FriedVillageGuts Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Just wanted to celebrate a landmark with others who understand. 2 years ago yesterday I formally left Christianity and renounced my church membership. To mark the occasion I listened to my new "Bad Religion" CD and re-read a bit of Dawkin's "The God Delusion". All in all, not a bad day and sooo much less guilt about, well, everything. With the way Easter falls this year, I'm also celebrating canning day in the same week - 4 years since I was fired as a pastor. Perhaps in honour of that I should eat some canned fish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
GraphicsGuy Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Dude...you're in Edmonton??? What were you fired for? Being too honest? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedVillageGuts Posted March 19, 2008 Author Share Posted March 19, 2008 Dude...you're in Edmonton??? What were you fired for? Being too honest? Hey, another Albertan! Good to see. Not too many of us on here. What was I fired for? In a word, politics. That and in retrospect I think I sucked at it. Oh well, it was a good kick in the ass to get me thinking. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Internet Jesus Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Dude...you're in Edmonton??? What were you fired for? Being too honest? Hey, another Albertan! Good to see. Not too many of us on here. What was I fired for? In a word, politics. That and in retrospect I think I sucked at it. Oh well, it was a good kick in the ass to get me thinking. well good for you. you're one step closer out of the 'bungled and the botched' as Nietzsche would put it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
upstarter Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 With the way Easter falls this year, I'm also celebrating canning day in the same week - 4 years since I was fired as a pastor. Perhaps in honour of that I should eat some canned fish. They fired a pastor at EASTER? Wow, now that was very xtian of them. Our holiest day of the year when all eyes are on the empty tomb... screw that we have more important things to do... let's have a little more infighting and fire the pastor. Glad you're out! Happy anniversary! Nice to see more Canadians invading here. Heather Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
smellincoffee Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Congratulations on leaving two years ago, then. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted March 19, 2008 Share Posted March 19, 2008 Congratulations (with a handshake) to you, ExPastor... One thing about us apostates at the ex-christian site. Some of us have been out of the christian religion for a long time, others for a short time. Our common denominator is that as a group we just don't believe in that christian stuff. Happy Anniversary... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MonolithTMA Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Congrats on the two years! Love the avatar! G'Kar was my favorite, but for some reason I keep hearing Mollari saying "Great Maker' during this whole adjustment to deconversion process. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eponymic Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 What was I fired for? In a word, politics. That and in retrospect I think I sucked at it. Oh well, it was a good kick in the ass to get me thinking. Sounds to me like you couldn't commit to it because somewhere inside you, you already knew it was not something you could truly believe in. Just a theory. Congrats! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 Ex-Pastor, I see you've been here for two years but haven't posted much. So I looked at your profile. Found your deconversion story....Another MENNONITE???????? Welcome! I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm the only Mennonite on here. Swiss Mennonite here. You Russian Mennonite? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 20, 2008 Share Posted March 20, 2008 I should mention that I didn't get beyond the word Mennonite--I was too excited, so you might tell more about yourself further on. I'm going to read the post now. Looks pretty impressive. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FriedVillageGuts Posted March 21, 2008 Author Share Posted March 21, 2008 First of all - thanks to everyone for voicing your support. And I did have the canned fish for lunch that day - the guys at work thought it was funny... "he's not bitter, noooo." Going into the trades (sheet metal) means not having a lot of religious guys around so I can say what I want without offending anyone. I've also got a big atheist symbol on my welding helmet. Now to respond to RubySera... Ex-Pastor, I see you've been here for two years but haven't posted much. So I looked at your profile. Found your deconversion story....Another MENNONITE???????? Welcome! I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm the only Mennonite on here. Swiss Mennonite here. You Russian Mennonite? Yup, you guessed it, Russian Mennonite on both sides of the family (not that there was every any inbreeding in Mennonites, oooh no). I figure the Russian part of me just makes me blunt. I guess I haven't posted much because I've been busy with a lot of other stuff and have very little free time. 2 kids eat up some of that time, as does work of course, but then a lot of it goes into home renovations in preparation to move to Winnipeg. Swiss Mennonite from Ontario - let me guess - the St. Jacobs area? Anyway, good to hear from someone with a similar background. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Now to respond to RubySera... Ex-Pastor, I see you've been here for two years but haven't posted much. So I looked at your profile. Found your deconversion story....Another MENNONITE???????? Welcome! I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm the only Mennonite on here. Swiss Mennonite here. You Russian Mennonite? Yup, you guessed it, Russian Mennonite on both sides of the family (not that there was every any inbreeding in Mennonites, oooh no). I figure the Russian part of me just makes me blunt. I guess I haven't posted much because I've been busy with a lot of other stuff and have very little free time. 2 kids eat up some of that time, as does work of course, but then a lot of it goes into home renovations in preparation to move to Winnipeg. Swiss Mennonite from Ontario - let me guess - the St. Jacobs area? Anyway, good to hear from someone with a similar background. I know St. Jacobs and Elmira and every cow path between, not to mention surrounding rural area, like the back of my hand. Too many severely bad memories associated with that area so I don't go there unless I have to. How did you know? Is the tourism racket so loud or something? Milo Shantz, maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ShackledNoMore Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 As long and drawn out a process as deconversion was, I have an "official" anniversary too. I wonder how many of us do? Congratulations! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ogilvy Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Ex-Pastor, I see you've been here for two years but haven't posted much. So I looked at your profile. Found your deconversion story....Another MENNONITE???????? Welcome! I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm the only Mennonite on here. Swiss Mennonite here. You Russian Mennonite? Ruby i have some experience with the Mennonites, too, though i wasnt born into it. a group was started in my area, like an outreach, and i was involved with it for a few years. i wore amish attire for about 6 years. i joined because i believed that women were meant to wear headcoverings, and the Mennonites seemed to be the only ones who did, apart from the Exclusive Brethren. i strongly believed in it, and in avoiding worldly things, like TV. i felt that if i was going to follow the bible, i wanted to follow it properly, and it made sense to not conform to worldly fashions. if i was still a christian i would still agree with that, i mean, if i still believed the bible. why i left was because i couldnt handle the idea that salvation was conditional on doing the right thing. it reminded me of the roman catholic idea, that you could die in sin and go to hell. they believed that if you remarried after divorce you were living in adultery and the only thing to do was break up the marriage even if the new couple had had children together. otherwise you would go to hell. later, i found it too hard to continue wearing a headcovering, even though i still believed in it, because in my area it was unheard of, and it was quite a difficult thing to deal with. i was called up by another member and told that i was risking hell by not doing what i believed in, ie. wearing the covering. i came to think it was possible to be amish but not spiritual. but there were a lot of things about the amish that i really liked, and i always felt 'right' about wearing the cape dress and headcovering. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
R. S. Martin Posted March 23, 2008 Share Posted March 23, 2008 Ex-Pastor, I see you've been here for two years but haven't posted much. So I looked at your profile. Found your deconversion story....Another MENNONITE???????? Welcome! I'd pretty much come to the conclusion that I'm the only Mennonite on here. Swiss Mennonite here. You Russian Mennonite? Ruby i have some experience with the Mennonites, too, Pippa, I responded to your post here so as not to derail ex-Pastor's thread. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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