sent in by Steve
Where to start-I was "converted" to christianity at the young age of 13, when kids who became teenagers should be out enjoying life. I got all crazy for christ and all, then that started 6 or 7 years of my life being assimilated in the "christian borg".
Later on in my my life as a "babe in christ", my dad started telling me that i should start tithing. Being a blind christian, i did so.
In the summer of my transition of my 8th-9th grade year (keep in mind I went to public schools) I went to this "youth conference" not far from me. Nothing more than a bunch of fascist old men who never had a life preaching to teenagers about how bad they are and if they dont stop with their ways, god will punish them.
The first sermon of the second day of the conference, was loriented around teen relationships. SImply put, they said that teens shoulnt date until they're 25 years of age, and the COMMANDED that anyone there that was in a relationship to cease all contact with their partners. Like the brainwashed, mindless sheep that they are, they did so.
More of the anti-dating propaganda awaited me upon my return from my father. At the church I attended once, I talked to a moderately attractive girl around my age. Someone evidently ratted me out to my father for doing something as innocent as talking to a member of the opposite sex. He pulled me aside and chided me about talking to girls. He got real upset when he found out I asked her for her phone number! He then told me that I do not need a girlfriend, and in an essence, that I don't need female companionship.
As far as my friends are concerned, I never brought thm over to my house, because he would try and brainwash them with his "jesus" psychobabble. My friends would get upset around me when they were approcached by my father about the "lord". He would say that my best friends were not my true friends at all (even though me and some of my friends have been friends since childhood). He called one of them "a tool of Satan because he had a goatee, sideburns, and earrings. (Wow, can you feel the christian love?)
Now that I am a 21 year old man, I think for myself. I like to party. I like to think. I like to drink!! I don't need daddy or his Fundie henchmen telling me how to live, dress, or whom to associate with. I can think for myself now. The way i see it, there is no heaven or hell. He tries to tell me that everyone at his church misses me and all, bit I really don't care about them any longer.
State: Michigan
Country: USA
Became a Christian: 13
Ceased being a Christian: Drifted away from it, totally disassociated with ALL religion now
Labels before: Southern Baptist
Labels now: Freethinker, believer of Logic, Agnostic
Why I joined: Forced
Why I left: I discovered how to think for myself
These testimonials were published between January 2001 and February 2010. To view recent posts, go to The Main Blog at ExChristian.Net