I need some advice...

First of all, I just wanted to thank the Webmaster for this incredible, insightful, informative, encouraging website. It has been a life saver for me.

I left the church 6 years ago and have found the most difficult part of all this is dealing with my family. I love them very much, that’s the problem. I can’t just walk away from them even though sometimes I wish I could.

My dad’s a minister and EVERYONE, including my immediate family and cousins far and wide have their heads so far up their assess with this religious cult that I simply cannot get away from it.

How do you deal with trying to spend time with your family when they think you are “lost?” How horrible is it to see the sadness in your mom and dad’s eyes thinking you are going to burn in hell forever? There is no reasoning with them, they will never understand. This is heartbreaking for me because we used to be so close and they are otherwise good people.

I would appreciate any advice any of you can give me.

Jessica

Many thanks

Hi,

Many thanks for this MUCH NEEDED EXCELLENT website! I think it truly shows just how many people have been fucked up by Christianity! Christianity HAS to be exposed for the evil it actually is!!

Many thanks for the opportunity of finding a site that makes me feel normal again!!

All the best to you and yours!

Realist

Unsure With Many Doubts

I really don't know where to start. I was a serious Christian when I turned 19, I think. (Of course I have heard since I am not sure of the exact date of my conversion, then I must not be really saved). I went to a spirit-filled church for five years and to other denominations before that. I stayed in the spirit-filled church because my pastor was, or is, a "prophet", or had a prophetic type gift. I was going through really hard times (emotionally). No one knew my personal life in that church at all, yet somehow he came straight to me on several different occasions to tell me things so accurate and so precise, that I was going through, that it had to be real. The things that he would prophesy were not generalized like you see from a fake fortune teller.

I became very involved in Christianity and knew it had to be real, or I would not see these "gifts of the spirit" in operation.

I have been healed of things miraculously and knew that for those things to happen, there must be a God.

I have seen demon-possessed people speaking in tongues... and these people were for real. I mean there was no faking this stuff. I have actually seen someone thrown around on a floor and jerked in such a manner that their body could not have done that! I knew this person all of my life, knew them to be of sound mind, and watched their body twisted in really unnatural ways. This person could not have been faking. Freaky voices would come out of her and would say things about other people that only those other people knew at the time. She spoke in other languages and she only knows English. There were other people that knew some of these other languages and that is why everyone was so shocked that it would come out of her mouth.

I would normally think, "well I guess anything can be faked," but I know this person, and she is not the type to fake, to want attention, or anything of the sort. She was disabled in her body (her mind completely sound, however), so I know she could not have contorted her body in the weird ways, and slung it around on the floor, or flipped herself over and over all around the church. These things would only happen to her when we would go to church, or watch a movie like that Mel Gibson movie that had to do with Christ.

Everyone was really taken aback by this.

So here is the problem, I have found tons of contradictions in the Bible, only some have been answered enough to suffice.

The rest I have yet to find an answer for. After coming to this site I've found more contradictions or errors that I did not even know about.

I'm not sure what to do about all of this, so I simply don't go to church. It's hard to sit there with all of these questions, knowing no one will take the time to answer them, and when they do, the answers are not sufficient.

I normally, by now, would have concluded Christianity as false. However, after seeing all of these supernatural things, I can not say it is false, either.

I am here because I know there are a lot of Christians out there that have seen the same things, and experienced them as real—not as a hoax or what have you. I am hoping there are some ex-Christians on here that wouldn't mind emailing me if they have had the same experiences and could help bring some sort of light to the subject.

Sandra
jnutz629 at yahoo dot com

Calling UK exChristians

I have been reading this site for sometime, and really value the fact there are others out there who are in the same boat as me. I am now convinced, after years of doubt, that Christianity is not true. I now face the huge and scary task of unpicking my life so I can be honest with everyone whilst still maintaining treasured family relationships.

I would really like to pen pal some people via email about all of this- any takers? Particularly interested in being in contact with doubting Christians or convinced exChristians from the UK. My background is Free Evangelical, with a Calvinist slant.

However anyone who wants to write to me is very welcome from anywhere in the world! I hope this doesn't contravene the ethos of the website, but would be very grateful if the webmaster would post this.

Alternatively could there be a UK forum? I don?t have a clue with this web stuff. I would just like to be in touch with people who know the scene over here and are recovering from it. We are all together internationally but would be a relief to know I am not the only one from the UK

Best regards,

Andrew
Email: ukandrewthomas at yahoo dot co dot uk

Deception

I grew up in the baptist church. My grandmother used to take me along with her to most of the services when I was younger. The pastor at that time had a job. He did not feel it a crime to do repairs on the church himself, with his own hands. He did not hold service all day and beg for money as the pastors do now.

This pastor died when I was about 6 years old. The new pastor that came in was a native of Jacksonville, but moved from New Jersey to uphold his new position.

With him came lots of changes. He is more of a flashy person with the expensive vehicles, the big rings, and fancy house. He has no other job besides his church job.

Whereas the people of the congragation that are giving their hard earned money are/were not so fortunate as to have a better living (some living in projects, cannot even afford tires for their vehicle, etc.).

From reading the bible and from my understandings Jesus did not have the finest things that life could have offered at that time. He went around doing good deeds without looking for money for the services that were preformed.

In my opinion, the pastors of today, mostly money hungry and seeing the church as a business, are ruining things for people that want to be a christian. I have a major problem not only with church but with the money hungry pastors.

My grandmother who live off social security was in process of having her house foreclosed. My family and I have done all we could to help her and also provide for our families too. I asked her recently why she did not go to the church for assistance (since she has been a member before I was born and I am now 25 years old and also she has paid her tithes faithfully out of her social security money when she had rx's to purchase), she told me that she did not want to because this supposed "to be" trusted pastor would and have been known to spread gossip within the church.

Amoung other wrongdoings of this pastor he is thriving better then anyone I know.

I have grown to not trust the people that God has supposed to have been lead to "teach" the word.

I might overcome this but I don't see it anywhere in my near future.

from Nameless Baptist

a man and his God

sent in by Someone

I was a "Christian" for as long as I could remember. One of my earliest memories was talking with my grandmother one night -- I must have been four or five -- and asking her about Jesus. As we talked she told me she had something called a prayer language, which gave her the ability to speak in tongues. I asked her if I could hear her speak that way, and she did. Then I asked her how I could have one too. She told me that you receive a prayer language when receive the holy spirit, and that you receive the holy spirit when you asked Jesus into you heart. So like a good little girl, I asked Jesus into my heart and waited for my prayer language. Nothing happened. I went back and asked my grandmother what happens if you don't ever receive the holy spirit and she told me that you go to hell. She then proceeded to describe, in vivid detail, what hell was like.

I was haunted by the thought that I would go to hell for years. I felt that I was somehow inadequate -- that I had been born "not good enough" for God and that I was destined for hell. This was compounded by the fact that everyone else in my family had visions, saw angels, prophesied, etc. As if to validate my fears, I came across a bible verse in one of the bible studies I went to that stated something to the effect of "you were chosen by God before the beginning of time." Well, conversely one could assume that God deliberately did NOT choose some people before the beginning of time, therefore effectively destining them for hell.

That really bothered me, as this idea was in direct conflict with the doctrine of "God is love." Then of course there was the usual high school drama of Christian kids always being the partying, promiscuous, popular crowd and shunning me for the most part. (I was an army brat so I grew up the perpetual new kid.) At one point I went on a youth group retreat and when I got back the pastor from the church called a meeting with my parents to tell them I had been having sex during the retreat, when I was still a virgin. Apparently some of the other kids had made it up.

So yea, I became pretty angry and resentful toward Christianity. I felt hurt and betrayed by its God and its savior, who appeared two-faced and hypocritical, both from my perception of church doctrine and in their character as reflected by their followers. I considered quietly leaving the faith all together, but then I really began to think about it.

The truth is, people aren't perfect, and certainly a collective religious group is going to have its flaws magnified in accordance with its size. Christians are by no means a good reflection of who Christ was, and this became clearer and clearer to me the more I actually read the bible and literature on Christianity itself. Jesus himself was probably one of the "best" humans who ever walked the planet -- in every sense of the word. He underwent a horrific ordeal in order to help his fellow man, and no matter how you read the bible or whatever theories you subscribe to, this is basically at the heart of the story. Down the ages, his teachings and his example have been horribly twisted, diluted, and taken out of context to suit the needs of an increasingly bureaucratic and hierarchical church, so that today, far from drawing people to Jesus, Christians are essentially driving people away from organized religion.

I believe it was Mahatma Gandhi who said "I like your Christ, I just don't like your Christians." I understand the pain and frustration that many of the people who confidently label themselves "followers of Christ" cause every day, whether they know it or not. But before you leave Christianity completely, I encourage you to look at the Bible for yourself. Forget anything you've been taught about it or anything you've learned through experience and look at it without bias. And, though this might seem heretical, keep in mind that the new testament itself is not perfect -- it has been written and rewritten for thousands of years. However, at its heart I'm confident you'll see a man and his God who are still reaching out thousands of years later with a message of love for you personally.

please dont listen to satan

dear sir/ma'am; i read with sadness[but i had to eventually laugh]; as i read the quiz. you try to debunk christianity, but you're all wrong. every word of The Bible is true. when a certain author[like mark, luke, etc], seem to contradict the other; they are not; its simply their personality in their writing, their account that The Lord allowed them to see[like simon carried jesus's cross most of the way; but christ the final part; and so forth]. please dont listen to satan and depart from christ. jesus is the answer, and every word is completely true. thank you for reading this, my love and prayers are with you all to change to faith in christ, and honor of his word. ken lott, rev. columbus ga.

Email:kenlott2002@yahoo.com

Pageviews this week: