by Cowboy I'm lucky in many ways. If I were still Christian, I would probably say that I've been blessed. I was lucky enough to attend a public school, whereas many of you out there attended Christian schools for your entire school career. At 11 years old, I was the kid in elementary school who was getting into trouble with some frequency. I was quite smart, towards the top of the class, but I got bored and stirred up trouble. It didn't help that I was excessively overweight (I actually weigh less today at 20 than I did then), so I was constantly a source of jokes for my classmates. And at 11 years old, my parents, who up until that point taught me Christian beliefs, never took me to church, decided it was time. Well, the story goes better at that point actually. I made a few friends who accepted me, on my own I began to loose weight, and the Baptist church and God gave me a source of comfort if nothing else. I was saved at 12 years old and baptized. Many ha

by Adam Sometimes you are just left wondering... did that really just happen to me? I look back on the past two years of my life and I ask that question, seeing how my social network has completely changed, friends have made continuing relationships with them impossible unless I believe what they believe, and how ridiculous my coming out processes were...all because of Christianity. It was a double-whammy; not only did I come out of my faith, but I also came out of the closet . I became a Christian at the age of 13. I'm 20 now. It makes sense now as to why I chose to become part of the faith; I had almost no friends in school at that time, and my parents took me to church where I met all sorts of potential friends...who were all extremely serious about their faith. I think now I see it also as a way for me to have hidden the fact that I was gay...after all, no one who was THAT big of a Christian could POSSIBLY be gay right? And by BIG Christian I am not exaggerating at a

by Leslie Image by that_james via Flickr I was born and raised in the church while growing up in the South; a place where fundamentalist Christianity is seemingly (and quite correctly!) ubiquitous. My family and I wound up in Texas and I lived there through high school. We attended a Methodist church in Mississippi and Arkansas and Texas, but in small towns in the South, a Methodist church often has the same doctrines and is run like all of its fundamentalist neighbors. From an early age (under 4 as we were still in MS) I remember my well-meaning dad reading from an illustrated Bible story book at bedtime each night. I didn't think of these stories as any more valid than my other story books, but I was often dismayed and sometimes frightened by their content. Specifically the story of King Solomon, in his famous wisdom, threating to cut a baby in half. I felt the same way about Moses almost killing his son because God asked him to. I thought God must be pretty scary. These w

by MichaelRix Image by daveblume via Flickr For me Christ-insanity was like a drug. I was raised in the Southern Baptist tradition, I lost my faith after an incident at the church got me questioning. My youth pastor suggested I read the bible to find my answers. I read Joshua : the genocidal atrocities committed were enough for me to leave the church and become an agnostic . After a time I became a Satanist, but that didn't last long. It became obvious that I was still playing in the same playground just on a different team. Later in life when I learned I would be a father, I gave Christ-insanity another go, thinking maybe I just didn't really understand what I had read; God wouldn't really promote genocide. Well I became a full blown Jesus Freak; throwing away "evil" things and living the "righteous" life. This, understandably, caused strife with my wife and children. It came to the point of choosing between Jesus or my family. Well I chose my fa

by Ashley R Image via Wikipedia I'm new to this site and just thought I should share my deconversion story with you guys. Im just 21 years but Ive had maybe 15-16 years of total brainwashing in my religious faith. My mother was unable to become pregnant even after doing all the medical stuff. When she attended an open air crusade, the "pastor" told her that she would have a child before the year was done. I was born on the 29th Dec. Because of this I was drowned in Christianity -- church every Sunday and all that BS. I grew up in the Pentecostal faith with all the trappings- shouting, being filled, speaking in tongues , etc. I never thought much about it except that if I sinned I would go to hell. I was scared shitless about doing the wrong thing. In my family so many "miracles" were performed -- from my sister being deathly sick and how many ever specialists could not figure out what was wrong with her and then when they took her to church she was h

by Paul Image by Antony Pranata via Flickr I grew up in Fundamentalist Baptist and the ultra fundy semi- Mennonite "holiness" denominations and schools. A family heavy involved in the ministry. I am the only one out of five siblings and two sets of parents to have left Christianity. The other day I calculated I have heard at the minimum, 5000 Baptist flavored sermons in my lifetime! YES, I get it already! It's all about having a dysfunctional relationship with your ego and convincing yourself it's a personal relationship with an invisible 2000-year-old Jewish Zombie! Einstein said " Insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results." Madness and Dysfunction reigns in fundamentalist churches. I grew up with pastors, pastors kids, and missionaries . I saw the physical, emotional, and sexual abuse in the church -- the overwhelming undercurrent of sadness, stagnation, guilt, abuse, depression, and the never-ending pu

by Jessica Image via Wikipedia I was born into a born-again Christian family. I had the whole photographic family – mother, father and a younger brother. When I was a child, my mother talked to me on our couch about loving God and accepting Jesus Christ into my heart. After I did what she told me to do, she gave me my first Bible. It was pretty and it clasped shut -– with pictures sporadically placed throughout. We went to church every Sunday morning and all my friends were other Christian kids. My mom was very strict – TV was heavily monitored as to what would be acceptable by Christ and what wouldn’t. I attended Christian schools from second grade until high school. Christian friends, Christian teachers, Christian parents. We didn’t associate with non-born again people. My parents taught me that Catholicism was of the devil; that every other faith but the one which we practiced was of the devil. My family changed churches when I was in grade 7. We moved to a Baptist church that

Image by rbieber via Flickr by Dan Ok, ok, ok...I will finally share my testimony (geez, just like in church). But this is only a small picture for now and not in chronological order, kinda random, just off the top of my head sort of thing. I graduated from New Tribes Bible Institue . Yep, step right up and memorize the WHOLE book of Ephesians. No PDA either! That is, no Physical Display of Affection (but my girlfriend and I got as close to each other as possible!). Hey! I remember looking at Sports Illustrated magazines that the school received and seeing pictures cut out of it! Wow... nothing like censorship. So sad to look back now -- those years wasted. My mind could have been learning science, history and math. *Sigh* I attended Capernwray Missionary Fellowhip . One day, outside, during a break in classes, I remember pointing to a flower and said to a friend, "Something so beautiful as that, how could anyone not beleive in a Creator?" She said, "Bea

by Ren Image via Wikipedia I'm one of those people who is still trying to sort things out, but I came to the conclusion long ago that the god in the OT scripture and the god in the NT are not even close to being the same being. I also know the god from the OT is definitely sadistic and sounds evil when I think about it. Recently, I found some old friends who are now Reformed Calvinists , and when I have asked them questions they give me the spiel that the Fall introduced evil in the world; God abhors sin; we are all as rags before god and deserve his wrath because we have sinned; and all of this is to glorify God. Sometimes they refer me to the verse that says, "I knew you before you were born," when I bring up their doctrine of predestination and how that can possibly be merciful or just. Then they ask me how I reconcile whatever response I give with whatever verse they come up with (usually something in Leviticus or Exodus), and I smack my forehead. What I can

by Red De-conversion 1 My parents were “born again” when I was five years old. They quickly became zealots. They used our house for church gatherings and backyard bible study. People were constantly coming and going. My parents became extremely active in their zealotry, witnessing door to door and going to church three times a week. This was the mid-seventies, and I have nostalgic memories of the long-haired Jesus freaks coming over with their sandals and guitars. At this age I picked up and filtered the messages I was hearing at church: We are the best church. We are saved and others are not. We are good and they are bad . I was five when I formally accepted Jesus Christ into my heart. In elementary school, I was an active crusader, genuinely concerned about my schoolmates’ souls. When I was about seven, my dad and two other guys from our church broke off and founded their own church, which rented out a space at a private school. It was exciting to me. After intense worship wi

by Freed Albert Image via Wikipedia For anyone who was raised Catholic, you know what it means to be indoctrinated. In Catechism we had to memorize answers to questions like, "What is the one and only true church?" The answer: "The one and only true church is the Catholic Church ." There were a whole host of rules we had to obey like never setting foot in another church, attending mass every Sunday, not eating meat on Friday, women wearing hats to church, etc. Sometime during my youth, the Catholic Church began to change some rules. Mass was said in English rather than Latin. Then suddenly we could eat meat on Friday. Then women could wear hats to mass. This is when it began to dawn on me that the rules, which I had been led to believe came from God, were actually just made up by men who could change them at any time. The veneer began to crack. When I got married at age 20 (because my girlfriend was pregnant), the priest insisted that we recite an oath, be

By eveningmeadows Image by FrogStarB via Flickr Before I became a Christian, some 25 years ago, I really don't know what I was. Maybe an atheist, like my father who had become disillusioned by the Catholic Church , but I think I liked to think I was someone who was "one with nature." My "god" or whatever it was, was in the great outdoors. It gave me peace, hiking in the woods, smelling the scents of the forest, seeing the colors of the sunset, the fall leaves, the wind blowing the snow in the winter, it was enough for me. I also figured that if I was a better parent than my parents, gave my kids the parenting I didn't get, I would be alright. Even thought I struggled with depression, not knowing it was a medical condition at the time, trying to find out what to do with my life, since my parents didn't give me any direction, I thought I was okay. Not perfect, but I never thought about that. Then enters the born-againers. My ex's brother invite

By Lamya A view from the fortress in Ankara Turkey I have been visiting this website for several months now reading everyone's stories and comments, and I am so grateful for this site and everyone on here. It's been such an encouragement, because I've been feeling as though I'm out in some field by myself for a while now. I was brought up in a Baptist church. From birth until I left for college , my parents took me and my older brother to church almost every Sunday for Sunday school, morning service, and usually evening service. I went to a Christian school for most of my primary years and through jr. high. I memorized Bible verses at Awana clubs every Wednesday. I went to Word of Life Bible camp every summer, as well as Bob Jones summer theatre and music camp for two years (which was quite enough!). As a teenager, I went to Word of Life youth group at my church and was even involved in Bible quizzing. My point being I've had a hell of a lot of Jesus going on