Posted A Condensed Version Of My Deconversion On The Christian Forum I Used To Frequent...

[HelloWorld]

I visit Catholic Answers forums every day to see what is happening in the world of Catholicism. As I have mentioned several times before, I used to post there quite a bit back in my Christian days.

 

Anyway, today I noticed that somebody had started a thread called "Are there very many non-Christains here? If so.. please explain your reasons for rejecting Christ.. ", and I felt "called" to post a sort of extimony there. So I did. It is kind of funny this happened because I have been delaying posting an "official" extimony here because it seemed so final to do so. I have been anxious about making a "public", definitive denial of what I used to believe. Then, ironically, without even planning to, I make my first official public declaration on a Christian site.

 

I kept it simple, no details, really general...I didn't want to get into a debate with anyone about anything.

 

Here is what I said:

 

"I was raised Catholic and was a faithful Catholic until last year. In fact, I have posted on this forum several times over the past several years (under a different user name) strongly defending every single teaching of the Catholic Church. I was not a cafeteria Catholic. I studied apologetics as a hobby. I was faithful to the church in every regard, including the "hard" issues. Daily rosary, monthly confession, weekly (sometimes daily) mass, Divine Mercy devotion...I could go on. You get the point.

 

Then I decided that I needed to know why I believed what I believed. Since I was raised Catholic, I wanted to make sure that things still made sense if I were to look at my faith without the assumption that Catholicism or even Christianity were the truth. I needed to look at things outside the box.

 

When I decided to do that, I was surprised at what I found. I realized that maybe Catholicism, and therefore Christianity, was not what I thought it was (I know enough to confidently state that if Christianity holds the truth, the fullness of that truth is found only in Catholicism).

 

I would now consider myself a sort of weak agnostic. I do not think I believe in the Christian God, but I do not discount that there may be some kind of god somewhere...I think that there is inconclusive evidence.

 

I am not really interested in any kind of discussion pertaining to what I have posted; in other words, people can comment on my post all they like and ask me questions, but I won't be answering. I don't mean to say that in a haughty, "I know better that you," way. I simply do not have the desire to enter into a discussion about my beliefs at this time. I guess I thought I would let you guys know about that ahead of time so you didn't think I was avoiding you or being ignorant.

 

I am very aware of what the Church says on all of the issues I have grappled with in the past year. I still examine Catholic teaching and visit this site almost every single day. Without claiming to know and understand everything, I want you to know that there is probably not much you can say to "win me back to the fold" at this time. Remember, I was one of you less than a year ago. I was playing your role. I can probably anticipate most of the responses you would give because those would be the responses I would give, too.

 

In closing, I would like to say that even though I consider myself to have left the church for the time being, I do not have any contempt for the Church. I am not angry. I am not bitter. I still have a great deal of respect for the Church and for Catholics."

 

 

 

If anyone is interested in "witnessing" to Christians on their turf at their invitation, I urge you to register on the site? and share your views on the above thread. The thread is in the forum "Non-Catholic Religions". I know many of you do not feel the need (or desire) to do this, but I figured I would present it for those who might like to.