Take Me To Church (I'd Prefer You Don't)

[IGNYTE]

Hozier's song aside,

I would like to ask the ex-christians here who are forced/feel compelled to attend church and still do how they spend their time during service.

 

Some context: I'm an ex-C but both my parents (and younger siblings) are christians and we've been attending church as a family since I was born. I told my parents that I no longer subscribed or believed in their god/religion when I was 15 but still continued attending regular church services every week (still a minor now). I won't say I was forced to go to church, but on a spectrum ranging from forced to feel compelled, it was definitely leaning to forced.

Initially, I tolerated whatever they preached in youth service (name of the youth service is the one for my username by the way; points to them for trying to be "cool" I guess) and actually treated whatever the pastor said as some debate in which I would, in my mind, rebutt fiercely.

That aggressive stage is now (thankfully) over.

However, lately I've felt like skipping church services entirely (ie not being in the service at all) because I am tired of pretending to sing along those (admittedly catchy) pop christian songs, engage in prayer and listen to whatever sounds the pastor produces from his/her larynx for 1.5 to 2 hours.

What I did recently was to simply seat outside the theatre (where the youth service is conducted) and watch some tv shows on my phone or read a book. This church is akin to those fancy modern slick churches with a 4 storey high fountain, nice gardens and (probably expensive) steel structures, thus the somewhat large size of the church meant that there were many seats along the corridor(s) that I can use for those 1.5 to 2 hours without drawing too much attention to myself.

The catch is that occasionally, my dad will ask me what happened during youth service and who was the speaker for the day etc and if I'm not in the service, I won't be able to answer. Sure, I can lie once or twice but that is seriously hard to do when he wants details like the topic of the week, events that are coming up and which speaker/pastor was preaching (usually rotates between 3 pastors with the occasional pastor coming in from overseas).

I was almost caught once and I don't want to risk it again so the question here is:

1. What do you do to occupy your mind during service
2. Do you have some kind of secret underground atheist support group in your church (my biggest fantasy)
3. Any ideas on how to skip services yet remain in the loop for the general details 

Much appreciated 

[florduh]

I don't know how/why anyone does that, but there are far too many. I could no more go to a church service just to please someone and keep a false peace than I could go to a KKK rally just to make Grandpa happy. If you don't maintain your principles, live your beliefs and stay honest, then what's the point?

[quinntar]

Hozier's song aside,

 

I would like to ask the ex-christians here who are forced/feel compelled to attend church and still do how they spend their time during service.

 

Some context: I'm an ex-C but both my parents (and younger siblings) are christians and we've been attending church as a family since I was born. I told my parents that I no longer subscribed or believed in their god/religion when I was 15 but still continued attending regular church services every week (still a minor now). I won't say I was forced to go to church, but on a spectrum ranging from forced to feel compelled, it was definitely leaning to forced.

 

Initially, I tolerated whatever they preached in youth service (name of the youth service is the one for my username by the way; points to them for trying to be "cool" I guess) and actually treated whatever the pastor said as some debate in which I would, in my mind, rebutt fiercely.

 

That aggressive stage is now (thankfully) over.

 

However, lately I've felt like skipping church services entirely (ie not being in the service at all) because I am tired of pretending to sing along those (admittedly catchy) pop christian songs, engage in prayer and listen to whatever sounds the pastor produces from his/her larynx for 1.5 to 2 hours.

 

What I did recently was to simply seat outside the theatre (where the youth service is conducted) and watch some tv shows on my phone or read a book. This church is akin to those fancy modern slick churches with a 4 storey high fountain, nice gardens and (probably expensive) steel structures, thus the somewhat large size of the church meant that there were many seats along the corridor(s) that I can use for those 1.5 to 2 hours without drawing too much attention to myself.

 

The catch is that occasionally, my dad will ask me what happened during youth service and who was the speaker for the day etc and if I'm not in the service, I won't be able to answer. Sure, I can lie once or twice but that is seriously hard to do when he wants details like the topic of the week, events that are coming up and which speaker/pastor was preaching (usually rotates between 3 pastors with the occasional pastor coming in from overseas).

 

I was almost caught once and I don't want to risk it again so the question here is:

 

1. What do you do to occupy your mind during service

2. Do you have some kind of secret underground atheist support group in your church (my biggest fantasy)

3. Any ideas on how to skip services yet remain in the loop for the general details

 

Much appreciated

I'm still going to church, I challenge myself to do things at service to break away from the routine.

 

(I wonder what will happen if I light up a smoke while everyone is singing)

 

Anyway I think of stupid shit like that all the time. Getting out of church is easy, I just don't give a fuck what people think about my faith.

[miamia]

Hozier's song aside,

 

I would like to ask the ex-christians here who are forced/feel compelled to attend church and still do how they spend their time during service.

 

Some context: I'm an ex-C but both my parents (and younger siblings) are christians and we've been attending church as a family since I was born. I told my parents that I no longer subscribed or believed in their god/religion when I was 15 but still continued attending regular church services every week (still a minor now). I won't say I was forced to go to church, but on a spectrum ranging from forced to feel compelled, it was definitely leaning to forced.

 

Initially, I tolerated whatever they preached in youth service (name of the youth service is the one for my username by the way; points to them for trying to be "cool" I guess) and actually treated whatever the pastor said as some debate in which I would, in my mind, rebutt fiercely.

 

That aggressive stage is now (thankfully) over.

 

However, lately I've felt like skipping church services entirely (ie not being in the service at all) because I am tired of pretending to sing along those (admittedly catchy) pop christian songs, engage in prayer and listen to whatever sounds the pastor produces from his/her larynx for 1.5 to 2 hours.

 

What I did recently was to simply seat outside the theatre (where the youth service is conducted) and watch some tv shows on my phone or read a book. This church is akin to those fancy modern slick churches with a 4 storey high fountain, nice gardens and (probably expensive) steel structures, thus the somewhat large size of the church meant that there were many seats along the corridor(s) that I can use for those 1.5 to 2 hours without drawing too much attention to myself.

 

The catch is that occasionally, my dad will ask me what happened during youth service and who was the speaker for the day etc and if I'm not in the service, I won't be able to answer. Sure, I can lie once or twice but that is seriously hard to do when he wants details like the topic of the week, events that are coming up and which speaker/pastor was preaching (usually rotates between 3 pastors with the occasional pastor coming in from overseas).

 

I was almost caught once and I don't want to risk it again so the question here is:

 

1. What do you do to occupy your mind during service

2. Do you have some kind of secret underground atheist support group in your church (my biggest fantasy)

3. Any ideas on how to skip services yet remain in the loop for the general details 

 

Much appreciated 

aww. You sound a lot like me before 15 when I essentially stopped going. yeah. when I was younger I used to have to go to both kid bible study and the adult service again afterward at times, or vice versa. it was awful. so sometimes I would take long trips to the bathroom or wander around, sometimes sneak all the way outside one year there was a door in the wing of where youth group was that led right out into the woods. in adult service, I would do exactly the same thing. argue with the preacher in my head, look around spitefully, a feeling of disgust arising in me upon seeing the emphatic nodding and affirmative murmur of :amen!" when the preacher said something that struck a cord with one of the members. It angered me. I perceived people who got into it as being extremely stupid and I hated their enthusiasm venomously. It was a big church, the last one I went to, and there were a lot of places to sneak around and hide.  At one point  I attended youth group in a separate building from the church, it was called the barn, also a big place with places to sneak around, I would hide in the bathroom there or somewhere out in the woods out back, and fool around with my lesbian friend. So I had somebody, but there is probably no secret society of atheists there, but there are likely other minors there that feel the same way. 

 

If it's a megachurch they probably have a lot of their info online for whats going to be taught when and also the teacher in your classes should have some kind of a plan, maybe you can grab an itinerary a lot of them use a curriculum like a real school you  could probably get a hold of it maybe you can get someone to tell you what happened before your dad asks, idk. it's tough. My mom was incredibly easy to bamboozle. how long till you get out? I remember I didn't realize I was even going to get out from under my mothers thumb until I started going to public school and they started talking about graduation and living on your own and planning for the future. I was like, damn, I knew growing up was a thing but this really isn't going to last forever??? I counted down the days since about 12 years old.

 

Its gonna be ok. Maybe spend the time there planning on how to get out and be independent. you gotta have a plan. a solid one. make a plan, start putting it into action for when you aren't a minor anymore. start now, don't lose an extra minute to that crap.

[Daffodil]

Our attendance is very sporadic right now. I think my husband is realizing it's a losing battle. The kids and I just don't see the point anymore. He's also finding more sources for connecting with people outside of church, so I'm hopeful we're just about done with it.

 

When we do go, I will read emails or people-watch. It's actually mildly amusing to people-watch, seeing people tearing up or nodding enthusiastically or how they dress, etc. The singing parts are the worst. I try not to sing, but sometimes I forget myself and then have to stop myself, lol!

[older]

Last time I had to sit through a service I picked up a Bible and looked through it to refresh my memory of some of the bad shit that's in there, such as the verses about beating your slaves, or the verses about death for women who are raped in the city, etc. The whole thing lasted an hour and a half so I had lots of time to play with the book.

 

You could get a copy of The Skeptic's Annotated Bible (https://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Annotated-Bible-Steve-Wells/dp/0988245108) and get an aftermarket Bible cover to hide the real cover. The inside pages look like a regular Bible, but there are numerous critical annotations. Then you can use the time to study all the reasons why you left and no one will be any the wiser.

[Insightful]

I go for the sake of my wife and children. Although I don't prefer it, I don't mind sitting there for a bit - it's a nice break from the stress of work and the stress of raising challenging kids.

 

I use it as a time of humanistic reflection. I enjoy watching the people. I enjoy it when the pastor is genuinely funny. I try to draw out humanistic principles from the messages like loving my neighbor, helping the poor, being forgiving, and being a better husband and father. During the songs, i think about being thankful for all of the good things in my life while being reminded that there were a lot of Lucky circumstances outside of my control that led me to the happy circumstances in my life. It's funny but at the core, so many of Jesus' teachings are humanistic anyway so I just try to peel back all of the supernatural stuff... I figure if I'm stuck there I might as well make the most of the time for my heart. I found myself tearing up at my father-in-law's baptism last weekend. Touched by how baptism for him means vowing to live his life as a better person. Seeing his sorrow for his past mistakes and the desire we all have to have those past mistakes washed away. So I think if you can withstand the offense and disgust and frustration with all of the junk, there's actually some valuable things to be pondered and some shared Humanity to experience - if you're stuck there anyway...

[quinntar]

Our attendance is very sporadic right now. I think my husband is realizing it's a losing battle. The kids and I just don't see the point anymore. He's also finding more sources for connecting with people outside of church, so I'm hopeful we're just about done with it.

 

When we do go, I will read emails or people-watch. It's actually mildly amusing to people-watch, seeing people tearing up or nodding enthusiastically or how they dress, etc. The singing parts are the worst. I try not to sing, but sometimes I forget myself and then have to stop myself, lol!

You should turn up in your PJ's and slippers, he he he.

[Daffodil]

Ha! I have on occasion been seriously tempted to stand up and refute what the pastor preaches. Of the two choices, PJs and slippers would be a bit less threatening, I think.

[Blue elephant]

I would use my mobile phone to take notes on the sermon. But also have another session open to write an essay for school. There are silicone earplugs you can buy that are like putty. There might be useful if your hair covers your ears.

 

When I was about 11 or 12 I used to go to one church while my parents went to another. The church I went to ran a meeting of a group called "Christian Endeavour" while the sermon was on. My parents led the Christian Endeavour group at their church. And Christian Endeavour had a syllabus in a Topic Book. So I looked up the topic for the week and elaborated just a little.

[Ellinas]

I refuse to take part, even down to not singing the hymns.

 

I arrive no earlier than I have to and leave asap in order to avoid banal chatter.

 

I sit in silence doing breathing exercises, visualisations of anything from cartoon capers to a walk in a park, or mentally repeating swear words.  One hobby which is as entertaining as it is depressing is to count how often one person in particular refers to Jesus as "lovely".  So far, he's managed around 16 times in one prayer.

 

Occasionally I jam my fist in my mouth to stop myself laughing.

 

I have stopped going to the weekday meetings.  My method was simply to stop.  As the issue is avoiding unpleasantness for my wife, the trick has been to work out what is the absolute minimum to which I can reduce things without causing unwelcome approaches.  The answer seems to be silent physical presence on a Sunday.

[LongWayAround]

I go to church with my wife.  

 

During the "worship" portions of the service I like to entertain myself by singing alternative lyrics to the songs.  I either change the words to reflect what is really in the bible (i.e. "thank you for the way that you love us" becomes "thank you for the way that you club us") or I change the words to make the object of the song my cat instead of god.  It is funny how much more real it is singing about my cat than it ever was about god.  (i.e. "you are god alone.." becomes "you are cat alone...").  When I get bored with those, I sometimes resort to just inserting the word "fuck" or some derivation into most of the words of the song.  The only bad part about singing like that is sometimes, I can't stop smiling because it is cracking me up.  Luckily, the sound system is so loud that no one, including my wife, can hear what I am singing.

 

During the sermon, it is a good opportunity to look at the story skeptically without the jesus googles on.  I sometimes google questions I have to see what the non-believers have to say in opposition to the apologetics I am hearing from the pastor.

 

And like others have said, it is a good opportunity to people watch.  It is especially interesting to see who else is not bowing their head during the prayer and is looking around.

[★ Citsonga ★]

I continued going to church for a couple years, but I was an adult and did it for my wife. I eventually couldn't stomach it anymore, but when I did go, I used the time to study the Bible. It was problems in the Bible that opened my eyes to the fact that I'd been brainwashed with nonsense, and I continued to examine it for more information. When others saw me flipping through the Bible, they probably thought that I was really getting into the sermon and digging into more of "the Word" to go along with it, but I was usually either looking up stuff pertaining to Bible problems that I had been studying or looking up stuff that conflicted with what was being said in the sermon.

[GirlOnFire]

Before we moved here and I put my foot down and said flat out that I'm not going with my fam to church, I used to do a LOT of eye rolling and muttering under my breath in disagreement with the pastor.  I liked the pastor as a person - he actually did help me with my spiritual abuse quite a bit when it was at its worst - but sometimes the stuff he'd say would just annoy the crap out of me.  (He'd interject a lot of pro-America/pro-military/nationalist/conservative/republican/"America is God's country" opinions and/or twisted history into his sermons.  It annoyed the hell out of me!!)  Like others have said, I tried to glean the useful, humanitarian messages out of the bigger message and discard all the rhetoric.  That's all you can do sometimes.

[Costanza]

I go to church with my wife.  

 

During the "worship" portions of the service I like to entertain myself by singing alternative lyrics to the songs.  I either change the words to reflect what is really in the bible (i.e. "thank you for the way that you love us" becomes "thank you for the way that you club us") or I change the words to make the object of the song my cat instead of god.  It is funny how much more real it is singing about my cat than it ever was about god.  (i.e. "you are god alone.." becomes "you are cat alone...").  When I get bored with those, I sometimes resort to just inserting the word "fuck" or some derivation into most of the words of the song.  The only bad part about singing like that is sometimes, I can't stop smiling because it is cracking me up.  Luckily, the sound system is so loud that no one, including my wife, can hear what I am singing.

 

During the sermon, it is a good opportunity to look at the story skeptically without the jesus googles on.  I sometimes google questions I have to see what the non-believers have to say in opposition to the apologetics I am hearing from the pastor.

 

And like others have said, it is a good opportunity to people watch.  It is especially interesting to see who else is not bowing their head during the prayer and is looking around.

Well I am glad to see I am not the only one that makes up new words for the songs.  I also have to catch myself when I smile at my new words so my wife or kids don't wonder what I'm up too.  I also refute a lot of what the preacher is saying in my mind during the sermon and many times just daydream. 

[IGNYTE]

I don't know how/why anyone does that, but there are far too many. I could no more go to a church service just to please someone and keep a false peace than I could go to a KKK rally just to make Grandpa happy. If you don't maintain your principles, live your beliefs and stay honest, then what's the point?

[IGNYTE]

Oops i think i accidentally quoted Florduh without replying. I have 0 idea how to delete my post in the mobile version so I'll reply when i get my hands on a computer

[IGNYTE]

I don't know how/why anyone does that, but there are far too many. I could no more go to a church service just to please someone and keep a false peace than I could go to a KKK rally just to make Grandpa happy. If you don't maintain your principles, live your beliefs and stay honest, then what's the point?

Agreed, but I don't want to cause anymore unnecessary ruckus in the household over a relatively minor matter (1.5h a week will seem pretty minor in my parents' eyes). I already told my parents (pretty clearly, I hope) that I no longer identify as Christian and if they want to pretend and delude themselves that everything is fine and jolly, I can't do much either. Side nitpick: Isn't it a bit too unfair to compare church to a KKK rally? (Moderate) Churches don't kill people to advance their ideology. 

 

aww. You sound a lot like me before 15 when I essentially stopped going. yeah. when I was younger I used to have to go to both kid bible study and the adult service again afterward at times, or vice versa. it was awful. so sometimes I would take long trips to the bathroom or wander around, sometimes sneak all the way outside one year there was a door in the wing of where youth group was that led right out into the woods. in adult service, I would do exactly the same thing. argue with the preacher in my head, look around spitefully, a feeling of disgust arising in me upon seeing the emphatic nodding and affirmative murmur of :amen!" when the preacher said something that struck a cord with one of the members. It angered me. I perceived people who got into it as being extremely stupid and I hated their enthusiasm venomously. It was a big church, the last one I went to, and there were a lot of places to sneak around and hide.  At one point  I attended youth group in a separate building from the church, it was called the barn, also a big place with places to sneak around, I would hide in the bathroom there or somewhere out in the woods out back, and fool around with my lesbian friend. So I had somebody, but there is probably no secret society of atheists there, but there are likely other minors there that feel the same way. 

 

 

 

If it's a megachurch they probably have a lot of their info online for whats going to be taught when and also the teacher in your classes should have some kind of a plan, maybe you can grab an itinerary a lot of them use a curriculum like a real school you  could probably get a hold of it maybe you can get someone to tell you what happened before your dad asks, idk. it's tough. My mom was incredibly easy to bamboozle. how long till you get out? I remember I didn't realize I was even going to get out from under my mothers thumb until I started going to public school and they started talking about graduation and living on your own and planning for the future. I was like, damn, I knew growing up was a thing but this really isn't going to last forever??? I counted down the days since about 12 years old.

 

Its gonna be ok. Maybe spend the time there planning on how to get out and be independent. you gotta have a plan. a solid one. make a plan, start putting it into action for when you aren't a minor anymore. start now, don't lose an extra minute to that crap.

 

 

I wish I had a lesbian friend to fool around with HAHA . I just did a quick check on their website and it does have an outline of future sermons but its very vague (for July they just wrote "Book of Revelations") so I guess its back into theatre I go. Planning on how to get out and be independent seems adventurous, yet scary. I always assumed I would slowly fall out of church as I grow older (doing it now already by the way) and as I get financially independent. 

 

 

Last time I had to sit through a service I picked up a Bible and looked through it to refresh my memory of some of the bad shit that's in there, such as the verses about beating your slaves, or the verses about death for women who are raped in the city, etc. The whole thing lasted an hour and a half so I had lots of time to play with the book.

 

You could get a copy of The Skeptic's Annotated Bible (https://www.amazon.com/Skeptics-Annotated-Bible-Steve-Wells/dp/0988245108) and get an aftermarket Bible cover to hide the real cover. The inside pages look like a regular Bible, but there are numerous critical annotations. Then you can use the time to study all the reasons why you left and no one will be any the wiser.

My friend recommended me that book since last year (or was it 2014?). Initially I mirror-read the chapters my pastor was preaching about in the SAB but I kind of lost interest in it. But thanks for the suggestion anyhow.

 

I go for the sake of my wife and children. Although I don't prefer it, I don't mind sitting there for a bit - it's a nice break from the stress of work and the stress of raising challenging kids.

 

I use it as a time of humanistic reflection. I enjoy watching the people. I enjoy it when the pastor is genuinely funny. I try to draw out humanistic principles from the messages like loving my neighbor, helping the poor, being forgiving, and being a better husband and father. During the songs, i think about being thankful for all of the good things in my life while being reminded that there were a lot of Lucky circumstances outside of my control that led me to the happy circumstances in my life. It's funny but at the core, so many of Jesus' teachings are humanistic anyway so I just try to peel back all of the supernatural stuff... I figure if I'm stuck there I might as well make the most of the time for my heart. I found myself tearing up at my father-in-law's baptism last weekend. Touched by how baptism for him means vowing to live his life as a better person. Seeing his sorrow for his past mistakes and the desire we all have to have those past mistakes washed away. So I think if you can withstand the offense and disgust and frustration with all of the junk, there's actually some valuable things to be pondered and some shared Humanity to experience - if you're stuck there anyway...

 

I agree, its a nice break from the hubbub of life, sitting there in your own world without the burden of work at the back of your mind. Yea, I also realised that I could glean many positive secular values from the sermons but for me, it gets old fast because I have felt the similar "feel good" emotions they always tried downloading into members when I was a Christian. Their humanistic values don't really offer much unique insight for me (perhaps your church has more diverse sermons), its the usual "be good do good" rhetoric.

 

I would use my mobile phone to take notes on the sermon. But also have another session open to write an essay for school. There are silicone earplugs you can buy that are like putty. There might be useful if your hair covers your ears.

 

When I was about 11 or 12 I used to go to one church while my parents went to another. The church I went to ran a meeting of a group called "Christian Endeavour" while the sermon was on. My parents led the Christian Endeavour group at their church. And Christian Endeavour had a syllabus in a Topic Book. So I looked up the topic for the week and elaborated just a little.

Damn, that is really similar to what I do now. Many of my essay ideas for school come from boring church sessions; i type them out on the note function in my phone and refine them when I get home. Unfortunately I don't have long hair to cover the earplugs, but that's alright, I drown out 90% of what my pastor says anyway. The youth service at my church doesn't give out much info regarding subsequent sermons though, which sucks. 

 

I refuse to take part, even down to not singing the hymns.

 

I arrive no earlier than I have to and leave asap in order to avoid banal chatter.

 

I sit in silence doing breathing exercises, visualisations of anything from cartoon capers to a walk in a park, or mentally repeating swear words.  One hobby which is as entertaining as it is depressing is to count how often one person in particular refers to Jesus as "lovely".  So far, he's managed around 16 times in one prayer.

 

Occasionally I jam my fist in my mouth to stop myself laughing.

 

I have stopped going to the weekday meetings.  My method was simply to stop.  As the issue is avoiding unpleasantness for my wife, the trick has been to work out what is the absolute minimum to which I can reduce things without causing unwelcome approaches.  The answer seems to be silent physical presence on a Sunday.

1st sentence: You have to admit their (pop) songs are really good though. But yea, I no longer do the singing or taking part in communion or stretching out my hands to pray etc either.

2nd sentence: I arrive later than needed and leave slightly earlier

3rd sentence: Do you also experience random outbursts of "Amen" or "Hallelujah" from the audience in the midst of the pastor talking? I get somewhat annoyed when people need to do this, as if                        saying those words out loud gives u extra heaven points.

4th sentence: This sentence is hilarious

5th sentence: Basically my (ongoing) plan 

 

I go to church with my wife.  

 

During the "worship" portions of the service I like to entertain myself by singing alternative lyrics to the songs.  I either change the words to reflect what is really in the bible (i.e. "thank you for the way that you love us" becomes "thank you for the way that you club us") or I change the words to make the object of the song my cat instead of god.  It is funny how much more real it is singing about my cat than it ever was about god.  (i.e. "you are god alone.." becomes "you are cat alone...").  When I get bored with those, I sometimes resort to just inserting the word "fuck" or some derivation into most of the words of the song.  The only bad part about singing like that is sometimes, I can't stop smiling because it is cracking me up.  Luckily, the sound system is so loud that no one, including my wife, can hear what I am singing.

 

During the sermon, it is a good opportunity to look at the story skeptically without the jesus googles on.  I sometimes google questions I have to see what the non-believers have to say in opposition to the apologetics I am hearing from the pastor.

 

And like others have said, it is a good opportunity to people watch.  It is especially interesting to see who else is not bowing their head during the prayer and is looking around.

That's what I did initially too! It was more severe for me though, I would change the word "Jesus" to "Hitler" to amuse myself but I couldn't make it anymore funnier so I stopped. I'm now too lazy to google counter arguments and practically everyone bows their head during prayer.

 

Before we moved here and I put my foot down and said flat out that I'm not going with my fam to church, I used to do a LOT of eye rolling and muttering under my breath in disagreement with the pastor.  I liked the pastor as a person - he actually did help me with my spiritual abuse quite a bit when it was at its worst - but sometimes the stuff he'd say would just annoy the crap out of me.  (He'd interject a lot of pro-America/pro-military/nationalist/conservative/republican/"America is God's country" opinions and/or twisted history into his sermons.  It annoyed the hell out of me!!)  Like others have said, I tried to glean the useful, humanitarian messages out of the bigger message and discard all the rhetoric.  That's all you can do sometimes.

 

Oh god I can feel you all the way from Singapore. My country is, from head to toe and from independence to present, completely and wholly secular, yet for some reason my pastor loves implying that our government is supposed to be christian and rejoices at the fact whenever a politician openly announces his Christian faith (I do not see the relevance). I think my pastor hopes to have pro-christian policies/stances come out from the christian politicians (basically anti-gay and anti-masturbation rhetoric yada yada) but so far, it hasn't really happened (overtly). Agreed with the last 2 sentences.

 

I've done what a lot of others have mentioned. Check websites. Sit silently. Refute sermons in my head. People watch.

 

I have another suggestion that might get you out of class legitimately. Volunteer to work in the kitchen or some other area that needs manual labor volunteers during that time. I've escaped many a class by helping to wash dishes. How could your parents argue with that?

I would do that, but that would mean interacting heavily with real Christians. I can guarantee that any volunteer work I do during church time will mean interaction with other christian teenagers and I will be damned if I need another person breathing down my neck on whether I do my prayers and how my journey in faith is going whilst pretending to be christian and holy and doing those (personally repulsive) wholesome stuff like holding hands and committing my exam results to Jesus.

 

Sorry, didn't mean to be aggressive and shoot down your suggestion so quickly; its just that further interaction with my church members would be unwelcomed. Here is a smiley face to show that I mean well :)   [Yea i typed 2 smiley faces cause that's how I roll ]

 

 

-------------------------------------------

To the rest which I didn't personally reply, most of what you mentioned was already mentioned by the group of people above ^ so I felt it would be unnecessarily repetitive. 

 

I still appreciate your comments though! 

 

For now I'll probably stick with attending the service and do whatever the hell I want there [within legal and moral limits of course ]

 

[Ellinas]

Ignyte, in answer to your question on my third sentence, no, that's not an issue in a rather staid, old fashioned and grim Brethren assembly.  No paster, little overt emotion save the tremulous nature of their voices when quivering over their own self abasement and the inherent goodness and greatness of their deity.