ExChristianDotNet - encouraging ex-Christians (de-converting or former Christians)

Some Random Thoughts on Love, Sex and Governor Sanford

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 11:57:00 +0000

By Bill J

I read some of the emails allegedly written by the Governor Sanford and his girlfriend from Argentina. A few sentences stood out to me as I read thru them. Gov. Sanford speaks of an emotional bank account full of love. I remember someone else who used this term back when I was a Christian. It got me thinking, is there such thing as a bank account of love? What is love in this context?

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The Little Christian Who Cried Wolf

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 10:55:00 +0000

By Neal Stone

Image via Wikipedia

You've probably have heard the term “Crying Wolf” before. Here is the origin of that term. It is an old Aesop fable. One of my favorites.

“A bored Shepard boy who entertained himself by calling out “Wolf!". Nearby villagers who came to his rescue found that the alarms were false and that they had wasted their time. When the boy was actually confronted by a wolf, the villagers did not believe his cries for help and the wolf ate the flock.”

I have met Christians who have claimed how things will change or we are going to make changes and then swing back to the old ways. I have also met some who always proclaim some prophecy only to have it not come true over and over.

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We are all Equal

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 09:47:00 +0000

By Aimee

Like many people who once believed in Christianity, I was born into it and brought up with it. My parents attended a rather rare type of church, calling itself the Church of Christ, and it tried to the best of its ability to follow the New Testament as fully and completely as possible. This church is exceedingly absolutist - in fact, most of the sermons I can remember dealt entirely with pointing out what denominations of churches did wrong. We'd have a sermon on Catholicism, Mormonism, Baptist, Pentecostal etc etc.

In fact, I knew more about the depth and breadth of Christianity than any other Christian kid I met.

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If God Died Tomorrow, How Would You Know?

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:42:00 +0000

By E Chamberlain MD, San Diego CA

Well, it's finally happened, after praying for it for so long. God has revealed to me ways to tell if he exists. (I guess he wants me back.)

Here's one way to tell if god is real-- If god died tomorrow, how would you know? How could you tell? Would you just wonder why he hadn't shown up for work? Would you look around in church and wonder, 'Where is he?' Would you begin to be concerned because he hadn't returned your call? Would Christian Science Monitor newspapers begin to pile up somewhere? Or would we notice after a season that tornadoes, hurricanes, and earthquakes oddly didn't happen this year? Or would they increase? Would the reports of miracle healings and speaking in tongues die down? Would those able to speak in tongues no longer be able to read and write in tongues?

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More on Paul's, Jesus', and Christianity's Moral Fallacies

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 23:28:00 +0000

By E Chamberlain MD, San Diego CA

After posting "Paul's And Jesus' Moral Fallacies" (June 22), I've been encouraged to elaborate more. I wanted that earlier essay to be brief enough to not seem preachy and to accommodate any attention span and be read during commercial breaks between, say, ESPN's Pardon The Interruption and Outside The Lines. This follow-up post won't do that. I apologize in advance, then, to those without a DVR and with other important things to do.

Much of this post here below is plagiarized, excised, or revised from my own earlier review of the movie "Jesus Camp," (posted in the forums section here at exchristian.net, a movie that was nominated for the 2006 Academy Award for Best Documentary Feature), but I thought it worth it to get it to a broader audience than those who would read a movie review. And there are also some important additions, not presented in that movie review. So, if some of it sounds familiar to any of you, that's why. I begin by referencing that same movie, which I recommend.

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Harassment By Evangelicals Lit My Path To Atheism

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 20:54:00 +0000

by The Atheist Geek

Image by Dan Patterson via Flickr

II was almost 18 when I attended my first meeting at a Kingdom Hall of Jehovah's Witnesses. Or I would have attended it if I had found the Hall before the meeting started. I had been talking to a girl at High School about The Watchtower Society's teachings for a few weeks when I asked her for directions to the Hall. Her directions were wrong, so I was late.

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VBS Nazis

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:31:00 +0000

By Daniel Brown

Summer is time for fun—swimming, fireworks, family reunions, and trips to Disney World. It’s also prime time for unfettered Christian indoctrination of our youth. Yes, I’m referring to Vacation Bible School (VBS).

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A Good Christian Wife

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Image by tommy.chang via Flickr

By Daniel Brown

Christian men are very insecure. As with all insecure people, they must domineer others to feel good about themselves. Once they snag a woman, the goal is to force them to submit. Women must be kept under their thumb at all times. Physical abuse isn’t necessary as emotional, psychological, and religious abuse are usually much more effective.

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Militant Atheists

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 09:37:00 +0000

John Brown (militant abolitionist) via Wikipedia

Militant Atheists" - a letter on the term to those who use it.

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Christian Belief Through the Lens of Cognitive Science: Part 5 of 6

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 01:33:00 +0000

By Valerie Tarico

How Viral Ideas Hook Us

Did you know that Temple Baptist Church was built on land that sold for 57 cents, the amount saved by a little girl that had been turned away from their Sunday school? Did you hear about the guy who died in his sleep, killed by his own farts? Can you believe it?! Elvis Presley said, "The only thing a nigger can do for me is buy my records and shine my shoes." And,guess what--scholars at the Smithsonian Institution have uncovered new interpretations of Nostradamus that relate to Barack Obama.

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Things I Wish to Say to My Mother

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:45:00 +0000

Image by sakura_chihaya+ via Flickr

Although this may need some polishing, this is what I wish to one-day say to my mother, but having difficulty working up the courage due to her anger when I say something contradictory to her beliefs. It is more or less in open-letter form, boldly packed with much emotion, which I have yet to send to her, if I ever do. She will never see it on the net, because she has some issues with modern technology, but none the less I wrote it and maybe one day soon I can say these things to her or at least mail this to her to read. Regardless of the intent, I still see her reacting vehemently with anger. That is the way it has been when I stepped “out-of-line” in her view and probably will always be until one of us dies- hopefully in the order nature intended. The thing is I have always been better at saying my thoughts in writing than verbally, regardless of other people’s reactions to my words.

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Time to grow up?

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 20:39:00 +0000

By Kevin B

Image by doug88888 via Flickr

It has been of my assertion ever since I broke free of childhood that religion quite simply does not make sense. It completely blows my mind to see intelligent people say they believe in Jesus and that they know that God exists. It makes me think to myself, humans as smart as we are, may not have the mental capacity to fully understand exactly what is going on. We have invented great things and advanced a long way but the basis of our intelligence may just be far too low to comprehend exactly how the universe and our world came to be.

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A Friend Dies

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 15:17:00 +0000

By Brother Greg

Image by Harry‧黃基峰‧Taiwan via Flickr

This is something that happened during high school that I wish I had looked at more directly earlier in life – it might have helped me leave Christianity much sooner than I ultimately did. I should mention that this high school was an American school based in Taiwan. In Taiwan, when I lived there, there where there were a large number of white missionaries supposedly there to convert Chinese people to fundamentalist Christianity. I had a friend in the high school– let’s call him Mike.

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¿Desaparecerá El Cristianismo? Su Apocalipsis

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 07:42:00 +0000

Por Xans Viv

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Es cierto que todos tenemos derecho a escoger nuestra propia religión o si bien nos parece, a crear una nueva o a no tenerla. Personalmente, no creo que es necesario tener una, aunque fui criado como cristiano católico apostólico romántico...

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The Question They Couldn't Answer

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:05:00 +0000

Sent in by koosgirl

Image by Caro's Lines via Flickr

I was raised in a mainline Protestant household. We said grace, had an Advent wreath, went to church every Sunday, etc., but my parents were not overly heavy-handed. Church services were low-key, with the preaching and lessons geared toward positive things--emphasizing God's love for us, how we should love one another, God's mercy and kindness, and so on. I really never knew the negative aspects of the Bible until I was in my twenties and decided to read the whole thing, cover to cover.

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The death of "born again"

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:59:00 +0000

By Donald R.

Image via Wikipedia

I ended up attending private Christian schools all my life. We were pretty much taught how to be sheltered from anything they deemed evil. So we were oblivious to the world outside of our church faction. Most children after graduation from high school ended up partying harder than the "worldy" folks. They were the children who weren't taught about sex and drugs and ended up getting pregnant at 17 and 18 years old.

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Religion: a panacea for evil

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:45:00 +0000

by Lemsip

Image by AmUnivers via Flickr

This is following the recent article 'Religion has passed it's prime'.

What would a world look like without organised religion. I'm afraid new religions would form as a way to control societies, nations, tribes, etc. Even some atheists have a vested interest in keeping religion alive even to the point of imposing it on people whose behaviour they don't approve of especially those from lower social classes. I say to them 'well if you think church going is so good why don't you go yourself'. This is where the old adage of Karl Marx 'religion is the curse of the working class' rings true.

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South Carolina Governor Sanford admits extramarital affair

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:34:00 +0000

South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford tearfully admitted on Wednesday he had been unfaithful to his wife, likely ending any chance he might be a Republican contender for the U.S. presidency in 2012.

Sanford resigned as chairman of the Republican Governors' Association and was replaced by Mississippi Governor Haley Barbour, another possible 2012 candidate.

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I thought GOD was the solution

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 08:24:00 +0000

Image by Dude Crush via Flickr

Sent in by Evelyn

I have been reading the posts about 4 months now. I did not start reading the posts because of deconversion, but because I was searching the Internet for a link on spiritual abuse in that link were testimonials of people were abused in United Pentecostal Church. That was the church I was thrown out of.

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PAUL'S AND JESUS' MORAL FALLACIES

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 21:15:00 +0000

By E Chamberlain MD, San Diego CA

Image by SamikRC via Flickr

The Apostle Paul reasons-- wrongly and without even bothering to cite evidence to make his case-- that one's failure to believe in God drowns the non-believer in a cesspool of immorality:

"Even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient; being filled with all unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, backbiters, haters of God, despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without understanding, covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful."

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Well known pastor busted in Jamaica for teen sex

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 00:41:00 +0000

Pastor Dr. Paul Lewis of Brooklyn was busted in Jamaica (the island) for having sex with a 15-year-old girl while a 14-year-old girl watched.

The Rev. Paul Lewis, founder of the Messengers for Christ Ministries World Healing Center, was held without bail on charges of carnal abuse and indecent assault, Jamaican police said.

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Consciencebound to Leave the Faith

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 15:16:00 +0000

Sent in by Jeff

Image via Wikipedia

I had a conversation with someone lately via email and they were asking about how I became a Christian and how I ended up leaving the Christian faith. Most of the time people who are Christians do not see how someone could have been a “true Christian” if they end up leaving the faith, so when they hear that I am no longer a Christian, they assume that I had a false faith of some kind. I wanted to briefly share my story of how I became a Christian and how I came to not be a Christian. I know that many people will still feel as though I was not a “real” Christian, but there is not much that I can do about that. The bottom line for me is that I was honestly a Christian and believed in Jesus and the Bible with all of my heart. I left the faith because I feel that I was bound by my conscience to be honest with myself about what I could and could not truly believe anymore.

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Baptist ministers facing sex charges appear in court

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 13:24:00 +0000

LIBERTY, Mo. (ABP) -- Southern Baptist ministers in three states facing molestation charges had recent days in court.

Robert M. Black, 40, pastor of New Home Baptist Church near St. Joseph, Mo., pleaded not guilty June 18 to felony counts of first-degree statutory rape and attempted enticement of a child.

Black was arrested April 8 after allegedly soliciting sex over the Internet with a police officer posing as a 13-year-old girl. He is scheduled to stand trial Jan. 14.

A grand jury in Waco, Texas, indicted William Frank Brown, 45, June 17 on four counts of sexual assault of a child and four counts of indecency with a child.

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I'm a missionary kid... and an atheist

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 21:01:00 +0000

Sent in by Tim

I grew up as a missionary kid in the Philippines. I am twenty years old, an atheist (I guess), and quite enjoying my place in the world.

As I said, I am a missionary kid. Both of my parents have been through seminary and are ordained. My father got his master's degree in Biblical Theology and my mom got a Master's of Divinity. My entire family, including my two brothers, my sister and all my distant relatives, is Christian. I went to private Christian schools from first grade to high school graduation. How is it, then, that I don't believe in what my family considers the most important thing in life?

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My rejection of blind faith

noreply@blogger.com (webmdave) — Fri, 19 Jun 2009 20:39:00 +0000

Sent in by Daniel Brown

My ancestors were forced out of Europe for being Protestants. Since then, many have been preachers, deacons, missionaries, teachers, and professors teaching and preaching Christianity. I, myself, attended several Christian schools throughout my life and at one time was a religion major with the intention of being a preacher. Throughout college, I served as a youth minister and taking several mission trips in the US and abroad. I graduated from a Christian university and worked for a prominent evangelical denomination for almost eight years.

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