The "I used to be an atheist" line gives them a certain amount of street cred and makes an appeal to authority and popularity, attempting to confirm beliefs and rationalizations.
I had a conversation with my girlfriend yesterday and she told me that doubting her faith is a sin. I'm waiting until she's honest enough with herself to either confirm her belief or reject it based on reason, not fear of hell. I can see that every time we have a discussion, she gets quite irate and doesn't want to talk on the subject any more, as it may put bad thoughts into her head. She's a great person, and it kind of saddens me that something that she claims to believe gives her so much strife - she actively believes she is a bad person, the church convinced her of this.
I had a conversation with my girlfriend yesterday and she told me that doubting her faith is a sin. I'm waiting until she's honest enough with herself to either confirm her belief or reject it based on reason, not fear of hell. I can see that every time we have a discussion, she gets quite irate and doesn't want to talk on the subject any more, as it may put bad thoughts into her head. She's a great person, and it kind of saddens me that something that she claims to believe gives her so much strife - she actively believes she is a bad person, the church convinced her of this.
