Leaving Evangelicalism the Short Backstory (LE Part 2)

It's funny that I have a post relaying my decision to leave evangelical Christianity when I have no back story to explain how I got to this point. This decision is not one that came suddenly or lightly. It is one that has been frought with a couple years of reflection, introspection and critical thinking.

To give some back story I have been a follower of Christ for 18 years. I did not grow up going to church regularly (only at Christmas, Easter etc. and even then not every year). I grew up being taught there is a God and that Jesus was his son. My mom made me memorize the nicene creed and prayed with me before bed when she wasn't working. So to say that I didn't have a predisposition to Christianity would be silly.

But it wasn't until I turned 18 and made a decision to become a follower of Christ that my journey became religious in nature. At first, my reasons for following the traditional method of becoming a follower, ie confess, ask forgiveness and repent and then ask for the holy spirit to enter me, was simply that a book told me that is how I had to do it. So I did and to be honest it was probably the most freeing experience I had ever experienced in my life up until that point and really for the next 18 years.

I decided that I should read the bible because if their was going to be a place I could find out how to live my life the bible should have something to say about it. And man did it ever. It told me how to forgive people, how to love, how to deal with angry, hateful people, etc etc. I read that book every day and night. I would read it for hours, memorizing certain passages on morality and ethics.

I started to turn my life around (read other blog posts to find out history). I went back to school. Stopped doing drugs. Stopped sleeping around. I got serious about life or maybe a better way of saying it is that I got serious about loving people.

And then one day in highschool something occurred that would change my life forever. It would set me on a course of discovery that has eventually led me to where I am now. Leaving Evangelicalism.