Hello

[fuzzychaos]

Hi everyone, and greetings from Ohio. I have been a Christian since I was a teenager of 17 (now 53) and had spent most of my adulthood in Evangelical churches. Most of the time I felt at home with the Christian lifestyle in those churches, but over the last few years, starting prior to the last political administration but amplifying exponentially during the previous four years, I have grown disillusioned by the Church. I’m not trying to make this political, I am just trying to paint a picture of my pan. The last two years I have even considered myself an Atheist, or at least an agnostic. The truth is, I still believe in a loving God and especially the love espoused by Jesus. I just could not rationalize the conservative movement with my understanding of the historical Jesus. Now, I’m sorry if this is too political, I don’t want it to be, but that is what destroyed the Evangelical church for me. I am looking to have discussions (non-political of course) with like minded people and am hoping this is a forum is such a place. 

[romansh]

15 hours ago, fuzzychaos said:

The last two years I have even considered myself an Atheist ...

Welcome fuzzy ... and I must admit I like the concepts of fuzziness and chaos.
I transitioned to atheism/agnosticism in my mid twenties and haven't looked back. Having said that I never was a strong believer. For awhile I looked at God as a loving God, but there was too much evidence against that.

Anyway, glad to share a path with you for a while.

I live in Canada and find the politics in the USA completely bewildering, makes our nonsense seem sane

rom

Edited May 11, 2021 by romansh

[fuzzychaos]

Thanks, romansh. Maybe it’s my upbringing, but I just can’t shake the belief that there is something out there. 

[romansh]

1 hour ago, fuzzychaos said:

but I just can’t shake the belief ...

 Yes belief is like that. Until it fades.

Welcome again.

[John Hunt]

On 5/11/2021 at 3:56 AM, fuzzychaos said:

an Atheist, or at least an agnostic. The truth is, I still believe in a loving God and especially the love espoused by Jesus. I just could not rationalize the conservative movement with my understanding of the historical Jesus

Hi Fuzzy

Sums me up exactly!

[Kellerman]

Welcome. 

There's no need to equate Christianity with conservative evangelical values. That's just one group with one set of opinions and political beliefs. 

As much as they want to, they don't get to dictate what Christianity is, not for me and not for you if you don't want them to. 

Don't let them define it for you if you don't want them to. There are many, many forms of Christianity around the world, if you *want* to keep your faith, you can absolutely do so in line with your values if that's what you want to do. 

I was a staunch atheist for years. When I started finding faith last year, it took me a long time to find a church that was compatible with my values, which are pretty much in direct opposition to the values of the American evangelical churches. 

Edited May 17, 2021 by Kellerman
Basic grammar mistakes

[PaulS]

Welcome Fuzzychaos,

Personally, I think Church often gets in the way of otherwise perfectly healthy and rewarding beliefs for people.  I'm ex-evangelical myself, you could probably say I threw out the baby with the bathwater and assumed an agnostic atheistic position as a young adult, but which I now find leaves a little room for me to wonder if maybe there is something 'more' to our existence, but at the same time fairly reconciled that I don't expect there is.  Either way - I try to live my best life and am happy with that.

I hope you enjoy reading and participating here.  Some times we differ with our politics here, but like big kids should do, mostly we let others have their opinion without insulting them or shouting them down.  Like Rom, I'm a foreigner way over here in Australia and am flabbergasted how US politics has and is playing out.   I wish your country all the best in its recovery.

Cheers

Paul

[Kellerman]

12 hours ago, PaulS said:

Welcome Fuzzychaos,

Personally, I think Church often gets in the way of otherwise perfectly healthy and rewarding beliefs for people.  I'm ex-evangelical myself, you could probably say I threw out the baby with the bathwater and assumed an agnostic atheistic position as a young adult, but which I now find leaves a little room for me to wonder if maybe there is something 'more' to our existence, but at the same time fairly reconciled that I don't expect there is.  Either way - I try to live my best life and am happy with that.

I hope you enjoy reading and participating here.  Some times we differ with our politics here, but like big kids should do, mostly we let others have their opinion without insulting them or shouting them down.  Like Rom, I'm a foreigner way over here in Australia and am flabbergasted how US politics has and is playing out.   I wish your country all the best in its recovery.

Cheers

Paul

This was my exact same experience. I had a horrible experience with exposure to an evangelical church as a kid. I'm in Canada, so it was very different from the US in terms of the specific values they were promoting.

Still, they were quite dogmatic, and I didn't like the concepts of God that they were teaching. I constantly felt church members were being told how to think as opposed to being encouraged to think for themselves. 

It took me decades to not cringe at the word "Jesus" after that.