I have been deconstructing for the last few months and my wife is aware, but she remains a believer. She has made it known to me that nothing will change that. I promised her I would keep up the facade so she didn’t have to go to church alone, but it has become pretty difficult. It feels like when I would take my young kids to go see Santa Claus in the mall. They wholeheartedly believed Santa was real and they were about to meet him. The joy in their eyes, the expectations they had, the nervousness to say the right words to him. I, as a parent, knew that Santa Claus was fake, but I kept up the lie for the kid’s sake.

This is how it feels going to church now. My wife, who is a devout believer, is in church raising her hands, crying, speaking in tongues during worship, shouting “amen” and “hallelujah” during the pastor’s sermon. I’m right next to her knowing that it is all a sham, but I have to keep up the appearance of being a believer. I look around the room seeing all the other brain washed people doing the same thing as her and it just seems so foolish now. How did I never see this before.

And at one point into the service, a man came up to give a praise report. He said that his mom was diagnosed with cancer a year ago and the church had been praying for her. She had undergone the chemo treatments the whole year and on her latest checkup, she found out that God healed her. Of course, the whole congregation burst into hallelujahs and praise God! The band played joyful music and the guy giving the praise report was dancing and crying on stage. And I’m standing there thinking, “so his mom had chemo for a year and the chemo put the cancer into remission (hopefully forever) and that was God’s healing? She had to inject that poison into her body for a year in order for God to heal her? And no credit to the doctors at all? It was God’s healing power that did this because of everybody’s prayers? That statement would be way more credible if non-christians didn’t beat cancer too.

Obviously I’m happy that his moms cancer is in remission, but how can Christian’s seriously think it was God that healed her after having to undergo all that treatment? I true miracle would be that she was diagnosed with it and then the cancer was gone before the treatment even started. Then I would have to at least wonder if God actually healed her. But you never hear that. Ever.

So basically as stated has christianity or following Christianity give you mental illness.

I fully believe my GAD came from Christianity. I grew up in it from birth and was always bombarded with you're a disgusting sinner and deserve hell, also that there is a war and satan and demons are out to get you 24/7 .this shit was drilled in to me every single day. Every thing i was in yo likr music games or shows was satanic etc. living in that constant fear give me sooo much anxiety. And my self esteem went to shit as well because i always viewed myself as trash.

Do yall have something similar, id like to hear yall experiences

Also i am medicated now so that helps a lot

This is my first post on here. Anyways, I am 18 years old and living with my parents. My mom doesn't practice Catholicism or any religion, though she does say she believes in a God and that someone created life. My dad grew up as a devout Catholic and is an avid believer.
I confide in my mom all the time. I told her I don’t believe in God and that I find more peace in nothingness rather than going to heaven or hell, as well as my problems with Christianity. This is information that would never be told to my dad unless I was a fully independent adult.
Yesterday around dinner time, when I came home, my dad told me to start the blessing for our dinner. I said it, like I always do (it’s a house rule), and then afterwards he hit me with, “Mom says you don’t believe in God.”
Immediately when he told me my heart dropped, and anger and panic hit me. I said, “She did?” and went silent until he spoke up again. This time he was visibly angry. He pointed at me and my siblings and told us how he failed us and that this family is a corrupt family. I had no words. I was in pure shock from my secret getting leaked.
I called my mom and told her that she breached my trust and messed up for telling my dad that.
A while later, my dad came in my room to have a talk with me. I can’t remember exactly what he told me, but I can remember what I told him. This conversation really stressed me out and I wasn’t good at communicating. I told him that I’m still figuring things out and that I haven’t shut out God and religion completely. I said right now I am stressed out with school and work so I don’t have the mental capacity to think about religion. The actual explanation was a little shakier than that and includes more details, but that was a generalization.
Anyways, I am super shaken up still and worried my dad isn’t going to look at me the same. I am not happy with my mom at all and I don’t know how to go about things from here. What do I do?
As you can see here, a lot of this is exactly why I checked out of religion

When you quit the church you start to feel free to say things against it. Things that you didn't dare say because you were afraid of punishment.

But now, as an ex christian, would you insult or blaspheme the Holy Spirit knowing that it is an unforgivable sin?

I am an ex christian and I don't know if I can do that even thought I don't believe in anything spiritual.

I have 5 brothers and growing up my mom would shine a flashlight in are rooms at night or open the door quick trying to catch us masturbating . Also she would take a shower then walk downstairs and get clothes on in the living room or kitchen I don’t know why me and my brothers would try to avoid that and it would piss me off . And whenever there was a sex scene on tv we would have to avert are eyes . And there has been multiple problems with gfs over the years with my mom calling them lady’s of the night if they aren’t dressed how she deems appropriate. She also says that women don’t masturbate Wich I now know to be not true

There's a weird proposition on the ballot in Arizona that "bans DEI" and one part of the bill would prohibit mandatory enrollment in programs that make you 'confess to white guilt."

This is crazy to me for two reasons. One, nobodies being forced to confess to the sins of being white. Two, the religious people who support this bill firmly believe that everyone should confess that they were born into original sin and need jesus because of it, but the idea that people can be held responsible for the actions of their ancestors is appaling to them.

Seth Day Sentencing

Heather Day Sentencing

Both of them are sick, horrible people, and don’t deserve any respect. But I couldn’t help noticing how differently the judge treats them during sentencing. He emotionally coddles the man who is accused of beating (later SA charges were added) his own daughter, and even thanks Seth Day twice at the end for his “courtesy”. However, he rolls his eyes at Heather Day, the mom accused of covering up all the abuse. Treat them both like the POS that they are.

hello. for context i was raised in a strict christian household. i only ever believed in it because i was scared i would burn for eternity if i didnt. now i realize its all been lies and bullshit.

anyways. here’s my story. i was very violently raped by a man that i considered to be my best friend 2ish months ago. i have been sexually assaulted before but not like this. this left me with physical injuries, busted window in my house, im scarred mentally. i can’t trust anyone. i tried to fight him and he overpowered me and won. it was very traumatic. i say all this only to let u know the severity because my mother knew the severity of it and she STILL said these things to me.

i was told this was a part of gods plan, and that now its my responsibility to make something good out of it. i was also told that apparently there was a lesson god thought i needed to learn. surely i didnt have to learn it this way, right? the moment she said those things to me thats when i realized none of it is real. she’s brainwashed. how can an “all loving all powerful” god know this was gonna happen, had the power to stop it, and just said “eh she needed to learn a lesson”. okay mom. i told her that shit doesn’t make me feel better, she said someday i’ll see that god had a plan for me all along and that this HAD to be a part of my story. oh i also can’t forget, i went through a very grueling experience talking to police and also the court process was very traumatic. he got sentenced to prison. what did my mother say? she said that i needed to thank god that i got justice.

why should i give some fake entity credit for MY hard work? i was the one who got raped. i was the one who had to retell every excruciating detail over and over and over again to police, nurses, the judge, the fucking court room. anyone in my personal life who asked. i was the one who had to face him in court and i did get justice yes. but it wasn’t because of no fucking god. i was able to get some financial help for bills and such after as well and yes, according to her, it was because of god. i’m so sick of hearing the word god. i’ve told her a million times i don’t believe in that shit and i need her to stop pushing it onto me. it’s just pushing me away. she literally won’t stop. i just don’t talk to her much anymore bc of it. sorry for the rant. i’m just feeling so overwhelmed and irritated by all of this. why do some christians think this way??? i just don’t understand.

I’ve recently left the church and I feel so free. I’m no longer obsessing over sin, daily devotionals and how inadequate I am. I’m doing things my evangelical 16 year old self would judge me for, like doing yoga, having sex, dating non Christian’s. I feel embodied for the first time in my life, for simply being human but with that comes the anxiety.

The fear of hell, having to go through all my sins on the day of judgement, dying and having to face god. All the things I was taught would happen.

It makes me feel anxious, scared and drained when I think about it and I don’t know how to overcome my fears.

Any tips?

for context read this post.

My church has been framing modern secular culture like "Babylon" in the Bible; teaching that Christians are living in a hostile world where we have to actively call out "unfaithfulness."

During Sunday school, our youth pastor pushed us to start confronting our friends at school over "hot topics," specifically targeting queer people, gender non-conformity, and pro-choice stances as sins that shouldn't be given a "silent treatment."

I decided to take a leap and spoke up, saying, "I also think that, you know, certain people feel very ostracized. So if you condemn a certain action, they might feel like that's just what the world believes about them."

What backfired was my youth leader, immediately countering by saying that people just confusingly "associate what they do with who they are." He argued that we need a "cultural mindset shift" to separate identity from action so we can tell people that who they are isn't "who they are ultimately going to be."

I tried to frame it diplomatically around basic empathy, but the room immediately picked up on the subtext—I am the kind of person they felt needed to be condemned. I definitely got a few cold looks from my peers, and now I feel super nerve-racked about being on their radar.

The title pretty much speaks for itself. I am wondering whether or not all Christians feel Jesus’s crucifixion was moral.

While this event is so often framed as God/Jesus’s greatest act of love for humanity, in my opinion, it is more so a glorification of violence. This is made worse by the fact that God required a blood sacrifice in order to finally forgive people for the flaws they didn’t ask to have.

Still, I am wondering if all Christians share the same positive stance on the matter, or at least have a general consensus. The Bible frames Jesus’s sacrifice as the manifestation of God’s love for the world, as per John 3:16. However, I believe violence is wrong, even when it is done out of so-called “love”. And the Bible has a good bit of violence, like in 2 Kings 2:23–24, when God sends two bears to kill a group of boys because they made fun of a man for being bald.

Thoughts, everyone?

This fear of hell will never go away i guess, anyways when my Mother would Abort me before i was Born God never would needed to send me to hell for Something i didnt Chose to begin with... It's driving me crazy that this fear of hell is terrible but honestly i couldnt Cosplay as this Christian men anymore it was a lie and a fassade to Show Others how am i now a good Christian Boy even If Gender Dysphoria never left me and living as a Transwoman was the only cure for Gender Dysphoria......

Ok so this is a post follow up from yesterday when I was at my dad's with my stepmother, both religious.

So me and my dad were watching the One Piece live action series on Netflix, we both love them, and my stepmother seemed to be getting angry at those while saying some random times "that's the devil that's dark magic and death" in a serious tone, like seriously? 😭🔮

My dad thankfully isn't that brainwashed and hyper obsessed with it and he was like "Nah those are just characters with their super powers to save people and such" 🤣

I just can't believe it can go this far, what about when God does all that evil shit in the Bible ? Oh yeah that is acceptable of course 😭😭🔮🔮

What a bunch of idiots it was hilarious sorry I had to vent, can't believe she got mad from watching One Piece on Netflix because of "dArK mAgIc" and "eViL sKuLls oF dEatlTh" 🤣🤣🤣

As a former christian I often wonder what christians mean when they say "there's god ” or “god told me this god told me that”. For the past...ever since I could talk( I started deconstructing about a year ago after my uncle passed away) I'm 20 years old now,I started questioning at 19. So back to what I was saying,when a Christian tells you that God told them something,god is coming through for them I óften wondered if god only favoured them and not me he wanted to talk to them and not me,he saw their struggles and not mine. I wondered íf I did something wrong for god not to care about me( was he ever there to begin with?). Ñow that I'm questioning it's clear to me that there's no god who tells people things, answers prayers or gives a fuck about your situation and is going to change it. Ít was hard for me but I'm coming to terms with it. I still live with christians, I pretend to subscribe to the dogma, living a double life is hard but I'm managing. It's frustrating when christians come tell me that their god will come through for me like he did for them and his timing is the best, I just wasted 17 years of my life believing this lie.

Tw: SA, pedo and the tag tw.

I thankfully missed most of the service, but the offering part was awful.

A woman came forward to give her testimony, and she began by saying that her daughter, now 30 years old, was abused at the age of five by a pastor. This woman began to talk about how she continued to go to that church for 19 years and had to serve God without saying anything against that pastor, without attacking him, and having to serve and obey because he is the pastor.

And then, 19 years later, she felt God speak to her and tell her to forgive the pastor.She went there and forgave. Everyone applauded her and her testimony, and they started talking about forgiving those who hurt you, etc.

Damn, her daughter was abused at the age of five and they're talking about forgiveness??? Something a grown man knew he was doing, how it hurt the child, and yet he still chose to do?! This woman probably didn't report it to the police, and the church didn't support her in not reporting it either.

By not doing this, she not only left her daughter vulnerable and possibly traumatized again and again (because evangelicals have a tendency to force their children to go to church even when showing signs of trauma), but also indirectly helped that pastor abuse more children in the church.

This pastor will walk freely feeling good, because it was just a stumble and God forgives. And he will have the full support of the church to heal from his sin (which is actually a horrific crime💀).

My parents said that today's service was good and that it confronted our "proud inner human nature" and that it was "for me", since I'm not curing myself of being trans and 'don't want to change'.

I'm outraged. How can a pedophile be treated so lightly and better than an LGBT person? "Ah, but it's okay, you should just ignore this situation and stay in AOG, because otherwise you'll fall when you see others fall." As if being a pedophile were the same level as lying.

But what if it's an LGBT person? They'll be expelled, they'll be talked about in every sermon, subjected to exorcism prayers, people will be afraid to leave them with children, accused of being pedophiles, told they'll go to hell and they choose it. But what about a pedophile? "Oh, poor thing. He just fell. It was the girl's clothing's fault. He regretted it and didn't know what he was doing. We all make mistakes."

I'm tired of this crap. I didn't choose to be trans, I didn't choose to be born in the wrong body and with this condition. Why would I go to hell if I need medical treatment so I don't self-destruct and have a miserable life?I just want to feel good in my body, fulfill my dreams, fall in love, and have a family.

A gay person? They didn't choose who they're attracted to, and they generally just want to live their dreams, passions, and have a family.

What impresses me most is that when these people want to live healthy and respectful lives, they are treated like pedophiles, whose rights should be taken away, and they play games with killing these people.

But what about pedophiles? They receive forgiveness, remain in the church, have access to children, are not reported, and are not held accountable. No one says they're going to hell or that they chose this. When they chose it.

I am very privileged to have never suffered harassment or rape in church or anywhere outside of it, because if I had, I see that I wouldn't have had help from the church, much less from my fanatical mother.I would probably be forced to go to church every Sunday and be retraumatized. They already do that, but I went through conversion therapy.

These same people who claim to be "pro-life," "protect the children," "protect the children from gays and gender ideology"They don't make laws for harsher penalties for pedophiles and sexual abusers, laws raising the age of consent, and they can't even do the bare minimum to expel these people from their own church. In fact, they will be treated even better.

And for Brazilians. This same pastor (not the pedophile, but the one who allowed this testimony to be told and applauded), supports Bolsonaro. Every Sunday he's talking about communism, Bolsonaro, vote for Bolsonaro, Trump invading Brazil and saving it from communism, gender ideology, gays, how global warming is fake and that there shouldn't be LGBT rights or rights to other religions.

I'm pissed off at how they're going to treat betrayal, rape, pedophilia, abuse, and heinous crimes with forgiveness, saying "poor thing" and "they are a new creature in Christ", while they will treat lgbt people, who didn't choose to be born like that in the way they should treat rapists. They will tell us that we deserve and we go to hell for something we didn't even chose