By J. Strong -- I n 2005 I submitted a testimony saying that I knew I didn't believe but was still holding on to the idea that would change. Unfortunately I am still there. I lost my job in December 2009 and unemployment benefits are being cut off soon. My marriage is crumbling and it seems everything I touch is turning to garbage. Image via Wikipedia I had been praying some, going back and forth between faith and knowing that I was only talking to myself. Although I knew God probably didn't exist I needed help and it seemed no one else would be more qualified than an all knowing all powerful deity. So I pushed my doubts aside and went to a local church at 10:00 at night. Church was closed but I opened myself up to God and poured my heart out. I told him I couldn't go another day like this and I needed him more than ever. I actually cried for the first time is 13 years and begged him for some feedback, even if it was just a feeling or a word. Maybe just a sta...

By Mike -- T o start with, you can decide for yourselves what I am, but I have been told I'm headed to hell (I bet it looks like my back yard in June July and August) because of a few things, such as not being faithful enough and being a Goth. Oh you have not lived until you have been a Goth who crosses paths with hardcore fundamentalists. To be fair, there have been some awesome ones, but boy you know it when a Suspected satanist meets the other side. But enough on that element of humor. I walked away from a very large church and I'll tell you why since so many share a similar story. I was born into The Worldwide Church Of God pastored by God's chosen opostle, Herbert Armstong and I'm betting many readers recognize that name. I was also born into a semi gothic family which was the best thing that happened to me. Father was not there, mother was Carrie's mom. We went to curch every Saturday, kept every holy day, and we tithed if it killed us, which it n...

By Carl S -- O ne subject that occasionally comes up in books and movies is family secrets. Apparently, every family has one or more dominant ones. Personally, I remember asking my widowed mother, who was 85 at the time, if she thought my oldest brother was gay. She said that she had known it for many years. The day before her funeral, at night, my oldest brother and I talked about our father, and I told him to forgive the old man, because his childhood abuse of all of us was the tradition in his own upbringing. My brother flew into a rage, woke up the family, and only stopped when my next oldest brother told him, “Ray, I know secrets.” Ray didn’t ask what those secrets were, but went quietly to bed. Family secrets led me to think of other secrets: diplomatic talks, strategies, battle plans, etc., involving corporations, governments, and religious institutions. (Oh those American Indian mission schools and Mormon “families”!) One big secret is out: Pedophile priest cover-ups. All...

By Andrew -- I am very well read when it comes to the bible, both old and new testaments. I have read every bit of it at least once. As I mentioned in my testimonial of leaving Christianity on this site, reading the bible is what really pushed my away for good. Recently, I have had the good fortune of being evangelized to at college by a member of the Campus Crusade for Christ (CCC). Image by C.M. via Flickr I'm sure some of you on this site know of these people. Strangely, I was actually glad he tried to spread the gospel to me, because I was very much ready for anything he had to offer. I wanted to test my new non-Christian position, and the knowledge that came with it. I'm going to tell you the conversation we had, paraphrased of coarse: Scene: I'm eating lunch by myself in the cafeteria reading some notes for the next class I was going to after my lunch break. Enter CCC Guy. CCC Guy: Hey, do you mind if I sit and ask you a few important questions? Me: (...

A prominent Southern Illinois pastor and community leader has been charged with a child-sex crime and is jailed. Rev. Bill Vandergraph The Rev. Bill Vandergraph, pastor of Full Gospel Pentecostal Church and president of the Friends of the Cross fundraising organization, was taken into custody Wednesday night after an investigation by the Illinois State Police and Union County Sheriff's Office, according Union County State's Attorney Tyler Edmonds. Vandergraph, who was arrested Wednesday evening, is charged with predatory criminal sexual assault of a child, a Class X felony. He remained jailed Thursday afternoon in lieu of $500,000 bond. He is to appear in Union County Court this morning before Judge Mark Boie. Vandergraph, 72, of rural Alto Pass has retained or is retaining an attorney, Edmonds said, although he did not know the defense attorney's name late Thursday afternoon. Steve McKeown, president of Bald Knob Cross of Peace Inc., a separate entity from Frie...

By James C -- T he other evening a TV show-biz show mentioned the January 2009 ditching of a US Airways jet with 155 people on board after experiencing a double engine failure due to bird strikes just after takeoff. Thanks to the pilot's ( Sully Sullenberger ) calm demeanor and piloting skill, all survived the ditching in the Hudson river . Which it seems almost all the media call a "miracle", something those of us with active skepticism would question in a couple of ways. Miracle? Why would an all-knowing, all-powerful, merciful and loving God choose to subject all those aboard with the fear of dieing, the misery of surviving in a cold river in N ew York in January, and a couple of broken bones when all He/She would have to have done was adjust the flight paths of the innocent birds that caused the problem (and died for doing so... making one question Jesus' comments about sparrows). And further on.... there are a few places where miracles are badly needed ...

By Carl S O n June 16, my oldest brother died (at 84). My wife and I started packing that day, traveling 800 miles in 2 days for the viewing and next day funeral. It was a return to the northeast corner of Ohio and Catholic country; a different culture, in a way. Now there are those who will argue that a culture must include its religion, but I disagree. I can see a New Orleans jazz funeral sans religion, Corpus Christi without Christi. Such has been the case in Scandinavian countries . Northeast Ohio has not learned this. My siblings and I were raised Catholic. Our births were stretched out over quite a few years. I was the fourth of five, and by the time my younger brother arrived, the religious influence was not as strong. The oldest of us became very Catholic. Suffice it to say what kind of funeral I expected. My younger and only remaining brother and I were pallbearers. We carried the casket the long haul down to the front of the contemporary and stylish church. I was inst...

By WizenedSage (Galen Rose) -- My latest foray onto the Letters-to-the-Editor page of a local weekly newspaper here in Maine is printed below. Please feel free to offer it or any part of it to your own local newspaper under your own name. I’m not interested in attribution, I’m interested in waking people up. Image via Wikipedia S ome recent letters on these pages and elsewhere have brought my attention to an important issue which is too often ignored or swept under a rug. It needs to be recognized that in some religious sects, the emphasis is clearly on fear. One is preached at to do whatever he’s told by the “sacred” texts or he will be very, very sorry. Imagine how frightening this world must be to those who believe that every word in those texts is the literal truth, who believe there are witches, demons and devils lurking in every dark corner, with the sole purpose of leading them astray and/or making their lives miserable. (I mean the kind of witches who allegedly suspend the ...

By Bruce Gerencser --  T hose of us who grew up in a Baptist church are quite familiar with Sunday Evening Testimony Time. Church members were given the opportunity to give a testimony about what God was doing in their lives. Image by Andrew B47 via Flickr Many great and wonderful stories of faith were told during Sunday Evening Testimony Time. Sometimes a new convert would be given the opportunity to tell their salvation story. While the details varied from person to person the basic storyline remained the same. The person was a lost, wretched,vile sinner before they trusted Jesus as their Lord and Savior. Many new converts told wild stories about their life before Christ. Now that they were a Christian their lives were transformed and Jesus had made everything new. I have often wondered how much different the testimonies would have been if the new convert had been required to wait two years before giving their testimony. I suspect the story would have been very different. (...

By Dano -- I taught myself to type about 50 years or so ago. I was in the Air Force, and I bought one of those old mechanical typewriters, used, at a pawn shop. Image by Colin Purrington via Flickr It was also one of the major times in my life that I thought I had everything in life figured out, and I had figured out that Jesus was love, love was God, and I loved Jesus. I remember I typed a bunch of letters to my relatives,the ones whom I knew were Christians, outlining this epiphany. Well to make a brief religious awakening story, short, a few people reminded me, that I had grown no halo, I got tired of my one way conversation with God, someone stole the typewriter, and I got back to sinning just like all the other guys. Since then I have relied upon my wives, (bofum), to do any lengthy typing projects. Thank evolution that even though some of my more frivolous skills, like typing, have faded, the more satisfying ones are as good ever. Those laid down in the baser parts o...

By Peggar -- I cannot say I believed in the bible. As a very young child, forced to go to church from the very beginning as an infant in my mother's arms, and then the whole bible school after church thing every week, I found I could not believe in the stories that were told there. I would tell my parents of my disbelief. Image via Wikipedia My dad would smile, my mom would become incensed! SHE was the religious one who was raised Dutch Reform. We went to the Lutheran church that my dad was raised in. That was their compromise, as HER church would not allow TV, radio, the celebration of Christmas with the gifts and tree, and God forbid - EGGS at Easter!! I could not believe "God" who was supposed to be all knowing would make a devil-angel that would reek havoc on his stupid weak human creation, and then let those same beloved human children suffer and burn FOREVER because a super human devil-angel tricked them. I would say, Mom, none of the human parents would let a...

By Rudy -- R ecently I have been reflecting on the difference between me as a not-yet-deprogrammed atheist for 35 years and me as an almost deprogrammed atheist. I first became an atheist in 1975 after studying evolution in college. I kept my beliefs to myself, although if anyone asked, I would admit that I was atheist. I never read any books about atheism and I never learned much more about my atheism, until recently. Image by ~C4Chaos via Flickr As a not-yet-deprogrammed atheist, I was not upset by religion. I could easily go to church for a friend or relative without any negative emotions. In fact, after having two sons, I joined my wife's Catholic Church so that we could be together as a family and my sons would get training in "morals." However, just about the time the priest pedophile scandal started to gain visibility, I started to have feelings of disgust about priests and going to church. I continued going to church until my sons grew up and I found out t...

Pastor Kenneth Kleckner An Ocala -area pastor is the latest to be nabbed in sex stings by Orange County detectives, the Sheriff's Office said Friday. Investigators announced the arrests after they traveled to Marion County and arrested pastor Kenneth Kleckner at his church — Ocala West United Methodist — on charges of soliciting a minor for sex and transmitting harmful materials to a minor. Undercover investigators posing as a girl had been chatting online with Kleckner since May, said sheriff's Detective Philip Graves. The 44-year-old pastor , who is married and has four children, exposed himself via a web camera and talked about meeting the girl, Graves said. They communicated through Yahoo and other chat services, and those communications took place at the church and Kleckner's home, the detective said. Graves said Kleckner was "immediately remorseful," when he was arrested at the church Friday. "He did admit to engaging in the chats," G...

By ex-Pastor Dan -- BORN AGAIN: THE EARLY YEARS    My Big Sister    J ust a few months later, as the initial shock of my brother’s, tragic death was wearing off, BAM…….my sister, Joyce, was diagnosed with Poliomyelitis. She became one of thousands to contract the dreaded ‘POLIO’ virus that was sweeping across America in the Early 1950’s. At this time there wasn’t a vaccine or any known cure. Image via Wikipedia Many of the people (mostly children) who came down with polio ended up being permanently paralyzed or worse, they ended up dying. The disease attacked the spinal cord and mainly exhibited itself in legs that were deformed or under-developed. But, if it happened to attack the part of the nervous system which controlled breathing, the prognosis was not good. That poor individual would spend the rest of their life in an ‘Iron Lung’ or be sent home to die, a slow agonizing death. What was God doing? Had mother not felt his chastening? Was Dicki...

By the UnCatholic -- I t is deeply encouraging, to know that I am not the only one who has made a conscious decision to place a higher value on Truth than on the emotional and social utility of religious belief. Leaving Christianity has been the hardest thing I have ever done, and I am not emotionally out of the woods yet - it is hard. Image by h.koppdelaney via Flickr My deconversion has been a long time coming, with a 10 year pit stop in Catholicism as an attempt to stave off my loss of faith. The last two years has been primarily a second stage of deconversion from Christianity, not just from Catholicism (they aren't *quite* the same thing). I don't feel that it is either or - that either Christianity is true, or God does not exist. I have read a great deal by ex-Christian Agnostics and Atheists, and so have the impression that for many who deconvert, that is the case. At this is stage in the process, I am more in the Deist category, with some pretty strong leanings tow...