Waste of time, waste of money.

[Dirac]

I have no doubt that this has been done before but I thought I'd put down how much money and time I've wasted at church during my life.

 

Finanical:

£/$ - in the hundreds

 

Time:

130 odd days (allowing myself 8 hours sleep a night, the rest of the time I'm worshipping and listening to preaching). This time excludes camps, small group meetings etc.

 

Every time I feel low, every time I think back to how many church friends I've lost, whenever I feel crap and feel like reaching for the Lord Jesus Crutch, I stop myself and say, "Just what are you really missing out on? Shut up your whining and get on with it. You should be grateful."

 

Stuff church. Stuff the Father. Stuff Jesus. Stuff the Spirit. Stuff speaking in tongues (my god, how embarrassing). Stuff excruciating evangelism weeks. Stuff the lot of it.

 

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH. I HATE CHURCH. I HATE THE BIBLE. I HATE JESUS (even though he isn't alive anymore). I HATE ALL OF IT. AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!!!

 

That feels so much better. Thanks for listening folks.

[Dirac]

I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! I HATE IT! OH GOD I HATE IT!

[Dirac]

OK, so I go to ChristianForums.com and register with the name of CHRISTHATER. I get permabanned in the space of 1 minute. The hell is wrong with these people? I was asking perfectly reasonable questions, but because I have the name CHRISTHATER I am obviously a troll. How could any reasonable person hate Jesus Christ?

[Amethyst]

Hello.

 

I've heard that ChristianForums does that. They apparently ban people who don't have a username like ILoveGod or something, especially if that person asks too many questions.

 

Welcome!

[Checkmate]

Hello.

 

I've heard that ChristianForums does that.  They apparently ban people who don't have a username like ILoveGod or something, especially if that person asks too many questions.

 

Welcome!

 

Not true. If your user name is something innocuous (like mine or yours, Amethyst), then you slip through the net.

 

If it's apparently ANTI-Christ, then, yeah, they'll boot you quick.

[Amethyst]

Well, I wouldn't use the same name there, anyway.

[trashy]

Finanical:

              £/$ - in the hundreds

 

Time:

        130 odd days (allowing myself 8 hours sleep a night, the rest of the time I'm worshipping and listening to preaching). This time excludes camps, small group meetings etc.

You're an amateur.

 

I probably put upwards of six figures into churches and ministries, and days? Well, whatever you get when you multiply 35 years times an average of 2 hours per week (not counting revivals, small group meetings, etc.). My last five years of church attendance involved leaving the house at 7:30am and getting out of church around 12:30pm, missed only 2 Sundays in that time. Again, not counting the time I worked on song preparation, recording, etc.

 

You're not alone!

[a midnight star]

Ok my turn 26 years of wasted life.

 

Sunday church at 9 (we had to be there early and open) out at 12:30 and back at 6 and get out again 8:30 if we were lucky

 

Monday= 5:30am to tape a prayer meeting before school

Tuesday= back at chruch 6pm to tape the bible class

Wed= church at 7 out at 9

Friday= go help clean the church 5-7

Saturday= 10am gotta tape another prayer meeting

 

 

Every week. I also had a newborn and a full schedule at the college.

 

(and on top of it all, get accused of not reading the bible enough by my family. I should have spent more time reading the bible than I spent on school work. HUH? and still get a 4.0? get bent)

[Purple]

Sunday, we had to open the childrens trailer, we had to pick-up and drive 2 to 3 girls that were not our own. We had to arrive at 8, with the things I had to get ready,(Our church had a complimentry snack table for kids, they alotta me 40 dollars for it, I haded about 40 more every week.) plus our three kids, we were up at 4:30, and left here at 6 am. We had to also close the childrens trailer, there were 2 services, with a 30 minute interval. We generally got out of there at 2:30 in the afternoon. Nothing happened Monday. Tuesday was small group night, we hosted one, but only for a short time, then we only attended, in the evening, it was about an hour. Wednesday there was an evening service, sometimes I got to just attend, but often I was watching kids, again it was about an hour. Thursday there was nothing, Fridays had evening services about once a month for various things. We got Saturdays to ourselves.

Money, I don't even want to think. For the first 5 years I was not as faithful a tither. The last five, always 10% often more. I am sure it falls into 6 figures, but I was not a wealthy person.

Ten years, I want the hours of sleep back. I would LOVE to have the money back. We all know it's not going to happen. Angry? I have been I still get angry sometimes.

[a midnight star]

My mother was in charge of "children's church) and yeah, I had to help. I would also watch the nursery 2x's a month or when the scheluled person never showed up.

 

 

I am still mad, but getting better. (most of the time anyways )

[NimbusBirdMgp]

I think Christianity has taken about 15 years from my life.

 

1969 - 1981 = 12 years + (Trying it out again. For thinking I might had made a mistake about it. ...)

1995 +

1997 - 1999 = 15 years.

 

(I was apprehensive about trying it out again. And it just gave me more things to find out how and why I couldn't accept Christianity anymore. It wasn't to rebell aganst any truths there might be in Christianity, but it just got seeming to me like Christianity was myths more and more to miss-lead us from our ancient past. There was something wrong about it being relavent and just. Ashamed of Investigating this Natural World in agreement with Science from some real facts and the lack of real connections for my life, in the way I learn more about myself.)

 

I think Christianity has robbed me a great sum of finances also.

 

At some point even reality isn't helping me much either, but I'm a hermit that struggles to find all that I really want with my life. There has been a greater peace away from Christianity and a greater awe in Science about this World and Universe. Life is really mysterious. Life's answers, I think is that for which we search for at being what we are.

 

As I look at Nature. Other things in this world shows its beauty for just being what things are.

 

Christianity is a cult that keeps us from being who we are. Then it makes us feel inadaquit about things and tries to replace that with its myths and it doesn't allow us to be what we where really meant to be. It is the means of supporting its Power to dominate others and this world.

[Dirac]

You're an amateur. 

 

I probably put upwards of six figures into churches and ministries, and days?  Well, whatever you get when you multiply 35 years times an average of 2 hours per week (not counting revivals, small group meetings, etc.).  My last five years of church attendance involved leaving the house at 7:30am and getting out of church around 12:30pm, missed only 2 Sundays in that time.  Again, not counting the time I worked on song preparation, recording, etc.

 

You're not alone!

 

I think I am more experienced than sounds. 21 years from the of my birth I wasted, week in, week out. I contributed so little financially (thank Christ) simply because the only job I'd had during my youth was as a cashier in a supermarket, which paid nothing.

[fallenleaf]

By my calculations I was putting in at least 678 hours a year. That doesn't count missions trips (which were 24 hours a day but we'd count only 16) at all or other stuff. This is just the random committments of attending services, prayer circles, and other things I was committed to do. We'll say 9 years... but it was actually longer but that was before my mom got so serious. Note this includes time after I deconverted but before I left for college where I still had to play the game... and that includes hours.

 

About 6,100 hours @ 16 hrs/day = 381 days of my life -- and I want it back.

 

Note: that's a seriously low-balled number. That doesn't count time I independantly searched Christianity, missions trips, Promise Keepers trips, camping trips, etc... etc... etc. If you count the fact that I had to live like it at home... which was like living it as church with my over bearing mother you get amounts up to 8 times greater.

 

Money... not much actually. I was so busy with church that I didn't have a real income to give. Of course, this was okay because it was excused away by me giving a "tithe" worth of my time each week in service of the church. Or some BS like that. We'll put that at maybe a $200 (not counting costs of trips etc, which usually came out of my pocket... so that's lowball as well).

 

Working that out to a number (assuming $5.15 an hour -- which my time was probably worth a lot more in reality -- in fact I know it was so another lowball amount):

 

$31,600.00 is what Christianity cost me at the very least.

[-Demona-]

I clocked in roughly 1040 hours (approx. 2 hours a week for ten years) in church. That's not including youth group outings.

[Amethyst]

Let's see..

 

1 hour a week for 18 years, plus 8 hours a day per school week for 6 years (elementary school) = (52 * 18) + ((40*52)*6) = 936 + 12480 = 13416 hours spent getting brainwashed. And that doesn't even count the occassional Wed. night Lenten service, or the church picnics, or the breakfasts and suppers. If my math is wrong, feel free to correct it. I'm not that great at math, but I can usually handle multiplication when given a calculator.

 

Now, I didn't go to church much in college, except when I went home for the summer and had to go because I lived with my parents. I'm not even counting that, because it was occassional. Or the Easters and Christmases since then. I usually go with my family then so as not to rock the boat. If you count the past year, when I gave church one last try, that adds another 30 hours or so.

 

I would love to get all that time back, and redo my childhood, but that isn't going to happen.

[fallenleaf]

Most schools I know have an 180 day year... so it should be according to my math:

(52 * 18) + (8 * 180 * 6) = 936 + 8640 = 9576 hours.

 

 

But what do I know?

[Amethyst]

Most schools I know have an 180 day year... so it should be according to my math:

(52 * 18) + (8 * 180 * 6) = 936 + 8640 = 9576 hours.

 

Well, okay. But that's still a lot of hours!

[fallenleaf]

lol, add three hours for the fact you lost time by rounding down the year to 52 weeks (it's about 52.18 weeks really).

 

And you had 8 hour school days? Schools here a 6.5-7 hours tops... so you can subtract another 1080-1620 hours there...

 

 

 

I'm just kidding with you. You can calculate the time however you wish... to the accuracy you want. I wanted to really really low-ball mine because I wanted to know the bare minimum wasted. But not everyone has to be that way.

[Asimov]

OK, so I go to ChristianForums.com and register with the name of CHRISTHATER. I get  permabanned in the space of 1 minute. The hell is wrong with these people? I was asking perfectly reasonable questions, but because I have the name CHRISTHATER I am obviously a troll. How could any reasonable person hate Jesus Christ?

 

Uh...dude....you go onto a Christian site with the name CHRISTHATER....and you're surprised that you get banned....

[Amethyst]

And you had 8 hour school days?

 

I really don't remember that much. It was probably less. It was at the very least least 8 to 3, or thereabouts, with lunch and recess thrown in. I probably thought of 8 hours automatically because that's how long the work day is.

[Clearview]

18 years of Sunday morning Mass: 936 hours

8 years of weekly mass at Catholic grade school: 256 hours

18 years of praying the Rosary every night w/my family: 3,285 hours

12 years of "Religion" class: 1296 hours

Uncounted: Holy days of obligation, Lent, retreats, etc.

 

And I always thought praying the rosary seemed to take forever... Damn near it!

 

 

I would like a refund too, please.

[Guest Priapus]

makes me wanna upchuck when I think about the resources lost to Church. I'm so pleased to have regained Sunday mornings with my kids. I have the Standard-issue two days off/week (the Sat/Sun styley) and if I'm churching, well, that's 50-fucking-percent of my mornings with my kids gone, gone, gone.

 

Plus now I have more time now for holy communion with the namesake of my new Pope, Ernesto Colnago.

[trashy]

I think I am more experienced than sounds. 21 years from the of my birth I wasted, week in, week out. I contributed so little financially (thank Christ) simply because the only job I'd had during my youth was as a cashier in a supermarket, which paid nothing.

Yeah, sorry about the 'amateur' bit - just trying to be cute.

 

Just be glad you got out when you did - I didn't escape until I was.......um, I guess about 38-39.........

[Lanakila]

I was a Fundy Baptist who "got saved" as an adult. I gave my 10% plus faith promise missions for about 15 years. I went to church for SS 1 1/2 hours and at least an hour of church every Sunday morning, Sunday Night church, and Wed night church for almost 18 years. The last few years I was the member of a church that had the same service on Sunday night as Sunday morning so I got to sleep in. I was involved in teaching children for most of 18 years of church attendence, and also had a child in the nursery for most of that time so I had to serve my time in there as well. I went to Bible college and had to be a member of a local church and involved in ministry to get a Christian Service grade, plus attend Chapel services twice a week. We had pastors come 3 times a year to take turns preaching at us all day, and evening while I attended there.

 

I rarely missed church and have pictures of my husband and myself dedicating our babies within a week of all 4 of their births. We saved up money and gave to some friends of ours that are missionaries. 10,000 at once folks. We gave when we were poor and it hurt. We gave more when we weren't poor.

 

I really try not to get pissed off at the wasted time and money, but thanks for reminding me folks. SHIT!!

[trashy]

I really try not to get pissed off at the wasted time and money, but thanks for reminding me folks. SHIT!!

LOL - I was just thinking the same thing....