good for you and what you want.

Answer 4

once you're a pal to this female, in case you may tell her how her habit isn't Christian, it ought to alter her. rather love does not injury others, or punish them, or set complicated standards for them. And gossip and backbiting are some others. She is likewise changing her character and not for the greater efficient. this could be a sort of poisonous relationships, however. it ought to have no longer something to do with Christianity. merely twisted human beings. they say in coaching that once a newborn is surely undesirable, 'the undesirable youngster of the classification', that in case you do away with them, that doesn't substitute the concern one bit!!! interior of a little while, yet another youngster will take the area of that one. to place this in dating pollutants, a spouse develop into continually 'helping' her husband, who had an alcohol project. She develop into so understand-how and efficient. sooner or later, the guy theory 'it relatively is adequate' and he quit, and the female ought to no longer handle this, and the marriage broke up. This woman appeared like 'the solid man or woman' and he the 'undesirable man or woman', even with the shown fact that it ought to no longer be that for the time of any respect. in case you're her chum, i could get her to work out that she isn't following the bible.

Answer 5

I left christianity when I was 8 after studying other religions and figuring out it made no sense whatsoever. After leaving I stopped going to church and tried to convince the kind, caring christians that were left that they should not change themselves to suit others. I am now a Buddhist.

Believe nothing.
No matter where you read it,
Or who said it,
Even if I have said it,
Unless it agrees with your own reason
And your own common sense.

Buddha

Answer 6

I just explained how i had found errors in the message that i was receiving from the church.Also i told them that the reason why was because they were not using the correct Name of the Supreme Deity.The correct Name to be calling upon was witnessed to me in the very back of my king James version of the bible under tettragrammaton.It says that whenever the words lord and god are found in small or capital letters the ORIGINAL text uses YHWH which was SUBSTITUTED for the other words lord or god,and i just realized that there is no substitute for HIM or his NAME.

Answer 7

I don't remember if I did anything "special" to leave the church, other than saying that I didn't believe in God anymore and that I wasn't going to go to church anymore. Then again, I was 9, so I don't know that it would have occurred to me to do anything "special". I was mad enough because my dad died and a BAC acquaintence said that he must have done something "bad" to be taken so early and now he was burning in hell. Yeah, thanks for that. That was MORE than enough to prompt my foray into atheism and then agnosticism (which I passed through on my way to paganism).

Answer 8

Just be guided by rational thought and you will soon see that religion is nonsense. However, being a member of a religious cult, especially during formative years, can leave psychological scars that take longer to heal - so don't worry if it feels uncomfortable for a while as that is just a period of adjustment while removing the deep-seated affects of the brainwashing as your mind gets back to normal working order. And welcome to the real world.!

Answer 9

First, I stopped going once I turned 18. I didn't really DO anything to get away from it; for a while, I still sort of believed what I'd been told, and I had it in the back of my mind.

Eventually I went down another path, and I simply had to examine my thoughts on the whole thing.

So that's it - I stopped going to church, and I started thinking.

Answer 10

I stopped over 2 years ago because I began to truly understand the hypocrisy of the church. I stopped going to mass but other than that it didn't have a huge impact on my life.