By MTC ~ F undamental religious upbringings are toxic and unhealthy. Even if the kids appear to be fed, clothed, and cared for, the indoctrination, sheltering, and other negative aspects which are prevalent in such households are abusive in their own way, period. Example: James and Stacy McDonald . James is a pastor, Stacy is an author (one of her books is titled " Raising a Maiden of Virtue ," or something along that line). I'll list a couple of their links below. Both of these kooks have the mindset that the father/husband is always right in the family (yeah, what could possibly go wrong there?), a woman can only be a homemaker and feminism has destroyed families, and other similar garbage. They're also homeschool parents. Conservative Christian and homeschool parents... need I say more? I'm not sure about sons, but I know daughters of James and Stacy McDonald (and other similar religious nuts) are practically forbidden to have unsupervised contact w...

By T.S. ~ D ear Mom and Dad,   It is quite difficult for me to discuss this with you, but I have decided to be honest with you in spite of the hurt and grief this letter will cause you. I wish I did not have to share this, I would willingly do anything to spare you pain, but if I am to continue having an open and honest relationship with you, it has to be said. I cannot pretend that I belong to the church any longer or that I share the same beliefs as those in the church. First of all, I would like to say that I love and respect you very much and I do not want you to blame yourselves for my decisions or beliefs. I am an adult and I make my own decisions and live with them. You are wonderful parents and I know you have meant the very best in raising us.  I do not blame you for anything.    The last few years have been very difficult for me in several ways. I have had lots of turmoil in my life, and the religious beliefs that I have lived with have at times made me qui...

From the book Broken Bridges: Building Community in a World Divided by Beliefs , by Chris Highland ~ A n amusing cartoon pictures a man standing at the entrance to heaven reading a sign that says, “Welcome to Heaven: Keep Your Religion to Yourself.” The angel next to him explains, “Ironically, that’s what makes it so peaceful here.” The cartoonist hit the nail of truth on the head and raised an interesting question: What would happen if people kept their beliefs to themselves? We all have a variety of beliefs about all kinds of things. Should we restrain ourselves from talking about anything we feel strongly about? I don’t think so. I think the point of the cartoon is simply that religious beliefs tend to stir the pot and can often hinder rather than create peaceful, harmonious relationships and conversations. Many would say they feel “called” or even commanded to share their faith. They would be disobeying God if they kept their beliefs to themselves. I used to think this way. I ...

By Michael Runyan ~  S uppose there is a dog owner who is exasperated that his dog never seems to behave well. Periodically he punishes the dog, but this doesn’t seem to promote better behavior. Subsequently, the dog becomes very sick and taking it to the vet reveals a serious heart problem. The vet recommends putting the dog down. But the dog owner has a different plan. He is concerned that this dog will die and ‘get away’ with being such a bad dog- that is, the punishment he has received so far is less than what he deserved. Therefore, he purchases a heart and lung machine and hooks the dog up to it. Suddenly, the dog regains his health. Now the owner goes to work, torturing the dog incessantly, poking it with knives, burning it with hot coals, punching in the face, etc. He tries to keep the dog alive for as long as he can to deliver the maximum amount of pain possible. The dog suffers and burns and chokes and howls and cries throughout his torture. Now, what is the analogy ...

By Carl S. ~ F or more than a dozen years, I've followed the testimonies and comments on this site. The most responses ensue whenever a troll comes in to caustically criticize or preach. It's weird, so much time, energy, and emotion wasted in arguing and fighting over beings that don't exist! On that note, here's a quote from children's author Robert Munsch:  “I'm not saying there isn't a God, but there isn't a God who cares about people. And who wants a God who doesn't give a shit?”  Why waste time on those who suck up to superstitions? It'd be interesting to find out how many believers don't believe in the “theory” of evolution, but believe wholeheartedly in conspiracy theories. For that, they can thank religion. I've spent most of my life as a humanist, not a believer. It's a really good feeling I've tried to share with others, and sometimes their attitude is “fuck off.” Really, many people don't know they're enc...

By Debbie ~ H ow many times have I started this testimonial? Countless. I'm not sure why, but, yeah, I do know. I tend to have a wordy mouth – on paper. I was so impressed with my whole experience with God, and the Christian faith, and what it meant to me that I wrote a book about it, was offered a contract with Tate Publishing , and then I learned the Truth. After that I put everything on hold. I couldn't earn money from a book about a faith I was no longer passionate about, right? But first, I am amazed how entangled I was in Christianity, the beliefs, the dogma, the rules, etc. I did not grow up in the faith. I was a teenager and was sent to a Baptist School in Savannah, Georgia. There, I befriended a minister's daughter and the rest is history. What I find amazing is how I analyzed my whole life, the whole world even, using the Bible as a guidebook. The most hurtful thing about Christianity is how it makes you admit and believe that you are the scum of the ea...

By Herb ~ I haven't written to this site in some time, but I decided to write now because of a problem that just cropped up. My father was a Seventh Day Adventist and my mother was from a Pentecostal type church known as The Church of First Born . Both churches taught a literal interpretation of the Bible. We were to follow whatever the Bible said no matter how ridiculous or senseless it was. To them, the Bible was just a bunch of rules to follow. Because of this approach to following the Bible and obsessive compulsive disorder , I developed a bad case of scrupulosity . I was always worried about what was right and what was wrong and whether or not I had done the right thing to be saved. When I was 26, there was a person at work who was an agnostic. Knowing him and conversations with him about religion and the list of books he recommended for me to read gave me the courage to give up religion. But I still have OCD, so now my religious obsessions have taken a differ...

By Mary B ~ I was baptized Catholic; being named after the Mother of God meant life was always going to be a series of falling shorts. Raised as an Evangelical with a side order of Fundamental Dispensationalism , I spent a good portion of my childhood worrying about being left behind if the Rapture happened or that my head would be chopped off by the Antichrist. We didn't attend church because they contained false prophets; we held small services as a family. Apart from a brief sojourn into atheism at the age of 16 – inspired by someone tall and handsome – I kept the faith until I was 30. Emmeno definition: *to remain in, continue; *to persevere in anything, a state of mind etc.; *to hold fast, to be true to, abide by, keep Those years were spent in agony. I never felt good enough or faithful enough or peaceful enough or any of those things I was told or read that Christians were or should be. I never quite reached the mark of a good Christian mother or wife. It was always ...

J oy Hopper, a well respected contributor here, submitted 24 articles under the pseudonym " Undercover Agnostic ." After making peace with her new atheist reality, she moved on from Ex-C and wrote a  memoir about her deconstruction of faith. The faith Joy inherited at the age of three worked for almost fifty years. She believed it, preached it, wrote songs about it, lived it. Jesus was the center of her universe, literally and metaphorically. Hence, one can only imagine the tsunami that followed when her ironclad theological foundation unexpectedly and involuntarily collapsed with a deafening thud. Joy's narrative chronicles her experiences of indoctrination from a young child to the present, as viewed through her rose-colored glasses. From early neglect to domestic violence, she shares how her distorted lens of faith turned every obstacle into an object lesson and every injustice into a refining tool. She exposes the toxicity of a religion that promises unspeakable...

By Michael Runyan ~ R eligions roll with the times and the tides. A good example of that is what has happened in the United States over the past 50 years. Back then, Jesus was ambivalent about abortion. Now he is solidly anti-abortion. Back then he cared deeply about poor people, but the modern Jesus opposes almost all forms of poverty assistance from food stamps to Social Security. He was also a great healer who ministered to the sick, but lately he is opposed to universal health care and Medicaid. Five decades ago, Jesus was a pacifist (turn the other cheek), but now he is a stand-your-ground man toting a semi-automatic rifle and 25-bullet clip – yes, he opposes all forms of gun control. He has also gone from not being concerned about gay people to now seeing them as sinful reprobates. He was primarily a socialist in biblical times, but today he is a staunch capitalist despising government interference. He wore long hair during his time on earth (or so the paintings of him imply)...

By Yak ~ I f I were a Christian I’d be afraid. Very afraid. Mainly because of their extraordinary claims about the Universe, and more importantly, their view of how it will end. Keep in mind that only a few of their beliefs about "the end" actually come from their book, the bible. The rest of the dramatics and theatrics, and especially their fear-mongering comes from people throughout time who have added their own imaginative twists to the florid prose they use to frighten people with. An example. They believe that this rather wide, old, busy and populated universe will come to a rather theatrical and catastrophic end. Their Jesus will show up completely pissed-off at everything and everyone, just like his genocidal father (Remember the maniac git with the kill-everything-that-lives-whether-they-deserve-it-or-not flood? Yup. That’s his pop. My friends say that apples certainly don’t fall far from the tree in that family…) –and he causes mayhem: thunderous trumpets to ...