Are You My Enemy?

Imagine that you are growing up in a culture that believes it is fighting a war. From infancy you are taught the dangers of the enemy.

Coming Out About My Unbelief to My Sister

“I’m really growing weary of the charade I have to keep up in order to remain in the atheist closet. I had been talking to my fellow ex-fundamentalist bloggers on Twitter about whether I should come out to my sister, who has always been there for me throughout my life. On Sunday, I was debating whether or not I should come out, but then lost my courage at the last minute. Well, finally, Tuesday night, I finally worked up the courage to finally come out to her.”

How I Lost My Faith, Part Six: Conclusion

“A common Christian reaction to a de-conversion story, such as mine, is to accuse the ex-Christian of being a prodigal who is only angry at God. They believe that fallen Christian will always return to God because life without Him is purposeless and completely void of joy. They cannot understand a de-conversion because they have never experienced a de-conversion. No, I am not angry at God.”

How I Lost My Faith, Part Five: De-conversion

“My life began to flash before my eyes like a cascade of images simultaneously familiar and unfamiliar. Memories I had long blacked out began to resurface. I began to remember all the ways the Christians in my life had wronged me. I remembered rejection, isolation, and molestation. I looked within myself and saw a person void of confidence, petrified of social interaction, depressed, and suicidal. And I remembered all the ways I had wronged others.”

How I Lost My Faith, Part Four: Doubt

“I saw myself in this kid. I saw the way I was treated as a child. I began to see many aspects in my manager that reminded me of my own mother. It was as if they were the same person. I began to see her arrogance, self righteousness, and the same mistrust of all things scientific. Every attitude, every world view seemed to be identical. And I realized that this is the attitude of most of the Christians that I knew.”

How I Lost My Faith, Part Three: Rejection

“Most of the youth’s parents would not allow me to be friends with their children because my father was not a Christian. A fact made painfully obvious by his absence from our pew each Sunday morning. The thought was if we could not convert our father to Christianity, then there was something wrong with our own Christian walk. I was told this straight to my face on multiple occasions.”

How I Lost My Faith, Part Two: Isolation

“For my entire life, everyday, from morning to night, I was surrounded by Jesus. Morning devotionals were followed by seven hours of Christian themed home school curriculum. The walls in our home were covered in Christian themed posters and, every evening, I took part in a second devotional. All of which, plunged me deeper and deeper into this delusion that almost nothing could pull me out of.”

How I Lost My Faith — Reflections of God’s Love and the Power of Indoctrination: lungfish’s Story, Part One

“I once called myself a Christian. I thought I was a child of God among the children of Satan. A shining light in a world of darkness. I was convinced of the absolute truth of the Bible and no amount of human reason could convince me otherwise. I believed the Holy Spirit lived within me, allowing me to be a reflection of Jesus and his love. But, when I finally looked into that reflection, I could not stand what I saw.”

I Cannot Write You a Happy Ending, Part Two: By Slatewoman

“Homeschooling and mental illness are a terrible combination. And chances are, if a parent is mentally ill, the child might as well be too — and this cycle can go on for generations. My way of ending it is to not have children. I don’t want them anyway and I would be a terrible parent. But I don’t want to spread my genes and the proclivities that go along with them.”

I Cannot Write You a Happy Ending, Part One: By Slatewoman

“My mom has been bi-polar for as long as I can remember, but she was diagnosed when I was 10. I remember when she started taking medication for it and things got bad. Real bad. This was back before many long-term studies had been done on the medications she was given, and she was given just about every one under the sun between then and now.”