To those who've left the church.....why?

Question

I'm sure I know the reasons, but for research purposes I would like to know from you personally why you may have left the church and/or christianity. I appreciate your input.

Answer 1

I sat here and typed out a list of reasons, but realized it was too very personal, so I deleted it. I also realized it wasn't necessary. All I have to say is, "Were you referring to The Mormon Church?" By saying that, I'm sure you get everything I previously said without me even having to actually say it.

Answer 2

I left the Church that I grew up in because it was just hard to follow all the time, I felt that I had to be perfect to be a Christan.

After leaving, I never found Peace or Happiness with worldly things, they all left an emptiness.

I studied Catholicism for the next 20 years and finally joined.

Life and faith are a journey for each of us to travel.

Peace be with you!

Answer 3

I've left a church a number of years ago but never left Christianity. I now have found a new church home 8 months ago

Answer 4

I believe in god and I pray. However, I do not follow organized religion. I don't go to church and I do not read the bible... Simply because I don't agree with most of the things said in church and I don't read the bible because for all I know, it was written by a bunch of guys who ate the wrong kind of mushrooms... But then again, it could be totally legitimate and I have no idea what is really going on with Christianity.... I am not trying to knock anyone's beliefs so please do not take offence...

Answer 5

I read the Bible extensively, as well as studying the writings of early Christianity.

I concluded that many of the books of the Bible are deliberate fakes, such as Deuteronomy, and that many of the Christian beliefs in the Gospels were the result of reading faulty Greek translations of the older Hebrew Scriptures. Any belief in infallibility disappeared.

The number of erroneous claims by the early church, the number of fabricated sections of the Gospels, the large number of Gospels and Epistles floating around the early church that are now considered fakes even by the Church, all led me to conclude that it is false, and the modern interpretations are just apologetics to sell it to more unsuspecting people.

Answer 6

Because, as I officially entered it in eighth grade, I distrusted it and lost all trust. I did not abandon religion, I abandoned the church.
My sister and I were raised in the Congregational Church, a compromise between my Episcopalian father and mother of ill-defined but believing faith. In eighth grade, I was stopped in the hall of the church by the looming pastor and asked if I had taken confirmation classes. No. I was signed up for spring Saturday morning classes leading up to Easter.
As a person to took academics as a valuable part of my identity I was dismayed that "Confirmation" classes were merely rote repeats of Sunday school classes and that the "test" was posted for weeks before being taken. I was also betrayed, I felt, by being Baptized instead of Confirmed without that being explained. [If you care, infant Baptism, in that church, was a prerequisite to adult Confirmation of membership - no previous Baptism in the church, Baptism now, I thought Baptism childish.]
But the real time of betrayal came as I sat for Baptism/Confirmation in the choir loft behind the pulpit in the big sanctuary I had not entered before, youth services having their own. As I looked down the church walls, the large stained glass windows each had a name at the bottom, like McHenry and Dole, which presumably was the family honored by or donating the window, but was also instantly recognizable as major streets in the town. Suddenly, I realized that I was joining a church that had a major influence on the history of the town and I knew nothing of the history of that individual congregation, which led to the thought that I had no idea of the history of that sect and finally that I had no idea of how what I was confirming my membership in differed from the Catholic church next door. Being cowardly/irresolute, I went through with the Confirmation, attended church Easter Sunday and was introduced and never attended services in the church again (going only to my sister's wedding and mother's memorial there.) After a year, I got a bill for my weekly donation pledge.
I went home and began studying the history of religion including Congregationalism, Protestant, and Christianty as well as other faiths. I found my father had been ordained as an Episcopalian, but had lost his faith when sent on missionary work to Brazil. I did not become an atheist or agnostic, but evolved my own set of beliefs within Christianity and tested them in college against various evangelistic approaches and found them satisfactory.
You might say this is a bit much to dump on a seventh or eighth grader, but we were supposed to be marking our Adult entry into the church.

Answer 7

Well if you must know, I was touched inappropriately when I was 14 at a Catholic Church. I am 35 now and will have had a difficult time with trusting anyone. It wasn't a priest but a someone who worked for the CCD classes.

Answer 8

Because your God is responsible for so much killing, rape, and infanticide (mass killing of babies). Countless wars have been fought in his name as well. He also has ridiculous punishments for things such as stealing (eternal pain in hell) among other ones. There are also many contradictions in the Bible. It's just not a well written book. Also a magical creature in the sky and an evil creature in an land of eternal pain doesn't sound all too realistic to me, seeing as he never answers prayers or has ever shown himself. Especially since a little thing called science came around, and since they found the "fingerprint" of the Big Bang, I'll choose to not believe for now.

Answer 9

Because I don't believe the nonsense they teach and never did, from the time I was old enough to critically analyze their claims on my own (about 13).
There's no evidence to support the existence of a deity or deities, immortal souls or afterlives, angels or demons, or any other stone-age superstition. On the other hand, there is plenty of evidence that people are amazingly good at producing fiction.

Answer 10

Is Christianity THE CHURCH?