Why Joined

My brothers and sisters were christians and took me to church with them

Why Left

Studied social institutions and philosophy in high school, and hung out with enlightened peers.

Story

I was six years old when my older brothers and sisters started taking me to the Baptist church around the corner. It was fun at first, the Sunday school classes, the singing, etc. Later on I started attending a "fire-and-brimstone-holy-roller" church, where people were jumping, shouting and passing out, and it frightened me. I stopped going to church altogether (I thought those people had dropped dead, and my siblings' explanations about them 'getting the Holy Ghost' didn't help), but was still pretty much a believer (even when praying for more money didn't work).

My father was always an athiest, although he wasn't very outspoken about it until I hit my teens. He made some points that made sense, such as the fact that the Bible contradicts itself. I really started to digest what he said, but was still pretty ambivalent.

When I started high school, I was taking college-prep courses such as Philosophy, Literature, and the like. I learned more about the lies the bible-thumpers spewed, and I also met the first gay person I'd ever known, a Goth guy named Mark. Xtians always talk about how awful and evil homosexuals were, but Mark was the most loving and intelligent soul I'd ever met. The Xtians at school always put Mark down and made him feel he was diseased - especially since AIDS was a major headline at the time. What happened to "love thy neighbor?"

People like Jimmy Swaggart, a sex-addicted pervert who preaches on television that we should not be perverts, disgusted me. My siblings, who still attend church every Sunday and then put other people down for being different, turned me off religion for good. What sort of god allows idiots like Swaggart to prosleytize in his or her name? A stupid god in my estimation.

I realized that Christianity was not for me; I am too tolerant of humanity (and too smart) to support the church. My father supports my views, and for that I'm grateful.

Details