This morning I made a list of what I figure were the major factors in my leaving Christianity. I came up with sixteen and there are probably more… but I hope it communicates that it wasn't just "one thing".
The inconsistency of the biblical narrative.
Age of the founding story. (I told my Mom I needed something more current to navigate life with than a 2000 year old narrative.)
Incredibly insane amount of denominations. (A google search will find that there are about 30,000 Christian Denominations. And I'm supposed to believe the one I was born into was the right one?)
Focus on Shame. (Christianity is all about shame management and selling a cure for the disease their God created.)
Heaven and Hell. (When I let go of Hell, I had to let go of Heaven. They are opposite sides of the same coin.)
More focus on the afterlife. ( I can't understand why Earth is viewed as a transfer station for Christians. Seems a waste of a planet… especially one over four billion years old. )
Christian Denominations are exclusive clubs. (The signs on the marquees say "Everyone welcome." But that is mostly only true if "everyone" fits the club mold.)
The need to convert everyone. (Christianity needs to assimilate the world. Seems no better than the Borg in Star Trek TNG)
People’s response to death. (I'm tired of hearing "God is in Control" when I am faced with my family's stupid ends to their life.
Understanding my insignificant place in the cosmos (Thank you, Carl Sagan)
Prayer as a practice (I stopped understanding "God" as interactive when I really saw how people tried communicating with him. It all seemed like theatrics to me. )
Lack of compassion for sadness and grief.
Church politics. (It's when the position of the pews matters more than the backsides that sit in them on Sunday.)
Church splits over LGBTQ. (This one was extremely heartbreaking to me… and it probably explains the 30,000 denominations.)
My husband's unique spirituality. (He doesn't need an ancient narrative. He just connects in his own space with how he understands "Creator". It's beautiful,attractive and very rare.)
My sister in law's communion issue. (She can't attend Communion with her husband because he's Catholic and she's not. But the practice is important to her. That is the institution dividing family with it's archaic rituals.)
Senseless traditions. (When religious tradition trumps reality and common sense, I have no place for it. Especially when it becomes more important than family.)
Church isn’t about local community. (I discovered at a young age that church isn't about community… it's about the denominational labels. Little House on the Prairie did church better… too bad it was just a TV show.)
A Gendered God ( After reading "The Shack" I lost interest in a "God with balls")
Reading and listening to: Bart Campolo, Bart Ehrman, Peter Enns, Peter Rollins, Rob Bell, Rachel Held Evans and a whole host of other authors and podcasters. (check out my "Ruby Gets Real" Book Blog)
Listening to people's stories on the Graceful Atheist podcast
Truth be told, most of the reasons here are why I don't go back… they are not why I initially left. I had to be gone for a while to understand why I didn't want to be there.
(written December 2, 2023)
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