Sent in by Kelsie

I grappled for years over whether or not I was living the "Christian life" or if I was even saved at all! I grew up in a highly aristocratic Baptist church that seemed busy teaching the perils of alcohol while allowing members of the Sunday School class to underage drink with rare abandon. From there, the myth of the "Christian life" just began unraveling. I am finishing up a degree in history on a Christian university campus (I was a Christian for most of my time here), where the "believers" around me are caught up in an endless charade of saying and PREACHING one thing while doing the exact opposite. I've had several run-ins with angry, self-righteous "believers" who've thrown the "well you're not any better than us" card at me, and I've also been told that it is only a matter of time before I "lapse back."

Christians themselves, however, have been largely successful in keeping me away from their religion. Theirs is the greatest and most insidious contradiction of all: that one can preach all day and live another way. I feel like Christianity is filled with self-righteous, bigoted, intolerant individuals who only "love" and "minister" to the parts of the world ready to swallow their lie. I've seen and felt firsthand just how hateful the "religion and god of love" can be when its belief system is challenged in any way. It seems to me that Christians don't like asking questions--that smacks of free thinking. In the end, I simply couldn't live in such willing and endorsed ignorance, and the vast majority of Christians I know have cut me off because of that inability. So much for the myth of Christian tolerance.


United States
Joined: 7
Left: 22
Was: Baptist, Roman Catholic
Now: Agnostic
Converted because: I became a Christian at a very early age because it was what I was taught to believe.
De-converted because: I left Christianity for a variety of reasons: primarily because it makes absolutely no sense, when held up to the lense of the Real, Rational World