sent in by anonymous

In 1971 I got "saved and became one of early "Jesus People" who attended Calvary Chapel of Costa Mesa in Santa Ana, California. First it was in the big circus tent, and then in the new sanctuary. I was baptized in 1971 at Pirate's Cove at Corona Del Mar, and I married Calvary's live-in janitor in 1973, for ten years.

I also attended a small charismatic church called Shekinah who had this flamboyant "healer" preacher named Brant Baker, but he ended up dying of AIDS.

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sent in by Jess

I left the Jehovah´s Witnesses at the age of 25 (It´s 2005 now so it´s approximately a year ago). For a long time I´d felt miserable attending the activities (meetings, fields service, public talks) of that religion. I´d lost my faith completely...I´d done some independent research (a very forbidden act among the JWs and other totalitarian religions!) in the fields of general science, evolutionary biology, origin of man, origin of diseases, so-called "full-filled" prophecies in the Bible etc...

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sent in by Chad

I became a Christian when I was 17 years old. My cousin invited me to a revival at a local church that I attended on and off while growing up. I wanted to run from it all at first, but I was drawn by the youth group there that seemed to love me and care about me. They were very nice to me and that was such a radical change from the "friends" I had at the time. Overnight I went from being cynical and condemning of the Christian religion to fully embracing it. I remember attending youth rallies, retreats, Wednesday night services and other events where I was always on the front row. I was so very zealous. My stepdad was agnostic then (still is) and I remember praying for him and requesting prayer for him. This was my senior year in high school.

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sent in by Jeff

I just converted fully to Atheist this week. I grew up and still live in Missouri. I was pretty much your average Midwest kid born to two amazingly supportive and loving parents. Both Mom and Dad were Christian, and from about the ages of 6 to 12 we went to church most Sundays. The thought of God made sense to me as a kid (especially with all the encouragement of belief that a well meaning Christian family brings).

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sent in by anonymous female

First, my spiritual history (condensed):

I've got to skip over a lot, but this story would be a book if I told it all. This is the way my spirituality evolved(in a nutshell).

I was born into family that had been Seventh-day Adventist since the sect originated in the 1800's. I can remember going through my grandmother's bookcase and finding a journal that belonged to an ancestor in which he had recorded in longhand his witnessing of the trance-state of Ellen White, that sect's prophetess and founder. Growing up, I sincerely believed that the only acceptable belief system was conservative christianity.

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sent in by Jamie McDonald

I became a Christian at the age of 17. At the time I was living in a University College - anyone who knows those sort of places know its like living in a goldfish bowl, everyone knows everything that you're doing all the time. Anyway my conversion was nothing short of spectacular, in the space of about two weeks I went from boozy party animal to hyper spiritual mr. Born Again. People were fascinated by my conversion, and in the following weeks I was able to lead several to Christ. I became something of a talking point amongst my fellow students.

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sent in by Scott Stahlecker

From as far back as I can remember (at age eight, lighting the candles on the alter of a Lutheran church), I have been fascinated by religion and all of its mystical qualities. I recall as well catching a city bus to a friend’s house at about the age of nine from my home in Pearl City, Hawaii, to a nearby suburb called Pacific Palisades. On the bus route was a church that I always made a point to look at as I made my journey. In a rather naive way, I would tell myself that one day that church would play a significant role in my life. What I was really telling myself was that I was intrigued by spirituality and I thought that organized religion was the means by which I would pursue my spiritual quest. Boys will be boys, though, and at that early age I certainly wasn’t fanatical about spirituality or religion.

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Many of those who wrote their stories here stated that there is no real evidence of God and of his son Jesus Christ. It’s all a alie. There is no evidence for all of the history printed in the Bible nor is there evidence for many so-called miracles.

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sent in by Reverend Jeremiah

The longer I have been an Atheist, the longer I realize that I was never much religious before my conversion. I can remember my earliest Sunday school experiences rather well actually, my mother practically had to drag me into the church on Sundays! While I was in the classrooms, I would drift uncaringly into the land of unrestrained imagination, resulting in poor "grades" on my religious assignments. This of course, even at the tender age of seven, did not worry me one bit. Sometimes, now that I'm mentioning it, I would straight out skip Sunday school, making sure that my mother would see me enter the classroom hallway, smile and wave at her, look around to make sure the aggravating teacher didn't see me, and dip out with my friends. I found that walking around my neighborhood with my friends was more interesting than coloring pictures of a dead man on a stick. I had to be on my toes though, and make sure to return on time for church service (or "nap time", as I thought it should be called).

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Just like the spousal syndrome it's named after, this disorder is characterized by the inability to see anything but love in the actions of the abuser. Every hit is the victim's fault as this is the only rationalization to keep the image of someone who is loving alive.

And so it is with the believer. No matter what terrible event happens in their life they can't see their god as anything but a loving father. He never gets any of the blame. It's either a lack of faith, too much sin or perhaps not enough praise that day.

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God is energy in all of us. The power of God is something you have to search for in every situation. I believe that when you give off negative energy you breed a negative return of energy and positive energy for positive energy. When I say positive energy I mean complete honest energy. Not energy you create in your mind to make you feel better about something negative I mean a better perspective not a fantasy. People always say to their selves “why do bad things always happen to good people” well they don’t.

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sent in by Ex-COG

I've been reading this website for quite some time now, and think it's great! Along with other ex-christian and ex-fundamentalist sites, the deconversion stories here show how there are people turning from christianity, despite the evangelists assertions that they are winning the world for Christ! This will be the third site that I add my story to, so it's possible that some of you have read it before.

I grew up in a fundamentalist group called the Church of God. Both of my parents had grown up in it, although my Dad did not attend anymore when I was a child. We only went off and on, mainly because my Mother didn't always drive. (Driving was one of many things she was "nervous" about. She had an abusive childhood, which may have set her up for fundy religion). This group was very strict; women couldn't wear pants, men couldn't have long hair, no one could wear jewelery, rock 'n' roll was sinful, yadda yadda yadda. The congregation was small, only about 50-70 each Sunday, and I was related to at least a third of them. Sermons were at least an hour in length; anything less was a "sermonette" proper for other "false" churches but not us. They seemed to attack other Christian groups more than non-christians as they thought they had the "truth".

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sent in by Aaron

I wanted to share my experience. Not so much to convince anybody one way or the other, but to mostly to vent.

My father (married 6x) and his wife are extremely devout born again christians. As part of their faith, they are to evangelize to all the unbelievers they know, which unfortunately for them includes their son, me. I have had an ongoing email debate with my step-mother. I have pasted a portion of it here. You'll see that you are unable to argue/debate with them because they are unable to step outside the box they have chosen. Kim is my fiance. Shirley is my step-mom. Tucker is my 1/2 nephew who has Poland's syndrome (a flipper like left hand). I am a firefighter by profession.

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sent in by CJ

My first experiances of religion came from my childhood going to Church. When I was young, going to Church was something you just did, I used to think probably it was just a place to go on Sundays and listen to stories and sing songs; A place where you dressed up and went, I didn't understand about God, Jesus or Christianity until I was older.

I went to Sunday school and read the Presbyterian Chetichism and the King James Bible, I done all the colouring in stuff, bible stories and picture books, I enjoyed it as a kid and thought little of it.

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sent in by Daniel Neubacher

First of all, I'm not the typical exchristian, since I was never a complete member of this religion. Actually, before I entered those times in which I started to feel so drawn to seeking God I had already been quite a convinced atheist. What I find so hard to understand about myself is why I, then, felt so drawn to God, felt so thoroughly that God has to exist. I had no traumas to overcome, and no deep fears to calm with the God thought. I was ... bored with life, and I felt that God would be some kind of vehicle for me, something by whose help I could somehow enter life again and get to enjoy happiness. I had no fundamentalistic notions of belief, I pursued a God of magical realism, someone who would show me the way into bliss, it was monotheism and pantheism, all in one.

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by AtheistMommy

Our Funding Fathers had a grand plan. A plan to create a wonderful place where all can be free, free to believe in anything, free to speak their minds, free to voice their opinions. Our Founding Fathers were not Atheists. They were not quite Christian, either though. Some didn't even attend church on Sunday or any other day. What they were, even better than belonging to a religion or not, they were Freethinkers.

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sent in by AtheistMommy

I was born into a christian family. At about 12 I protested to going to church. See before that age I didn't know I had a choice. I was sent to private catholic school during the weekends.

I never made my communion. In fact I refused to do that too. My very religious grandmother informed me that I was going to go to hell like my mother who was trying out different sects. Did you know that was a sin?

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sent in by Jonathan

Well, after 19 years as a christian, I'm starting to take my baby steps into a brave new world.

I've spent my life going to church every Sunday. Since about the age of 12 I've been playing the piano in church, and in the last several years I've been actively leading the worship time. I have led youth bible studies in the past, and all in all been a pretty convicted believer.

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sent in by Mike

I was raised a Catholic. I attended parochial school for 12 years. When I was a Junior in High School, the priests stopped teaching catechism and started teaching what other people in the world believed. All of it made more sense.

Anyone who would just analyze Christianity, would see that none of it makes any sense, whatsoever. To believe in Christianity one must disregard everything that they have learned and all common sense that they have developed.

If Christians would look into the foundations of their religion, they could draw no other conclusion but that it is totally baseless.

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I can't believe what I am reading. You won't see a cite for ex muslims. You want to know why? Because Allah and Muhammad are not God. Jesus is God. I know this is painful for you to read but I am absolutely convinced of it because of you all!! You all are fullfilling bible prophecy right now by scoffing and mocking the very GOD who gave His life for you. His requirement from you is that you forgive others!! He said that we are to forgive others seventy times seven a day. I know that humans are not better than God. He wouldn't ask us to do something He Himself had not already done.

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sent in by Felicia

I’m not sure when I really became a “Christian”. My mother was/is, but my father believe “God” is within himself. He thinks church and religion is bullshit. When I was young my mother made me go to church with her, not every Sunday or anything, but at least every Easter, and major holidays or events.

Anyhow, I so called found “the Lord” for myself when I was about 22. I was depressed and in a situation I felt I could not make it out of. I met a man at the mall one day, where I was applying for jobs and he bought me a bible. (He was a preacher at a local church). So I began reading it, not truly understanding what I was reading, but I thought I really wanted to give this Christianity thing a shot. My father thought I was nuts, but I wanted to believe.

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sent in by Chris Campbell

Ever since I was a young child, I believed in the Christian god. I remember from an early age my mother bought me a childrens' Bible, and I thumbed through it but didn't really understand it. Over time, I somewhat forgot about this god.

My home life wasn't all that great. A product of a broken home, and a neglectful alcoholic mother, I turned to religion in my late teens. I ended up going to a church a couple of times with a girl I was dating, but really didn't follow through with it.

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America is a nation wherein citizens of all religions and of none are welcome to participate freely in all of its social and political functions. The essence of the religion commandments of the Constitution, as drafted by the Founding Fathers and added by the First Congress, is voluntarism in matters of religion. Government is the essence of coercion; therefore, "no religious test shall ever be required" (Constitution, Art. 6., Sec. 3.) and Congress shall make "no law" respecting an establishment of "religion" (First Amendment).

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