21 Brutally Honest Confessions From An American Evangelical Pastor Who Left The Church
Recently, a former American evangelical pastor took to the Reddit's r/AMA board to talk about everything from why he left the church to what he believes in now, and it's a perspective you don't often see.
He wrote, "I converted to Christianity at 21, became a minister in the late nineties, and left the faith in 2021.
Q Why did you leave the faith?
A: I didn't see Christianity making people better, and in many cases, I saw it making people worse. For years, other pastors and I promised that people would feel a greater sense of peace and, over time, become more like Jesus, but I just never saw it happening.
Some would point to examples of people they know who are wonderful Christians, but I'd argue that they're wonderful people who would be sterling examples of whatever faith (or non-faith) they believed in.
For Christianity to be true, it feels to me that the percentage of people becoming more caring, loving, and self-sacrificial needs to be higher than normal. It just doesn't seem to be.
Q: What was the process of leaving the church like?
A: I was asked to leave when I came out in support of LGBTQ inclusion.
Q: Why do you think many in the Christian community are so against the LGBTQ+ community?
A: Mostly, it's become a litmus test to judge someone's faith and sincerity. It's abhorrent that Christianity sees itself as a marginalized community that suffers persecution but can't empathize with legitimate marginalized and persecuted groups.
Q: Did patriarchy, complementarianism, or any of the sex-based rule hierarchy play any role in your decision to leave the church?
A: Sure. The colonialism inherent in the faith played a big role, too. A faith that turns a blind eye to chattel slavery and disempowers half a population based on gender just stopped making sense. And let's be honest: when a faith devalues one of two genders, it's not prepared to be thoughtful and kind to the idea of gender as a spectrum.
Q: What are your thoughts on the megachurch leaders such as Copeland, Osteen, etc? And have your views on them changed over the years?
A: No. I always thought they were opportunist garbage dudes.
Q: Did you ever take issue with the representation of Jesus being portrayed as white?
A: In a lot of Japanese art, Jesus is portrayed as Japanese. In African art, he's portrayed as more African than Near Eastern. So, on some level, portraying Jesus in a way that aligns with your culture is natural.
That said, the fact that white Jesus is often the default does point to the problems with colonialism, where we outsource and force our culture on others.
So no, but also yes.
Q: Churches today have deviated so far from Christ's simple but powerful message of love, compassion, charity, inclusivity, and to stay out of worldly affairs, i.e., politics. How do these people justify their blatant disregard for Jesus while preaching Jesus? I really need to understand.
A: A lot of American Christians spend more time being discipled by Fox News than Jesus of Nazareth.
Q: When you were still a believer, did you believe people needed religion to have a moral compass, or were you already conscious that it was not the case?
A: I felt that was nonsense forever, and I hated any time someone suggested that faith made people moral. If you need a god in order not to kill or steal, you're kind of telling me that you're a terrible person who needs to be coerced to do good.
Q: How do you find purpose without god or the Bible? I've left religion and struggle to find meaning in things like I used to.
A: I think I find more meaning, beauty, and wonder in disbelief than I did in belief.
Q: Presuming you felt the Holy Spirit over the years, how do you rationalize what that feeling was?
A: People from all religious backgrounds have moments of devotional euphoria. Hell, people at Taylor Swift concerts experience it.
https://www.buzzfeed.com/meganeliscomb/a...the-church
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
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