Just sent this to my religious family members, the ones who keep sending me Bible verses and shoving them in my face, when I have stated that I am agnostic. They keep using hell to threaten me. Let me show them this.

Background - I’m more of a “halfway Christian”. I grew up in the church but didn’t have the “sin and shame” version of Christianity pushed down my throat. I also am accepting of many religions as pathways to God. So, as an adult encountering these intense, judgmental, faith by works Christians is alarming and I’ve pushed back from the church and just practice my spirituality on my own.

So my friend (28f) is having a baby with her husband of 1 year (29m). She is a PAID leader in the church. The baby is completely unexpected. They are not mentally or emotionally prepared for a baby at all. My friend is COMPLETELY distraught and depressed and she’s at the five-month mark now. She talks about her negative feelings towards her future baby with vehemence. I told her early on it’s her choice but she thinks abortion is a sin and she’ll go to hell. She barely eats and has ONLY referred to the baby as “it” or “thing”. She detests the fact that she’s pregnant and will be a mother. I feel horrible for the baby as I firmly believe babies in the womb sensing their mother’s emotions, etc.

It’s opened my eyes to those Christian’s who don’t get abortions because it’s a sin but lack the maturity to handle the situation. I understand if she doesn’t want to get an abortion because it’s a sin, but that baby isn’t born and is already so disliked and will be raised in an environment where it’s unwanted which will just cause trauma. Christians will parade around that they’re morally better for being pro-life then act with such hatred towards the unborn baby, and maybe even after they’re born. I understand if she wasn’t necessarily happy to have a baby but the extreme negativity “I’m only having it because abortion is a sin” is disturbing for me. I would never say anything to her, but just don’t know if my internal reaction is wrong?

I'm 16 and honestly I feel so alone, I feel like I have the weirdest upbringing of any Christian. Not saying the worst but definitely the weirdest of all time. I was born to Pentacostals who also believe in faith healing and prosperity gospel. and they're for sure mentally ill. I'm about to say some of my experiences and some of them are really messed up so trigger warning for that. Some of my experiences are:

• Being told the minions is demonic and the characters are demons because the characters look weird
• Being told by my birth-giver that wet dreams are demonic attacks
• When I was about 10 or 11 I was watching an anime rap on my tablet where the creator had clips of the anime in the video and she came in the room. I knew by that point getting caught watching anime was probably worse than getting caught watching anything else, so I tried to switch. Sadly, I couldn't make it. She called it demonic and I got my shit taken for a while
• Being told I was "listening to the devil", "I rebuke you Satan" and I was listening to demons whenever I did things she didn't like
• I saw a TikTok video about a girl saying she started losing her Christian faith after being told by her community that she'd go to hell if she didn't forgive her rapist but her rapist would go to heaven if he repented. I asked my birth-giver if this was true, and she said it was true and that she hopes she can find it in her heart to forgive him.
• The summer before 6th grade back when I was IN my religious phase, my biological brother, who's even crazier than the birth-giver and is basically nothing more than a clone of her and even more mentally ill used to talk about how he saw demons coming into the house and I was interrogated about it. She said it was either me or my other brother who caused the demons to come in, as of course they are anointed by God and couldn't have caused it
• That same crazy biological brother I mentioned earlier also would "pray in tongues". screaming at night thinking he was possessed by a demon, kneeling on the floor and swiping his arm with anointing oil thinking it kept the demons at bay. I came across a whole 50 page or so document he had printed talking about his experiences. In it, he wrote about his experiences feeling snake-like demons in his body, talking about genetic patterns in the family like "doing well in school but taking long on work" (they also believe in generational curses) and how he used a digital Ouija board when he was younger but stopped
• I was also told the standard stuff, like you know jerking off is evil, gay people are evil, stuff like that

Does anybody else have weird experiences like this? I'd love to hear your stories.

I need a good laugh. I worked on my bachelor's degree at a christain college and graduated in 2024. I'll go first, i am stuck between two different stories.

1. I was in an apartment on campus with teammates. Men and women were invited for movie night. The rule they enforced was that men couldn't visit womens dorms/apartments outside of open hours and must do so with doors open. We broke that rule and when the RA knocked on our door, she demanded all boys out and get their names like they've committed a crime. The campus tried to fine $50 to each of us (about 15 people) for essentially watching a movie as a team bonding day with men. Luckily, the fine was eventually dropped.

   1. As freshmen, and only as a freshmen, we had a set curfew on the weekends to get back on campus in our rooms. If one of us failed to be in her room, a $20 fine was issued. I remember having to pay that fine when I forgot to sign myself back in before I went to bed. $20 is a lot when you are a full time college student so I was devastated. Oh yeah, the RAs had to open the door and confirm that we are in our rooms.

So im curious if anyone has any wild stories from your christain school.

The story is sad on so many levels:

A) Since god is all powerful, all seeing, all knowing chose to do nothing at all and just watch the abuse happen in his house of worship by those claiming to represent him.

B) Why does the church draw so many sexual predators? Is it because they're such easy targets?

C) Why does it take to long for them to get caught? See point A.

D) Ponder how the church and this is just one archdiocese can payout almost a billion dollars in cash to distribute while many of it's parishioners struggle from day to day?

I was raised as a devout adventist and left the church at 19

then I was a devout orthodox inquirer until recently at 26 though I still church hopped to see if I had the "true" religion

My beliefs after this experience is that human being cannot handle "true" religion

Throughout church history if you were not christian you did not have the rights of human dignity

The transatlantic slave trade for example could have only happened to a non christian population( at least on paper) initially.

another issue is that human are inherently subjective so if god is viewed as an objective absolute truth, he could only be seen in a subjective lense through different religious, and denominational expressions

which leads me to denominations, some christian denominations have more similarities with different religions than those who have the same label of christian

The final thing that bothered me was the absolute beliefs on a being that is incomprehensible and inconceivable in his capabilities, even with spirituality as a whole.

If a baptist says that there was a miracle from the holy spirit, but if a catholic claims that the Marian apparition of Fatima was real and a miracle as well what right does the baptist have to say that the situation was fraudulent and or demonic

I wanted to fit this in as well

Christians dont follow the bible,they follow a biblical interpretation of the bible given to them by the culture they were brought up in

I remember listening to Wes Huff on Joe Rogan and thought, "that's pretty cool that there's a Christian talking on the world's largest podcast." They eventually wandered to the topic of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Huff made the statement that scholars were shocked to discover that the Great Isaiah Scroll, dated around 100 BCE, was word for word identical to the one found in the Masoretic text (this is the Hebrew text of the Old Testament and by it, we typically mean one manuscript dated around 1000 CE: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leningrad_Codex ).

Famously, Rogan repeated somewhat incredulously, "Word for word?"

"Word for word." replied Huff confidently.

In other words, Huff claimed that we have two manuscripts of Isaiah dated about 1000 years that are word for word identical.

I had done some independent research into ancient texts as an interested person (though not as a scholar) and I immediately thought that this is wildly incorrect. When I was able to access a computer, I checked that Huff's statement is just straight up false. I wasn't too bothered by it at the time. However ...

In the subsequent weeks, Huff made a weak correction essentially saying that he was mostly right. And a whole bunch of apologists defended Huff by again saying that he was essentially correct and that the critics were too nit picky. This was so revealing! Rather than being intellectually honest and just plainly stating that Huff was wrong, Huff and a bunch of Christian apologists and scholars kept defending Huff's false statement. There is a huge difference between saying two texts are word for word identical versus saying they mostly agree.

Instead of "defending the faith," the apologists were defending each other and an obvious falsehood. They had a higher value than truth apparently.

This whole episode filled me with disgust and definitely sped my deconstruction away from Christianity.

The reason I left Christianity isn’t because I question why God lets bad things happen. It’s because the more I learned about the history of religion, the more I started questioning whether the Bible was actually the word of God.
I started noticing that many biblical stories have similarities to much older religious traditions. For example, the story of Noah’s Ark has striking similarities to an ancient Mesopotamian flood story found in the Epic of Gilgamesh. Both stories involve a devastating flood, a man who builds a boat to survive, and the preservation of living creatures. The Mesopotamian flood tradition existed long before the Bible reached its final form. Historians have studied these similarities and the possibility that the stories are historically connected, although we can’t say for certain exactly how one influenced the other.
There are also similarities between the biblical creation story and older Babylonian creation traditions. Ancient Israelite religion developed within a world of surrounding cultures and religious beliefs, and historians have found evidence of connections between them. Christianity later emerged from Judaism, and Islam developed centuries afterward, sharing many stories about figures like Adam, Noah, Abraham, and Moses, while sometimes presenting different versions of those stories.
It makes me wonder if religion is a little like a long game of telephone, where stories are passed down through generations and different communities interpret them in different ways.
I understand that religious people have explanations for these similarities. Some believe these stories come from a shared original revelation, while others see them as evidence of cultural influence and the way religious traditions develop over time. But how am I supposed to know which explanation is true? How can I be certain that a religious book is genuinely the word of God rather than a collection of traditions shaped by the people and cultures that preserved them?
I’m not saying I can prove that God doesn’t exist. I’m saying I haven’t found enough evidence to convince me that one particular religion has the ultimate truth about God.
I don’t want to dedicate my entire life to a religion simply because I was born into a family that believes in it. Just because my parents are Christian doesn’t automatically make Christianity true. I want to examine these beliefs for myself instead of accepting them simply because I was taught them as a child. I’d rather admit that i don’t know what’s true than my spend my whole life believing something just because i was born into it .

With no God, we're just orphans on a tiny space ball in an incomprehensibly vast universe. Nobody's coming to help us. Nobody cares about us. Except us.

And yet we orphans, abandoned in this home, managed to come up with all kinds of advanced healthcare, technology, stuff to make ourselves better. Almost like some sort of young-adult grim fiction book. Makes me rather sad and proud of ourselves.

We really need to take care of each other. There's no God, and it's just us.

I am 21f and have never been on a date. I became an atheist this year. I want to start dating by either getting on apps or attempting to find events or communities other than church where I can meet people and i have had no luck. I don’t want to date a Christian without being upfront about my beliefs I already have to pretend to be a Christian around my loved ones and I don’t want that in a relationship. Many men who are serious about their faith would consider the fact that I’m an atheist a dealbreaker.

I have tried dating apps but panic and delete the app every time someone asks to meet in person or even just move the talk off the app even if I enjoyed the conversation. This has happened two or three times now. I can’t get over the fear I was taught. I grew being told that dating someone that isn’t a Christian would ruin my life. That an atheist would only love me for my body cause they have no morals that I would be more likely to be raped or cheated on. My father told me all the terrible things his delinquent classmates in high school did to women and though I know it’s important to be safe those stories made me too scared to connect with men at all.

I was also taught that an atheist man wouldn’t have any reason to believe in marriage or commitment. As if the Christian religion was the only thing that could prevent men from acting on their worst urges and if they do anyway then they are not truly saved. I have ghosted Christian men too so maybe I’m just scared of men in general ( I’m not proud of it ghosting is terrible and I feel really guilty about it and don’t want to do it again). Im still freshly unbrainwashed so I want other perspectives do you atheist guys treat women well and if so why do you without God telling you too. 😉And if the women on here have any tips for someone like me who hasn’t ever learned how to date safely and with confidence give me your tips please 🙏🏻 .

first of all, congratulations on being able to live freely without religion. all three of these religions claim to worship the same god, the god of abraham yet throughout history, they've also fought wars and carried out conquests in his name. each believes its own version of the truth is the right one, which makes it interesting when u think about how they're all claiming to follow the same god while having such different beliefs about him. from their perspective, bloodshed can even be justified when it's supposedly done in his cause.. i'm glad that as time goes by more people seem to be questioning religion and thinking for themselves and i'd genuinely love to hear what caused u guys to leave ur faith..

tbh even as an atheist, i find religious theology really interesting, the fact that these three religions believe they're worshipping the same god, despite their major theological differences, is fascinating to me. in judaism, they worship the god of the hebrew bible, whose personal name is written as YHWH (יהוה) which i ls commonly reconstructed as yahweh.. jewish people generally use hashem i think rather than pronouncing that name directly...

in christianity, they also worship the god of the hebrew bible also understood as yahweh but most christians believe this one god exists as the trinity ofc, the father, the son (jesus) and the holy spirit.. while in islam they worship allah, which is simply the arabic word for god, muslims identify allah as the god of abraham, moses and jesus, while also rejecting the christian understanding of the trinity and considering jesus a prophet rather than god himself and also they gotta accept the last messenger who is muhammad.

it's genuinely interesting when u look into it, all three religions share abrahamic roots and some important figures yet they disagree on fundamental questions about god's nature, jesus's identity or what god supposedly wants from humanity and obviously as an atheist i don't believe any of these claims are necessarily true but studying how these beliefs developed and how each religion understands god is still fascinating

much love

Is anybody else struggling to let go of the fear of hell because of their OCD? My biggest issue is that you cannot prove it 100% wrong until it’s technically “ too late” . So while you can get educated on how the doctrine came to be and be 99% sure it’s not real the 1% is still there .

I am no longer a believer, but my wife is and so are my kids and my in laws. My wife knows about my unbelief and although not ecstatic about it, she is working through it and figuring it all with me. Two of my kids live with us and they are 18. They are believers and avid church goers. My mother in law, father in law and brother in law also live with us and have been for the last 2 years. It was only supposed to be 6 months, but that’s neither here nor there. They are all believers and avid church goers too.

My wife told me today that she thinks it would be a good idea to tell my in-laws about my deconversion because she feels like she is lying to them. She would also like a sounding board, which I understand because she really has nobody to talk to at the moment besides her therapist. I’m of the opinion that they don’t need to know anything about my personal life just because they live with us. If they had their own place, I don’t believe it would even be a thought that we tell them. Now, if they were to straight up ask me about my beliefs, I would be honest, but I don’t think I need to simply offer up anything just because they are there. Plus, if they were to know, I am certain I would become their project to get me back to God and I don’t want to feel uncomfortable in my own house. We also haven’t told my kids anything, but I would be honest with them if they were to ask as well.

So what are your thoughts? Should I offer up the information of my non-belief or should I keep it between the wife and I? On the one hand, I don’t want to cause my wife unneeded stress of keeping up the lie, but I also don’t feel like I owe it to them to tell then anything about my personal beliefs. I mean, just last week we decided to skip church and we already heard it from my father in law. He asked us why and we said we are just taking a break. He replied, “it’s a good thing God doesn’t take a break from you. Be careful.” I can only imagine what he would say if I told him about my lack of belief in God.

I keep getting these videos of couples doing photoshoots with strangers on my Instagram feed. In the beginning of every video, they always ask the two people what they are looking for in a relationship and in their partner. And basically what expectations do you have for them and deal breakers. The first thing almost every single one of them says is a partner who loves God or is Christ-centered. It’s immediately such a turn off for me and I scroll out of the video. I know this is just one example, but I see it all the time with people.

Another example is on dating apps. Not that I actually use any or have tons on any dates using one, but just for fun I made a couple dating apps profiles for myself. For religious views, I put “not religious.” I can’t tell you how many times when I’m swiping through matches they almost always have Christian in their bio or looking for someone who loves God. It makes me feel like there isn’t anyone else out there who doesn’t want God or Christ-centered to be such a priority in a relationship.

I apologise in advance for what I’m expecting to be a novel to read. I’ll try and keep it condensed down.

TLDR: I’m about 70% along in my deconstruction and conclusion that God (Christian God) is no more than any other religious deity I use to confidently look down upon as “absurd”. I’m feeling existential whiplash from the feeling that all my beliefs of love and compassion are no more than gene preserving impulses. Basically, I don’t feel special anymore (forgive my arrogance in how that sounds). I need some advice from others who have been here before.
——

The lovebombing got me. There is nothing more wonderful than feeling like you’re made with purpose. That every act of kindness and compassion is for the betterment of others and a loving God who cherishes you so uniquely that you’re a prince(or princess) in a heaven of amazement beyond human comprehension. I’ve believed this for about 25 years (all my living memory).
I wasn’t raised Christian (mostly, but Grandparents had influence which I latched onto, probably to my parent’s unhappiness), so without the parental encouragement, I pursued my faith with all the passion on my own. Found school Christian groups, attended church on my own etc. The loveboming from this community was bliss. That degree of personal investment probably makes the doubt more painful.

After some serious questioning of my beliefs this year, I’ve started to see absurdity in many (admittedly Old Testament) stories and making connections to other religious foundations and it spiralled from there. Science explanations behind things like dinosaur bones went from “interpretations from a part of the bible to” to full on evidence standing right in my face. Jesus went from love hippie for creation, to Jewish separator/cult creator.

With all of this comes the loss of self identity. I feel completely pointless. I don’t feel that special purpose in life anymore. I see every choice and life compromise I’ve made as being detrimental to my life. Life feels transactional for biological/gene/survival motivation. Like a slave to cells in my body. And the worst part is it feels more and more like reality. Is this reaction normal? Relatable? Explainable? What have others done to ground themselves?

With love, me

I’m currently going through a terrifying crisis. My existential anxiety has spiked to a point where I’m having severe suicidal thoughts because the sheer dread of a looming global cataclysm or mass genocide is becoming too heavy to carry. I just really need a safe space to dump this and get some grounding support from people who understand how deeply religious trauma cuts.

I recently stumbled upon a video by a popular Brazilian pastor that completely triggered me by combining every single end-times conspiracy theory into one terrifying narrative. The video claims that this November, representatives from over 20 countries are gathering on the Mount of Olives to establish a global legal framework based on the Seven Noahide Laws, with the ultimate goal of creating an international religious tribunal to enforce them worldwide.

At the same time, it claims Israel is on the verge of resuming animal sacrifices for the first time in 2,000 years. According to the video, a stone altar is completely built, priestly garments are woven, silver trumpets are ready, and rabbinical groups have already broken centuries-old bans by openly praying and blowing the shofar on the Temple Mount during Rosh Hashanah without police interference. The narrative argues that because Ezra rebuilt the altar before the actual Second Temple was built, they don't even need to demolish the Al-Aqsa mosque yet to start the sacrifices—which neatly sets the stage for the Antichrist to step in and stop them halfway through a 7-year peace treaty, exactly as Daniel predicted.

To make the paranoia worse, the video ties this to modern geopolitics, bringing up Donald Trump, Jared Kushner, and multi-billion-dollar international funds meant for rebuilding Gaza under a "Peace Council," framing these real-world peace initiatives as the literal infrastructure for the Beast system in Revelation 13.

But the part that absolutely broke my mental health is how they twist the theology. They explain that under these Noahide laws, non-Jews don't need to follow the 613 laws of Moses to go to heaven—they just need to follow 7 basic moral rules. The video then quotes pundit Ben Shapiro saying non-Jews don't need Jesus to be saved, but points out he "conveniently omitted" the law against idolatry. The pastor then connects this to an old Joe Rogan interview where Shapiro states Jesus was just a normal historical Jew executed by Romans. The video concludes that because major historical rabbis like Maimonides consider worshiping a man as God to be severe idolatry punishable by death, these upcoming global tribunals will eventually execute Christians and ex-Christians for heresy.

Even though a logical part of my brain knows this is just a highly orchestrated, fear-mongering jigsaw puzzle designed to scare people back into the pews, the childhood programming runs so deep. The fear of an imminent global trap, tribunals, and catastrophic slaughter feels so viscerally real that it makes me want to stop existing just to escape the anticipation of it.

Has anyone else had to untangle this specific web where geopolitics, Jewish law, and Christian prophecy are mashed together to create the "perfect" panic trap? How do you stop your nervous system from reacting to these apocalyptic threats when you’re trying to heal?

Thanks for reading.

My entire life has been surrounded by people who beloved in god, in religion, in the existence a being which we cannot see but it is always watching over us. I went to a christian school, I was surrounded by religious family members growing up, it was practically instilled upon me. I moved to chile, I became a mormon, I went to church every sunday, all of this for one day as I grew up and I guess facing invalidation for me trying to discover my identity as a queer person (only to be told that "I was too young!" And that "I could be wrong!" As if that wasn't the whole point of discovering your identity) I kinda... didn't wanted to attend anymore, and when I said it out loud, I was told it was the "devil" casting doubt upon me. As if I had no agency of my own and it was some random entity what choosed what I did and what I didn't. And perhaps that is what truly finalized the transition of this kind, polite and eager christian little girl to this more tired, bored version of myself whenever I go to church. I felt like I was being told what I should do, what I should say, I had to hear some rather...bleak misogynistic bullshit about women and what they wore. I felt I had no true agency of my own, I hate the idea of being a christian because I just don't find joy in it anymore, and I don't want other people to try and egg me to return saying how god loves me and blah blah blah. It just, I didn't felt connected to it anymore, I think I still love god and jesus in a weird way, it is comforting to think about them as beings that care about us. But, its not enough. Being a christian feels like a chore like something I must do rather than want to do. I don't want to dedicate my entire existence worshipping a concept. I don't want to be something that feels constricting and like it is always saying what I should do and what I shouldn't. Yet I cannot fully let to of it, the only connection I have to christiniaty is the smallest piece of comfort god can give, and even then. I don't feel I can fully let go of that belief even if he may as well not be a real person. That on itself frustrates me, and I'm not sure what to do.

So I moved out about a month ago (23) and am just looking back on what I actually went through.. Seems they have more in common with Machiavellianism than Christianity.

Parental Tactics

• Covenant Eyes on phone
• Phone confiscation
• Physical tracking
• Text bombardment/interrogation
• 8PM curfew
• Surveillance camera in basement near bedroom
• Exterior cameras
• Vivint chime upon entry/exit
• Safeway wages from 17-19 went to Greenlight account ran by father
• Invalidation of self (work, music, interests, thoughts)
• Spiritual Weaponization
• Triangulation

Quotes

“Your pretty licks won’t pay the bills.”

“Move out then.”

“Living off us”

“Two grown sons living in my house, I don’t need you.”

“Stay Broke”

“He’s down there crying.”

“You don’t go nowhere.”

“I don’t want y’all here doing nothing.”

“Can’t be single forever.”

“You used to be..”

“Remember when you..”

“What happened to you?..”

“Glad you have music, I don’t know what else you do”

“Did you do anything besides go online all day”

“Anything you don’t have is YOUR fault”

“Do you really want to compare your life to mine?”

“If you knew who you were talking to”

“You need me more than I need you”

“You don’t know how good you have it

“I need my grass cut”

“If you make it” (to his age)

“You’re too comfortable in our house”

“Late bloomer”

“I feel like I don’t know you”

Text Log

11/1/18 - Q: “Can I go to the gym at 6?”

A: “Be back by 7”

5/18/20 - Come home for dinner.

5/19/20 - Come home. Are you at someone’s house?

7/7/20 - Be home by 8pm, come home and have dinner.

7/9/20 - BE HOME BY 8 TO HAVE DINNER.

7/21/20 - Come home

7/22/20 - Nice how you got out of bible study. BE HOME BY 9:30. HEAD HOME. You were

out too late.

7/25/20 - You should be on the way home now. You need to come now.

7/30/20 - No sex drugs or alcohol. Read up on how to be a healthy teen

8/1/20 - Time to come home now.

8/2/20 - Come home soon

8/3/20 - Bring your phone upstairs

8/11/20 - Where are you?

9/19/20 - Come home

5/21/21 - Come home

8/5/21 - Be home on time

8/9/21 - Are you coming home soon?

8/30/22 - What time are you coming home?

4/17/23 - Don’t be depressed, come out of your room and enjoy your day.

5/8/23 - Please make sure you let someone know where you are if you leave.

1/5/24 - Are you out with your coworkers?

7/23/24 - Will you be home soon?

9/28/24 - Are you on the way home?

10/22/24 - It’s 2024, you need to let someone know where you are.

11/8/24 - When are you coming home?

11/9/24 - You must have a girlfriend.

4/20/25 - Somebody should always know where you are.

4/23/25 - Running the streets..

7/28/25 - I don’t believe you went to the movies by yourself.

8/2/25 - Are you on your way home?

8/5/25 - Are you still out?

8/20/25 - What time will you be home?

8/28/25 - Come home soon.

9/23/25 - Next time you need to tell someone where you are going. Where are you?

12/24/25 - Where did you go? It is 2025, you have to let someone know where you

are.

12/25/25 - Where are you going?

2/18/26 - What time are you coming home?

3/8/26 - Where are you?

3/29/26 - Where did you go?

6/21/26 - Where did you go? Never leave the house without telling us where

you’re going!

7/18/26 - Glad you are getting out of the house!

8/1/26 - You could be in a ditch somewhere and I wouldn’t know.

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I'm really scared, I know if I leave my church I'm ruining my relationship with my parents, and they will definitely take it out on my siblings, and my whole extended family goes to the same church, and I'm genuinely worried one of my family members, esp my parents health will deteriorate from the stress. I don't know what to do. And I'd lose so many friends and people who practically raised me and all those same people would probably judge my parents too. I wouldn't be able to live at home cause my parents would make it a hellhole, and I'm supposed to get married to this guy in church next year, after seven months of dating? But I cannot do this, I can't marry a guy who believes in this when I don't, let alone someone I've been with for less than a year. I just don't know what to do and how I'd even go about leaving

I’ve thought about this a number of times since leaving the church.

We’re told we have free choice, but that the consequence of not loving or obeying god is eternity in hell. So that’s not free will, but coercion

There’s an obligation to give your 10% each week, which is financial control

In many churches you’re encouraged to socialise mostly with others in the church, which is isolation

There are many more examples, but I’d love to hear what the rest of you think about this

For those not sure, DV = domestic violence

I'm not talking to anyone in real life but I dreamt that I was. I guess years of hearing the purity talk in church is coming back to haunt me in my dreams😂😂😂