I'm a Chosen One; I chose to leave

sent in by Ah Haw

I feel that I've wasted 7 years of my life as a Christian. 7 years of suppression of common sense and desperate attempts to rationalize the absurdities of the Bible.

Back in 1998 I was won over by the persistent evangelizing of Christian friends. They sure know how to stress the LOVE of God for me. Since they appeared to be ever so friendly and helpful, I decided to try attending church.
But things went downhill almost from day one when I was converted:

1) I was told that it's a divine obligation to tithe and offer even more to my church. But I noticed that the pastors are all filthy rich and live luxurious lives. WHERE DOES THEIR MONEY COME FROM? This was my first doubt.

2) I began my bible study Sunday school like all new Christians do. But upon closer reading of the Bible, I was shocked by the atrocities commanded or approved by Jehovah in the OT. The Book of Revelations promised even more global mayhem to come. Strangely speaking, all these 'inconvenient' facts were skipped over by the teachers. When I summoned my courage to ask, I was told that God must have His reasons to do the things He did and that we mere mortals are not to question His 'divine righteous anger'. I was also chastised for allowing the devil to sow doubts in my mind. So, instead of offering explanations to difficulties in the Bible, the teachers gave me a lecture on 'spiritual warfare' to pray away my 'rebellious' doubts.

3) Inevitably, the preachers made it a point to lampoon and criticize other faiths during every sermons. They called non-Christians by all sorts of names: pagan, heathen, infidel, the lost, the unsaved etc. The Christians arrogant attitude was that: 'if we convert the non-Christians, we are doing them a favour!' What happened to religious tolerance and peaceful co-existence? The ugly fact is: the Christians simply cannot accept people different from them so they must convert them over. (Killing them off is illegal nowadays)

4) Even the 'brotherly love' among Christians is a farce. I learnt first-hand of the intense rivalries and competitions among the different churches. Everyone is trying to poach Christians from other churches to come over to their own. The reason: so that the MONEY of other church members will come flowing right in!

At first, I thought that I was unlucky to choose a wrong church. But after moving around five denominations; I discovered that all those Christians are the same.

Still, I didn't given up my faith. I started to pray alone at home instead. I also did some vigorous self-study of all things theology. But the more I study, the more doubts I developed. My desperate attempts to rationalize the illogical failed. I even resorted to believe in the Bible in a 'selective manner'; that is I focused only on the love of Jesus for us sinners. But even that sounded hollow as I realized that Jesus' so-called love is very conditional: if we don't have slavish blind faith in Him then we'll roast in Hell all the same.

The last straw came when I applied for a job with a Christian charity centre. When I told them that my practice is to pray at home; the interviewer categorically pronounced that if one does not belong to a church, he can't really be a Christian! Needless to say, I did not get the job.

My eyes are finally opened to the reality of Christianity and it's followers. I decisively break off with those bunch of intolerant, bigotry and hypocritical 'God's Chosen People'.

Yes, I am now proud to be the 'Unchosen'. I read widely about other faiths and find out that they are not the 'nonsense' those Christians depict them to be. I actually learn a thing or two. Being open-minded is bliss.
Good day everybody.