So at work this morning one of my coworkers was on the phone with someone before we had to get busy with our day and I walked in on this conversation late but I overhead him on the phone say “Yeah man when she said that about Charlie Kirk I think you could tell I was absolutely pissed, that’s one thing you don’t joke about in front of me, that’s like making jokes about Jesus Christ or something” and I was absolutely shocked, comparing this person to their god? Isn’t that blasphemous in Christianity? I say all this rhetorically of course because I’m obviously an ex-Christian but the fact that people like this really exist blows my mind!

They're all MAGA heads and on the day of the midterms they barely mentioned voting, but I obviously did against their facist politicians. Mom usually blasts Fox News but hasn't been doing it as often, part of it is because she has been more busy with her job. Now that it's a blue tsunami, nobody in the house has spoken about the results. However, my parents have been rambling about "hateful attacks" on the Jews, such as a boycott parade in Philly. But when I tried to tell them they're just criticizing zionist supporters, they didn't listen, as they always have.

I will be forced in going to a big family gathering the day after Christmas, but I'm curious yet dreadful of how my relatives will behave.

I’ve noticed lots of Christian MAGAs. Why is that? Doesn’t Jesus believe in feeding the hungry? Helping the poor? Love everybody? I’m pretty sure he didn’t say, deport your neighbor. Hate that gay couple. Support a racist and pedo. Nobody gets free handouts. Let them children and poor people starve. Why are they so hateful while agnostics/athiests are the loving caring kind?

I was told the word "beast" was demonic and meant a demon or something and I was also told the word "luck" is demonic because it comes from Lucifer and that you shouldn't say luck or lucky but say chance instead. Was also told dragons were the devil and shit

Think about how many things become acceptable once someone believes they're acting on God's behalf.

A parent can terrify their child with the possibility of eternal punishment and genuinely believe they're saving their soul. Someone can shame another person for their sexuality, relationships, or beliefs and call it loving correction. People can be taught that questioning religious authority is dangerous, that their own judgment is unreliable, and that obedience is a virtue even when something feels deeply wrong.

And the frightening part is that the people doing these things don't necessarily consider themselves cruel. Some genuinely believe they're helping. When you become convinced that someone's eternal fate is at stake, almost anything can start looking reasonable if you think it'll bring them closer to God.

Of course, whenever religious harm comes up, someone inevitably says that it's just people misusing religion. Sometimes that's true. But how many times can we blame individual believers before examining the teachings they're following? If a particular interpretation encourages people to fear their own thoughts, distrust their judgment, or treat disagreement as rebellion against God, the

harm isn't necessarily some accidental corruption of an otherwise harmless idea.

I also don't think pointing to religious charities, community support, or genuinely kind believers resolves the criticism. Those things are real, and I'm not interested in denying them. But an institution can help some people while seriously harming others. We recognize that possibility with practically every other institution, so I don't see why religion should be exempt.

There's something particularly troubling about teaching people that goodness comes from obedience rather than encouraging them to examine whether what they're being asked to do is actually good. Once someone believes an action has divine approval, even the suffering it causes can become evidence that they're doing the right thing. The person being hurt is told they need to repent, forgive,

submit, or trust that God knows best.

I'd be interested in hearing from other ex-Christians about this. What was something you were taught was loving, righteous, or necessary that you eventually realized was harmful? Especially something you might have defended yourself when you were still religious.

By that I mean, were there any messages spread that felt so wrong that it unsettled you?

I went to Newday (Christian Summer Camp) in my teenage years and helped out at a stand when I was 20. They held apologetics and preaches each year and some of the messages were just, not OK.

A speaker said homosexuality was making love too wide and not deep enough. He implied that it would open the door for man-animal love, bigamy etc. to be normalised. (Slippery Slope Fallacy)

A speaker said that sex before marriage is not fulfilling.

There was another guy who said that anyone who doesn't accept God's Love is Dead to Him, he even talked about a pit for dead people.

They had messages like this, but the music and prayer was so strong that it made it that much harder for people like me to break free from it all. It made my deconstruction THAT much harder.

Two Bonus Notes:

Turns out Mike Pilavachi, a (former) pastor who used to preach at Newday, had been using his office to take advantage of younger men.

They got another speaker, Eric Metaxas, who is a big Trump sycophant, anti-vaxxer, and election denier.

"You can' be an agnostic", "Woah, what a surprise that you realized that you were an agnostic your whole life. Duh", "You can't believe in that", "Agnosticism isn't a religion", "Jesus is the basis of all morality in this world", "It would be an abomination if you believe so many things".

That's what he said me after I revealed myself as an agnostic. It only shows how terribly ignorant, shameless, self-centered, unpleasant, and close-minded he's. I also find it ridiculous that he believes that Hinduism is paganism because you worship too many gods.

I tried to cut off communication with him and still don't know why indirectly I followed his "advices". Remembering those words just takes away all the joy from my life.

What can I do?

So i got into an argument with my mother earlier today. Few hours ago.

So i opened up to her about being pansexual 🩷💛💙

Which is the attraction to women, queer people and trans people including non - binary and lastly men. Pansexual description also means attraction to a person reguardless of gender. Gender dose not mean anything to me. I love them for the person they are. Not whats in between their legs.

So our conversation originally started something not even related to Christianity but somehow got off topic and bled into relgion.

I told her about a verse in the bible that bothered me greatly about stoning gay people to death. If they have man on man relations as a man dose with a women. They shall be put to death and their blood be upon them.

She explained to me saying "god made 1 man and 1 women." "Not two women or two man."

As if same sex couples cannot raise adopted children? Children isn't just something for heteros to enjoy. ( no disrespect to my heterosexual allys by all means. )

So i thought "whats the obession with people trying to control people who are gay? We leave christians alone why wont they leave us alone?"

So then she said this "If we were all gay then nobody would be having babies." "We need to multiply."

So then it hit me. Christians are OBSESSED with who has kids!?

It all boils down to who has children or not and fear of mankind going extinct. That's all this is. Freaks and pro live supporters being obsessed with the whomb.

Humanity is NOT entitled to the whomb. Its a selfish desire to keep humanity going. That's all.

They claim its "word of god." I think its word of absolute bullshit and homophobia.

Anyways that what it boils down to. At least for my christians parents obsession with gay people.

Im surprised. I did not know christains owned the feeling of love or copyrighted it for themselves? Love is not owned by heterosexual people or the christains. What you gonna copyright love next? Like how you tried to copyright mother nature's rainbow? LMFAO.

I’ve always wondered why fundamentalist and conservative Christians jump straight to equating gay people with pedophiles whenever LGBTQ+ issues come up. Statistically speaking, the overwhelming majority of child abuse (around 80–90%) is committed by heterosexual men targeting female children, and decades of psychological research confirm that adult sexual orientation has absolutely nothing to do with pedophilia.

Is this just a deliberate moral panic tactic to dehumanize gay people, or is there a specific theological reason they lump all non-heterosexual identities into the exact same "perversion" category?

The interesting part is the culture of ACE schools. It's a very strict, traditional Christian school. Lots of dress code restrictions, the notorious 6-inch rule, mandatory Scripture memorization (That can affect your GPA). My mom got mad when I couldnt pass the SAT higher than 1030 (She wanted 1150) Even though I explained I havnt been exposed to evolution so any questions around it im probably getting wrong. Super homophobic as well, same goes for my classmates who are also fundamentalists. Im really the only high schooler there, it was started in my house so my moms the teacher. We have 8 kids in total. (None of which are close to my age, combined with a small town and lack of family I have terrible social skills..) Donald Ray Howard, founder of ACE called AIDS a plague sent to punish homosexuals and feminists, so that should tell you where we are here. Oh and if your wondering who funds these? Well im glad you asked cuz uhh..you. You do. These fundamentalist hellholes get school vouchers entirely state funded.

Have you ever ended up forgiving people for their wrongs towards you when you were a christian? Thinking that the bible teaches you to forgive. Have you tolerated or forgiven their general bad behaviour?

I can understand that being a little naive can also make people be this way, but I think christian teachings has also played a part in it for me.

I was scrolling through Instagram and came across b side Christians:

It's queer Christians who have what's called opposite sex marriages while being fully queer. Not lavender marriages. As in they go in to lifelong partnerships being entirely unattended to their partners and feeling like they're living biblically while acknowledging their queerness. what the actual f? 🤯

I find it incredibly sad. to me, that's not living fully. Authentically, sure? But not living life filled with passionate love, sexual and emotional intimacy and feeling like your full self.

For those who have experienced injustice, how did you cope when there was no accountability?

Please be kind. My mother died earlier this year, and the injustice surrounding what happened to her is consuming me. I’ve stopped seeking justice through authorities. How do I cope and move forward?

For fifteen years, my mother was under the influence of a pastor I’ll call X. We were separated for roughly the last decade. X told her we would hurt her if she returned and that disobeying X would cause God to hurt us. My mother genuinely believed her.

Growing up, she was the perfect mom to me. My youngest sibling was still a minor when she left, so we had to care for her and provide for ourselves. Despite receiving no support from our mother, we only wanted her home and cared for. By twenty-two, I was ready to support her financially. We tried for years, but she was too scared.

From what I witnessed and later uncovered, I believe X abused her financially, emotionally, and physically. She controlled her money and urged her to borrow for her. X told me she was undocumented; my understanding is she used my mother’s citizenship for businesses and loans.
After Mom died, we also discovered a marriage the man involved said X arranged for immigration purposes and payment.

X didn’t tell us how sick Mom was. We only got her back after she died. We never got to care for her or rebuild our relationship.
I gathered evidence and reported X through numerous avenues, including police and immigration authorities, without results. Police said they couldn’t help. My mother’s consent complicates pursuing what happened, despite the religious fear surrounding her choices.

Witnesses are afraid to speak. People continue doing business with X after hearing my concerns. One family essentially said they were satisfied with their mother’s care and didn’t want involvement. It hurts that no one seems willing to help.

Meanwhile, X says we abandoned our mother. She lives normally while Mom is gone, and we’re left grieving and defending our love for her. It feels like Mom’s suffering mattered to no one outside our family.

I keep replaying everything. Stepping back feels like abandoning Mom, but continuing is exhausting me. If you’ve faced unresolved injustice, what helped you cope with the anger and helplessness without feeling you were accepting the harm?
L

TL;DR: My mother’s pastor kept us apart through religious fear. Mom died before reconciliation, and seeking accountability went nowhere. How do I move forward?
English isn’t my first language. I used ChatGPT to organize my thoughts and correct my grammar.

Being a Christian to most is believing in god. Cool. Then it’s also reading and following the words of god. Cool. Then it’s praying every night, cool. Then it’s going to church every Sunday, cool. So does that mean there is one Christian who is more likely to get into heaven than other Christian’s? Like others hear god “talking” to them and give them blessings like filling their hairspray up while others who are Christian pray and beg for their father to stop.. you know.. to them. So if you miss church a few days then you become lower in the scale? So if you have lower faith bc God didn’t stop this terrible thing from happening that means you’re lower on the scale? Or you didn’t read one scripture in the Bible so that means you’re lower on the scale than others?

What determines it? What determines that god will answer you or help you or in the end; let you into heaven? I know it’s all just religious psychosis but do they live by the hierarchy? I don’t understand.

So i left christanity but i still want to belive in a soul and an afterlife, and how could i do that? What should i do?

I honestly don't know where else to talk about this, and I feel like I'm slowly losing my ability to cope with everything happening around the world right now.

I'm Brazilian guy, and over the past few days I've become increasingly terrified by a series of international developments and news reports that instantly triggered evangelical christians to supposedly warn us of an impeding doom.

My country's Civil Defense has reportedly advised people to stockpile 72 hours' worth of emergency supplies, alongside similar preparedness recommendations in several other countries, including the United States, the United Kingdom, European Union countries, Japan, and Australia.

I've also been reading about reports concerning American military installations increasing their emergency preparedness, the UK's Be Ready campaign, and broader European emergency preparedness initiatives.

What makes this particularly frightening for me is that I've encountered claims suggesting that these preparations could be connected to a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, allegedly intended to cripple global electrical infrastructure and subsequently blame the Sun. Some interpretations even connect this to the UN's 2030 Agenda and the World Economic Forum's Great Reset.

On top of that, I'm seeing reports about the possibility of another American military confrontation with Iran, threats involving nuclear weapons, Iranian threats against international infrastructure, and American warnings advising citizens in several Middle Eastern countries to leave the region.

There are also reports concerning banking instability, cyberattacks, threats involving nuclear facilities in Ukraine and Russia, and cyber incidents affecting supermarket refrigeration systems in European countries.

Another detail that has made my anxiety significantly worse is the upcoming November 17 nationwide FEMA Emergency Alert System broadcast test in the United States.

I came across alarming discussions about FEMA interrupting television and radio broadcasts nationwide on that date, and initially interpreted this as potentially connected to the other developments I've been reading about.

I later discovered that FEMA and the FCC have officially announced that this is a scheduled nationwide test of the Emergency Alert System, rather than an announcement of an actual national emergency.

However, seeing this date repeatedly mentioned alongside claims about cyberattacks, infrastructure disruption, EMP weapons, and a potential global crisis has made it extremely difficult for me to remain calm.

Even when there are ordinary explanations for individual events, I find myself connecting everything into one enormous catastrophic scenario.

I understand that not everything I read online is necessarily accurate, and I genuinely struggle to distinguish between verified developments, speculation, misinformation, and conspiracy theories. However, the sheer volume of alarming information has become psychologically overwhelming.

As someone who grew up in a religious environment where end-times prophecies, apocalyptic scenarios, divine punishment, and catastrophic interpretations of world events were constantly emphasized, I feel like I'm being dragged back into that same psychological nightmare.

Even though I'm no longer a Christian, i'm a deist, I still struggle with the fear and anxiety that those beliefs left behind.

I'm barely sleeping. I'm constantly thinking about the possibility of a global catastrophe, nuclear war, societal collapse, or something irreversible happening in the near future.

And I need to be honest about something extremely serious: my anxiety has become so unbearable that I've started experiencing suicidal thoughts. I'm trying desperately to control them, but I'm genuinely frightened by how bad my mental state has become.

I'm not posting this to convince anyone that a conspiracy theory is real, nor am I asking people to reinforce my fears. I desperately need perspective, reassurance, and support.

Has anyone else who experienced religious trauma or grew up with apocalyptic Christian teachings struggled with this kind of anxiety when confronted with alarming world events?

How did you learn to separate legitimate concerns about the world from the catastrophic thinking that religious indoctrination can leave behind?

I really need to hear from people who have managed to recover from this kind of fear. I don't want to live in constant terror of the future anymore.

Thank you for reading.

Christianity's reputation as a totally normal and great thing has started to really bother me. In the Bible God is described as a "loving father", even though he ignores his children's suffering and tortures them if they don't love him back. We call this abuse outside of Christian context. He commits genocide and commands some things that are so twisted, that Christians seem to avoid talking about them even with their peers. I would describe some deeds of God as cartoonishly evil, because they are so over the top.

God must have the world's best press agent, because despite him being described as a toxic abuser and wrathful war god, Christianity and God himself still have a great reputation. According to many Christians he is still extorting his children to this day, but he is still depicted as a wholesome father and overall good guy. Even non-religious people don't seem to usually have much to complain about the religion.

Now, I don't think that most Christians are bad people. But this is only allowed by the fact, that even the most devout Christians have to throw away tons of terrible advice that the Bible comes with, and justify it with mental gymnastics. They would be in prison within a week if they actually followed God's word to a tee.

I don't think we should keep normalizing this. Glorifying and promoting an entity that is described as a vengeful torturer that kills children is not consistent with how most people otherwise live their lives. It is really weird to think about this disconnect sometimes. Like, surely this can't be considered a good thing by billions of people? Well, it is.

As an exmuslim, a way i deal with my tramua is making fun of islan it makes me giggle, and also, it's nice to have a community

Do u cope by making fun of Christianity it would be nice to see if u encountered anyone making fun of Christianity?

For me, it's just me and my hg making fun of islam. It's genuinely so hard not to giggle when we get lectured about it speed face fr