exchristian

Let’s share stories, I’ll start:

story 1 Towards the end when I was struggling with my beliefs and getting one foot in deconstruction I had a conversation with the Pastor about their doctrine and practices (which were becoming pretty out there and wishywashy/wuwu). Particularly the “sozo ministry” which is kind of a hypnotism/meditation baloney thing.

Me: So in essence we’re in the business of reprogramming people now?

Pastor: (without hesitation or pause) Yes.

story 2 I was somewhat close with a let’s say “semi celebrity” pastor in the evangelical/protestant/baptist/… circles. The unspoken idea was that I’d become sort of a spokesperson to get a branch of his ministry of the ground where I live.

We’d call frequently on Skype. At some point he calls me and without any prompt starts telling me about the birds and the bees and making the case that maybe sometimes it’s ok in gods eyes to take of business on your own…

I was a grown man around 30 at the time mind you… wtf dude. Awkward and unnecessary.

Story 3 Each charismatic church is already a melting pot of mental issues.

One particular collection of issues thought it was a good idea to come to my place unannounced and tell me that god knows that I live like a bachelor.

Bitch get the fuck outta here, like being single isn’t already enough of a shame issue in church circles.

In short=> don’t bother with church kids because it’s all just bs and pointless nonsense like this.

Yes, I said it — Evangelical Christians are worse than spoiled rich kids. And here’s why.

When I was 13, I was forced to attend an Evangelical church. The other teens there — ages 13 to 16 — were unbearable. They were self-righteous, hypocritical, and honestly, just plain ignorant. They acted like they were morally superior while being some of the most judgmental, nosy, and close-minded people I’d ever met.

They were openly homophobic, transphobic, and rabidly “pro-life.” Yet somehow, they loved to rant about wealth inequality, racism, and classism. Now, those are real issues — but coming from them, it was infuriating. If they actually cared about equality and justice, I could respect that. But they didn’t. They despised anyone who wasn’t Christian. One kid even said, “Gay people deserve to be attacked.”

And these same kids wanted to speak out against oppression? That’s like a neo-Nazi preaching about peace and tolerance. The hypocrisy was nauseating.

This is exactly what I can’t stand about so many Evangelical Christians — that self-righteous double standard. In my church, they constantly condemned wealthy people for being greedy or “out of touch.” I’m not defending the rich, but let’s be real — when bigots start preaching about moral purity and justice, it’s hard to take seriously.

If you’re hateful toward entire groups of people, yet feel entitled to lecture others about fairness, I can’t help but look at you sideways. Those church kids loved calling out “sin” when it suited them, but when the tables turned — when they faced judgment or exclusion — they suddenly wanted sympathy. Nah. You don’t get to cry “injustice” when you dish it out every Sunday.

At least spoiled rich kids know who they are. They’re snobby, elitist, and classist — and they don’t pretend otherwise but they live in their own insulated upper class elite bubble and, for the most part, leave everyone else alone.

Evangelicals? They can’t do that. They can’t keep to themselves. They feel the constant need to shove their beliefs down everyone’s throat. If a billionaire’s kid walked into that church and went on a classist rant, those same teens would be outraged — demanding repentance and tears — while still holding their own hateful, bigoted views.

Sorry, but I don’t feel sympathy for hypocrites.

If so, how did they take it (I'm guessing "not well"), and where do things stand now?

Or does it?

I know we were once nothing, but it is still terrifying and depressing to me to think about returning to this. In fact, as of late, I've been unable to not think about it: the loss of all experience and all memories of everything, forever. All the good times we had, and will have, with anyone or anything ever will totally annihilate into nothingness. All our efforts will amount to nothing because the thoughtless void is ultimately what awaits everything in the end.

The only argument against this would have to be supernatural, like another cause of the Big Bang or somehow proof of reincarnation, but if my consciousness won't exist for me to experience it, then what does it matter either way?

There is no comfort in Hell, either. The anvil of death weighing down, infinitely, on all values and passions is becoming unbearable for me, so I could really use any potentially helpful thoughts about this matter.

Personally, I thought this was a no-brainer. Living a life of submission and duty to someone who can treat you as property while calling it "love" is a very niche fetish, and certainly not going to be anywhere close to the utopia conservative Christians claim it should be.

But hey, don't take my word for it. Don't take the word of sociologists and psychologists who study the matter. Certainly don't listen to feminists who have their own opinions on a woman's proper role in society.

Listen to the women who lived it.

For the first time since people started looking at demographics, more young women are leaving churches than young men. Naturally, the people most responsible for this trend have no idea what to make of it.

Kristi Burke is doing an excellent series of videos on Christian deconstruction. Here's her latest, posted yesterday.

Few people have an easy time escaping Christianity, because it's ubiquitous in Western society. But it can be done.

...pay attention to Leonard Leo. He is the judicial kingmaker responsible for the list from which Trump selected Justices Neil Gorsuch, Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett. Leo has shaped this Court and acted effectively to keep its Republican justices from abandoning his – and their – sectarian-right vision of America.

Communicating trauma through art is fine, as long as you don't remind the Christian fundies that their beliefs and practices are a prime source of religious trauma for lots of people.

It's mostly good news all around. Evangelicals are the only ones who are managing to hold their ground, so that's bad. But "Unaffiliated" which includes atheists, agnostics, and "Nones" are up from 21% in 2013 to 26% in 2023. We continue to be the fastest-growing demographic in the US. Furthermore, an increasing number of Americans simply find religion irrelevant or otherwise unimportant, and those numbers are growing as well.

There is hope for the future, should we survive so long.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/10870025

Salem police said someone threw an explosive device onto the porch of the Satanic Temple.

Captain Cassidy examines yet another Christian expressing pity for non-believers who must be somehow deficient to explain non-belief.

A trailer full of bibles appears to have been intentionally set on fire at Greg Locke's Global Vision Bible Church before Easter service, police say.

cross-posted from: https://midwest.social/post/10581116

3-year-old Arely Proctor was tortured to death by her grandfather, uncle, and mother during an exorcism. They were convinced she had…

It's always a weird day, Easter was when my family found out I had fully left the church. I remember I just said I wasn't going that day and my mother had a meltdown, saying there was no point in celebrating if I didn't go to church. She cancelled the family dinner and all the activities for the whole family because she found out I didn't go.

20 years later we're better but I still remember that, I'm willing to admit that her cancelling a holiday because of me was traumatic for me, Easter used to fill me with dread.

Now I eyeroll at every big public he is risen post and continue on with my day. Today coffee, a good pastry shop, then enjoying a nice spring day.