If you are an ex-evangelical Christian, what made you leave?

Question

Thank you very much for sharing.

Joe, I am so sorry about your sister. My condolenses.

Answer 1

I began using my brain.

Answer 2

As a kid, I was adopted and forced into a hardcore evangelical church. I was recruited into doing door-to-door evangelism while I was still in grade school. I found myself reciting doctrine that I increasingly didn't believe. The church said one thing, but my life experience said another, and that caused some rather serious dilemmas for me. I left because I was tired of the constant judging, the refusal to admit that anyone else could possibly be right, the open child abuse, the denigration of women and the way the church used people terribly while claiming to love them unconditionally. And forced conversions never work.

Answer 3

Wow. That's such a loaded question. I did used to be an evangelical Christian, one of the most hard-core, "flaming" Christians you could meet. But to explain all the reasons that I no longer am... that would be difficult in a Yahoo! Answer.

Let me try to summarize (any who want to know more, feel free to email for the full story): I will start off by reiterating that I was not a backseat christian. I knew my stuff. I read the Bible, I went to church every time the doors were open, I listened to sermons online in my spare time, I read books on doctrine...heck, I was even going to college to become a professor of Old Testament scriptures, at one point. I studied creationism and volunteered with our local creationism organization. I studied apologetics. If I was going to believe in the Bible, then I was going to know everything about it and believe every part of it!

Perhaps you feel I'm going overboard with my explanation, but that's only scratching the surface; that's what I'm trying to get across. I had Faith with a capital F. I ~believed~.

But as the years went on and on, I was increasingly frustrated. The things I was reading, especially in the Bible, just didn't seem to pan out in real life. I won't get into all the details here, but suffice it to say that life just wasn't working the way the Bible said it was supposed to, despite the fact that it seemed I was doing everything I was supposed to.

So I studied harder. I sought out different doctrines and differing theologies on what it meant to be a christian and what one is supposed to do. And the more I read, the more confused I got. Intelligent, Godly men were all so diametrically opposed in their beliefs about what the same book said... and all of them sounded right! This began to seriously put questions in my mind about the inerrancy of the Bible. If God truly preserved that book just for us, to help us have a personal relationship with him as everyone was telling me, then why was it so darn hard, confusing, and, at times, contradictory?!

The final clencher came two years ago, but it's too painful and personal to share, here. I've already said a lot more than I thought I would. If you want to hear the whole story, email me; but I'm not gonna post it in front of all the haters and flamers, here.

Let me finish by saying this, though: when I was still trapped by doctrine and religion, I remember reading someone online saying much the same things I have, though they did it a lot less diplomaticly. They said that, for the first time in their life, they truly knew peace. I thought they were full of s***. But now that I'm free, I realize how wrong I was. Christianity--especially evangelical christianity--is not the only way to peace. In fact, in my 20-odd years as a Christian, I only knew bare moments of peace. But now that I no longer am under doctrine, but am free to accept that I no longer have to know "the One True Path", but can say, "hey, I believe 'this', but I could be wrong..."
Now, I am truly free. And I have never had more peace in my life.



EDIT: Wow, I didn't realize there were so many other people out there with experiences like mine! Thaliax, nebtet, Utuk, I totally relate in every way. Glad to hear you're free.

Answer 4

I left because I saw that God has never helped me in my life. All that I care for is gone, except my mother and father. All of my grandparents are dead, I have lost a sister, and God– where was he in my time of crisis? Nowhere. I am not here to be flamed, so all who dare to criticize me, you shall be ignored, because I know that arguing will make you seem a more decent human. That shall be all.

Answer 5

when you're in a Fundyism it's diffi-cult in the extreme to see it for what it is. some kind of fissure of conscience has to open up. like ... suppose you find yourself contemplating the concept of Hell while also contemplating the concept of eternity. a person with an inkling of CONSCIENCE would begin to wonder how it could possibly be justice to torture a Hindu in Hell forever for simply failing to be Christian.

i don't think i was raised with a conscience and it's a mystery how i managed to gain one.

Answer 6

Evangelical doctrine has inconsistencies, its theology tends to be shallow, and many of its beliefs run against the tone of the ancient Church.

Answer 7

Listen, cheezepuff, once born again, the issue is settled. There are no Bi-Christians in the world.

Answer 8

I was a preacher. I know the bible. It doesn't make sense.

Answer 9

im guessing....sanity?