letsdeconstructreligion

[letsdeconstructreligion]

Listen, i dont mean to sound like a reddit atheist, but... You ever think about how evangelical Chriatians very literally believe that there will be a genocide in which billions of humans, mostly just innocent everyday people, are condemned to suffer in hell?

And, like, that's the end. That's the finale. Of everything they believe. That's their solution for the world. A final one, if you will.

And they don't rebel. They don't say "hey, wait, that's a bit much" and appeal to their God to maybe reconsider. They don't even seem to really mind.

Instead, they worship. They conjure up an image of a genocidal maniac, and they worship it. The word "praise" is bandied about a lot. Praise. For a leader whose endgoal, very transparently, is genocide.

Suddenly a lot of history makes a little more sense.

[letsdeconstructreligion]

if God wrote the Bible through humans, but by His law humans are inherently flawed and sinful….wouldnt that make the Bible also flawed???

[letsdeconstructreligion]

why is religious Christmas imagery all so joyful and pleasant? where is the inherent horror of the birth of Christ? A mother is handed her newborn child, wailing and innocent. Her hands come away sticky. Red. Simply by giving her son life she has already killed him. He is doomed from the beginning. Her love will not save him from suffering. Because the thing cradled in her arms is not a baby, it is a sacrifice: born amongst the other bleating animals whose blood will one day be spilled in the name of what demands it. the night is silent with anticipation. Mary, did you know? That your womb was also a grave?

[letsdeconstructreligion]

Y'all will see people get indoctrinated by cults from birth and be like "why did you, as a child, willingly drop your psychic defenses?"

[letsdeconstructreligion]

In a spasm of destruction never seen before – and one that appalled many non-Christians watching it – during the fourth and fifth centuries, the Christian Church demolished, vandalized and melted down a simply staggering quantity of art. Classical statues were knocked from their plinths, defaced, defiled and torn limb from limb. Temples were razed to their foundations and burned to the ground. A temple widely considered to be the most magnificent in the entire empire was levelled. Many of the Parthenon sculptures were attacked, faces were mutilated, hands and limbs were hacked off and gods were decapitated. Some of the finest statues on the whole building were almost certainly smashed off then ground into rubble that was then used to build churches.

[…]

The violent assaults of this period were not the preserve of cranks and eccentrics. Attacks against the monuments of the ‘mad’, ‘damnable’ and ‘insane’ pagans were encouraged and led by men at the very heart of the Catholic Church. The great St Augustine himself declared to a congregation in Carthage that ‘that all superstition of pagans and heathens should be annihilated is what God wants, God commands, God proclaims!’

St Martin, still one of the most popular French saints, rampaged across the Gaulish countryside levelling temples and dismaying locals as he went. In Egypt, St Theophilus razed one of the most beautiful buildings in the ancient world. In Italy, St Benedict overturned a shrine to Apollo. In Syria, ruthless bands of monks terrorized the countryside, smashing down statues and tearing the roofs from temples.

[…]

Fervent Christians went into people’s houses and searched for books, statues and paintings that were considered demonic. This kind of obsessive attention was not cruelty. On the contrary: to restrain, to attack, to compel, even to beat a sinner was – if you turned them back to the path of righteousness – to save them. As Augustine, the master of the pious paradox put it: ‘Oh, merciful savagery.’

– Catherine Nixey, The Darkening Age

[letsdeconstructreligion]

[letsdeconstructreligion]

I said this a couple years ago (one year ago?) and most of the comments on tumblr actually did not know this, so to reiterate what you’re up against: a VERY mainstream belief among American Christian fundamentalists is that they are the only ones who experience love. They raise their kids to think that everyone “living in sin” (all other faiths, atheists, and LGBT people) goes through life sad and empty, falsely believing they know what love feels like, and will never know until they’re “saved.” It’s not as simple as them diminishing the humanity of others out of hate, but being deeply brainwashed to believe others are automatically mentally less human. They are also very good at convincing new converts that they really are experiencing this “real” love for the “first time;” the same way members of all cults can become wholeheartedly convinced that they’re receiving psychic alien messages or communing with spirits. Cult conditioning is simply that powerful.

[letsdeconstructreligion]

fun things to discover as an apostate, in no particular order:

pop music. yes, that includes artists like taylor swift and sam smith, and even songs like imagine (!!)

costumes. cute ones, scary ones, pop culture ones, historical ones, skimpy ones, modest ones. all of them.

clothing. you get to dress how you want to, irrespective of who might "stumble" or whether you fit binary gender stereotypes.

the human body. the skeletal system, the reproductive system, all of it.

october. enjoy the pumpkins. go out in public, go out shopping, and do it all without the fear of halloween.

colors. red is more than hell. orange and black are more than halloween. (rainbows are more than lgbtq+ or noah.)

boundaries. you don't have to tell every stranger your life story. you don't have to prepare to tell the truth (profess jesus) at gunpoint.

yoga. that's right, you can stretch and meditate and do all these things, and it won't get you possessed or sent to hell.

(i say "fun" because there are plenty of not-fun things.)

((if you see this and have other recs for fun things to discover as an apostate, pls share!))

[letsdeconstructreligion]

Coming back to this a year later, something else struck me.

This man, who (last I checked) professes to be gay but celibate, is suffering under these ideas as well. I don’t know how he feels or what he’s thinking or going through, but I can’t imagine this rhetoric feels good. I can’t imagine he feels accepted and loved under these ideals.

These ideas are harmful as hell, and they also hurt him and other LGBTQ+ individuals professing them. The church uses them as mouthpieces and I hope they’re doing okay.

"Is God Anti-Gay?" and other rhetoric that makes me want to vomit

I found the small book "Is God anti-gay?" by Sam Allberry in an old box of stuff earlier today and decided to read it again. I previously agreed with everything he said - but that has DRASTICALLY changed. Please enjoy (or don't enjoy) the following problematic quotes I've found.

"[Taking up your cross] is saying "no" to the deepest sense of who you are, for the sake of Christ."

"Is God anti-gay? No. But he is against who all of us are by nature, as those living apart from and for ourselves."

"Sexuality is a little like a post-it note...we are simply not designed for multiple sexual relationships. Sex becomes less relational, more functional, and less satisfying as a result."

"[Homosexual couples] cannot become one in the way that God is one and in the way that a man and a woman are one. They can have a union of sorts, but it is not of the kind that is uniquely possible with a heterosexual marriage."

"The exchanging of natural relations for unnatural ones leads to being given over to a 'depraved mind' and the flourishing of 'every kind of wickedness.'"

NOT A QUOTE but he compares homosexuality to suffering. Cool.

I was gonna finish the book (and therefore this post) but I threw it away. Good riddance.

#ex christian #religious deconstruction #Sam allberry

[letsdeconstructreligion]

You’re right and I’m sorry!! Thanks for your kind response ☺️ I completely agree - there many people and strains of Christianity that don’t see evangelism as their primary goal.

Thanks for mentioning it and, in the future, I’ll make sure to highlight who I’m talking about specifically and stop generalizing.

I abide by the idea that you can do whatever you want as long as you’re not hurting yourself or others.

I think about Christians (and similar strains, like LDS) and their frequent inability to understand where the lines are drawn on that concept.

Don’t hurt others - “oh, no, but I’m helping them! They need Jesus! They’re hurting, they just don’t know it.”

Don’t hurt others - “They’re wrong, I’m not hurting them, I’m just being honest.”

Don’t hurt yourself - “I’m a sinner and trash, but God loves me anyway.”

Don’t hurt yourself - “Being gay is a sin so I’ll just exist in celibacy* and self-hatred.”

The inability to see the subjective reality of everyone else is astounding - and not really surprising. In their eyes, they’re not actually hurting people - they’re bringing them into truth and light.

They use honesty as a weapon against people and do it gladly because they believe they hold ultimate truth.

Beliefs are separate and individual. You ARE hurting people when you put them in conversion therapy or enforce purity culture or reject trans people from your communities or shame homeless people or hate atheists or close the doors of your church to those in need.

You ARE hurting them. It’s not honest - it’s cruel.

*celibacy (abstaining from sex voluntarily) is a totally valid life decision - but only when it’s YOUR free choice, not something a religious community or ancient book shamed you into doing.

[letsdeconstructreligion]

Dunno who needs to hear it, but it's possible to have religious trauma from religions that aren't Christianity.

#religion #religious trauma #religious abuse

[letsdeconstructreligion]

Many Christians often assume the worst of people before having empathy or curiosity.

The assumption is that if someone's not Christian, they're "living in sin," or doing something problematic or illegal. There's little room for questions and curiosity - they just assume the other person is in the wrong.

What's dumb about this is the fact that Christians demonize normal behavior. They take normal things, like a couple living together before marriage, and attach judgment to it. Their sense of morality and "correct" living often place normal activities under the realm of sin.

This is harmful. This not only cements the "them vs. us" mentality, but it limits empathy. Without asking questions and being curious, how can we learn about others? How can we develop a sense of love and respect for each other?

Additionally, the "correct" way of living differs from person to person and denomination to denomination. There's little common ground. Judgment flows if someone doesn't live according to your personal standard and you make that everyone's problem - and very few people align with you on everything in the first place.

Stop imposing your personal standard of living on others. It's harmful and ignorant.

#christianity #exchristian #ex-christian #religious trauma

[letsdeconstructreligion]

A little introduction

Hello! My name is Jay. Welcome to my page!

A little about me:

She/her

25

Queer

Atheist

Former missionary and evangelical Christian

Safe space for all!

Please refrain from proselytizing on my page. You will be promptly removed.

Updated March 2023

[letsdeconstructreligion]

They told us to find joy in other people’s “hatred”towards us because it made us more like Jesus.

No wonder so many Christians don’t listen to criticism. It makes them feel even holier for “defending the faith and walking in the light.”

The damn manipulation of it all.

[letsdeconstructreligion]

christians stop fetishizing forgiveness challenge!! if someone tells me i have to forgive abusers and forgive traumatizing things they did to me i’ll bite someone. if i have to see another headline or talk show thats like “this person did something horrible unforgivable but here’s how this person found it in their heart to forgive them!! uwu” one more time i’ll chomp down real hard

[letsdeconstructreligion]

[letsdeconstructreligion]

I recently started a job in the recruitment department of a large company. I kept getting uncomfy in meetings and I wasn’t sure why because everything’s going well so far.

And then it hit me: evangelism is essentially religious recruiting and the language and messaging in my new job is really similar.

Thankfully, this is normal recruiting, while evangelism isn’t so great. I’m working on rewriting that part of my brain.

#evangelism is recruiting #recruiting #ex christian #exvangelical #religious deconstruction #exchristian