What Was The Pivotal Moment For You?

[Seeker630]

I'm not exactly sure when my pivotal moment occurred but I know 09-11-01 was a large part of it. When I was those towers coming down in the name of Allah, followed by Robertson and Falwell's retoric within a few days, I began to look at the God I had grown up with differently. During this time, I was also reading through the bible, I saw Genesis as pure rubbish and after through research I saw Revelation as a drug induced dream. The more I read(read through the damn thing 5 times), the more I disliked, discrepincies, rubbish I was able to decipher from this supposed word of god. With each turn of the page, I slowly loss my faith and glad that a fellow brother in christ had challenged me to do so. The bible itself brought me to the world outside of Christianity.

 

How anyone can read the entire Bible, as I did, and not come away from it thinking it's mythology, is beyond comprehension.

[Rubyfruit Pixie]

Oh, hello. I'm new.

 

I can't say that there was one pivotal point in my life, it was actually two. One was my junior year in high school when I stopped praying. Growing up in a Pentecostal environment, I was told that prayer was the solution for everything. I wasn't doing very well in school socially. Actually, that's putting it mildly. From, oh, Kindergarten to eleventh grade, I was pretty much a bully magnet. And the harder I prayed the worse it got, especially since I was largely isolated from anyone who wasn't part of the church community, which was kind of small since there weren't enough sufficiently "good" kids around. So...it took until my junior year of high school for me to realize that maybe, just maybe, Christianity didn't fit me. Or I didn't fit Christianity. Being bisexual meant that I was, at best, able to be "cured", as if I could be. Harboring quasi-feminist views meant that there was no way it'd wash with the largely patriarchal views held by the church and denomination I left behind. And being reasonably intelligent and female meant pretty much the same thing--I was discouraged from doing anything with my talent that wouldn't "bring glory to God", which meant pretty much that I had to suppress it as much as possible or risk being ostracized even further. At this point, I don't mind being shunned by the church, but when I was much younger, it got to the point where I seriously considered suicide because I felt so alone and the best the church could offer was to blame me for everything I came to them with. Blame and further admonishments to pray and read the Bible.

 

It was then that I decided that none of it made any sense. Any at all.

 

Thus was my turning point. One of a few, anyway.

[Caretaker]

I was already on the path to atheism as I was in high school. Heck, there was this one time on the school bus when I made the remark that nobody's perfect, and then out of the blue, the busdriver goes "What about God?"

 

Talk about awkward silence. High school was the time I was thinking, "out of all the different religions in this world, how can one presume to say that their particular religion is the one true religion?"

 

It wasn't really until just the year before I started my time at Central Washington University when I was babysitting for a coworker who happened to live in a neighborhood where just about every other household was a strict Christian household. Strict up to dress code. Girls not allowed to wear pants, had hair down to their waists, boys had crew cuts and shirts tucked in.

 

What really blew my mind was that these kids weren't allowed in anybody's house where there was a TV or radio on. How fucking sheltered! It then hit me. The realization that I could not believe in any god. That was the final blow for me.

[Tabula Rasa]

The symbology of my pivotal moment can't be understated. Back in february 2007, on a Sunday evening, the old torment started again. That being how awful it was that I and all the other christians would be saved, but the people who weren't, no matter how good, would all go to hell. I started posting on a forum about religion which was a mix of atheists and believers and reading those posts, pro and con started me to think seriously about what I believed

 

The defining moment was unbelievably symbolic. I was in the shower back about August 25 2007 , still having the sorrowful thoughts about how could a loving God send people to hell, when something finally just snapped in me.

 

I realized if God's omnipotent, he's not going to be some monster who would do such a thing because he would be beyond all the petty nasty emotions humans have. Then and there, the idea of hell was quenched and put out in my mind.

 

That same night I went looking on the web for support , because I knew I could no longer believe in christianity which led me here.

 

The rest is history.

 

I'm still not certain what runs the cosmos, but I know it's not some omnipotent monster with a taste for blood and roasting human beings.

[Seeker630]

I was discouraged from doing anything with my talent that wouldn't "bring glory to God", which meant pretty much that I had to suppress it as much as possible or risk being ostracized even further. At this point, I don't mind being shunned by the church, but when I was much younger, it got to the point where I seriously considered suicide because I felt so alone and the best the church could offer was to blame me for everything I came to them with. Blame and further admonishments to pray and read the Bible.

 

I for one would like to see the rest of your story. I hope you post a deconversion story if you haven't already. One of the reasons is that coming from a Catholic background, the notion of "shunning" is both completely foreign and bizarre to me. I don't think I ever heard the word in a religious context until I was at least in high school. I know JW's use the practice, and I think 7th Day Adventists and the Amish do it too. Is this something common with all Protestant denominations, or is it specific to only a few? What denomination were you in? Also, you didn't say much about your family. Did they give you a lot of grief over either being bi-sexual or becoming a non-believer?

 

Oh and welcome to the board.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

One of the reasons is that coming from a Catholic background, the notion of "shunning" is both completely foreign and bizarre to me. I don't think I ever heard the word in a religious context until I was at least in high school. I know JW's use the practice, and I think 7th Day Adventists and the Amish do it too. Is this something common with all Protestant denominations, or is it specific to only a few?

 

Shunning may not be an overtly recommended practice in many congregations, but it is sort of a crowd reaction to something distasteful. One of my Nazarene pastors liked to think he had discernment, but really he was nosy and assumed that people were being "gay" and that his intense counseling sessions could free them of this. Word would slip out about the person having "gay" tendencies, and this was viewed on about the same level as child sacrifice.

 

Then again, I was part of a semi-Baptist community church that welcomed in a cross-dressing guy. Some people thought he was possessed, and that the church leadership was stupid for allowing him to attend in a dress and makeup. Others felt that church was the best place he could be, so why not have him there among good influence.

[Ramen666]

Mine was similar as the post on the first page had a teacher who encouraged us to look at all sides of an argument, I was thinking this could apply to religion slowly the questioning begun and then I saw one to many prayers go unanswered (at the same time) and the process began in full swing and then I found this place, the following year. The testimonies on here where just shocking that it made me angry at some of the stuff I have read about churches, Christianity, the process was complete.

[LBW]

Oh, hello. I'm new.

 

I can't say that there was one pivotal point in my life, it was actually two. One was my junior year in high school when I stopped praying. Growing up in a Pentecostal environment, I was told that prayer was the solution for everything. I wasn't doing very well in school socially. Actually, that's putting it mildly. From, oh, Kindergarten to eleventh grade, I was pretty much a bully magnet. And the harder I prayed the worse it got, especially since I was largely isolated from anyone who wasn't part of the church community, which was kind of small since there weren't enough sufficiently "good" kids around. So...it took until my junior year of high school for me to realize that maybe, just maybe, Christianity didn't fit me. Or I didn't fit Christianity. Being bisexual meant that I was, at best, able to be "cured", as if I could be. Harboring quasi-feminist views meant that there was no way it'd wash with the largely patriarchal views held by the church and denomination I left behind. And being reasonably intelligent and female meant pretty much the same thing--I was discouraged from doing anything with my talent that wouldn't "bring glory to God", which meant pretty much that I had to suppress it as much as possible or risk being ostracized even further. At this point, I don't mind being shunned by the church, but when I was much younger, it got to the point where I seriously considered suicide because I felt so alone and the best the church could offer was to blame me for everything I came to them with. Blame and further admonishments to pray and read the Bible.

 

It was then that I decided that none of it made any sense. Any at all.

 

Thus was my turning point. One of a few, anyway.

Welcome Rubyfruit. Your experience must have been an awful one, and I'm glad for your sake that it seems like you've come out on the other side.

[Big.blue.nation]

Pivotal moment for me was Dec. 28, 2008. I was sitting in my den one evening and finally decided after a slow 15 year de-conversion that I was tired of straddling the fence. The final straw was just being tired; tired of trying to make sense of it all and the need to rationalize so much to justify what I had believed in for so long. So, I just made a very deliberate decision that evening that I AM DONE, that I was officially an "Ex-C". Life has been wonderful ever since...

[Guest goodfaith]

"I'm still not certain what runs the cosmos, but I know it's not some omnipotent monster with a taste for blood and roasting human beings."

 

me too.

 

I had this weird conversation with the hospice pastor once, he seemed to think I was on the road to hell because I was cross with his constant comments against other religions ( we work in an intentionally multi-faith environment! )

 

At a memorial service he once said 'and if there are any muslims or hindus here I want to tell them- Jesus is the only way'. I wrote to him and told him off.

 

He called me and said something like 'watch out, he'll get you!' and I laughed and said 'who?'

 

But he was deadly serious, he said Satan, the Devil. I said 'I don't believe in any such thing.'

 

He wouldn't speak to me after that, good christian that he is!

 

*

 

A woman called from the Methodist church yesterday- they want me to do a music programme there on wednesday. She approached it as though it were another paying job, then it turned out she would be the one paying the bill as the church is broke!

( one of the things I wrote to the bishop about...and this church has 4 pastors for about 400 attendees too- the logicistics of it was always questionable )

I can't take her money- she's a senior- so I'll be going in briefly to do a short programme for free and if it's an attempt to get me 'back in the fold' I'll have the opportunity to tell people I will not be going back.

When I said to the lady who called 'I will never go to a church again except to work or perform,' she said 'don't say that!'

 

It's what I hate about christianity, this assumption that 'what I believe must be right- else why would I believe it...'

Makes everyone else out to be unenlightened child-figures, doesn't recognise the bigotry, exclusion or cruelty which often results.

 

That's why I started the blog, I wanted to try and increase interfaith understanding, for myself and people like the hospice pastor.

 

What I see now as 'seeing the light' isn't the same as just a few years ago!

[hudsonrw]

I'm not exactly sure when my pivotal moment occurred but I know 09-11-01 was a large part of it. When I was those towers coming down in the name of Allah, followed by Robertson and Falwell's retoric within a few days, I began to look at the God I had grown up with differently. During this time, I was also reading through the bible, I saw Genesis as pure rubbish and after through research I saw Revelation as a drug induced dream. The more I read(read through the damn thing 5 times), the more I disliked, discrepincies, rubbish I was able to decipher from this supposed word of god. With each turn of the page, I slowly loss my faith and glad that a fellow brother in christ had challenged me to do so. The bible itself brought me to the world outside of Christianity.

 

How anyone can read the entire Bible, as I did, and not come away from it thinking it's mythology, is beyond comprehension.

 

 

I think that's one of the main problems Christians have. They don't fully read the text. That was on of my problems. I didn't fully read the bible until I doubted there being a god. Then after reading it I knew there wasn't a god.

[Rubyfruit Pixie]

I for one would like to see the rest of your story. I hope you post a deconversion story if you haven't already. One of the reasons is that coming from a Catholic background, the notion of "shunning" is both completely foreign and bizarre to me. I don't think I ever heard the word in a religious context until I was at least in high school. I know JW's use the practice, and I think 7th Day Adventists and the Amish do it too. Is this something common with all Protestant denominations, or is it specific to only a few? What denomination were you in? Also, you didn't say much about your family. Did they give you a lot of grief over either being bi-sexual or becoming a non-believer?

 

Oh and welcome to the board.

 

I was raised Pentecostal, Assemblies of God, specifically. Though they never called it "shunning" at church, they did use the phrase "handing [someone] to Satan", which meant pretty much the same thing. This never happened with, say, the director of the worship team who stole her best friend's boyfriend then had the gall to marry him, or the small collection of unwed teen mothers (the latter because The Babies in the end are important) but this did happen with the youth pastor and one of the then of-age "student" who graduated out, and just about anyone who looked like they weren't adhering to the relatively strict Assemblies guidelines.

 

As for details about my family and my journey out, I'm saving that for my longform de-conversion story.

 

Thanks for the nice welcome!

[ShallowByThyGame]

I knew something was not right when I was 11, reading a tract I found in karate class. It said that even good works are a sin if they are not done for the glory of god.

 

I used to have a quote like this on my wall when I was devout, but my faith and intellect started warring a few months later. Maybe I even felt guilty about that quote, trying to justify to myself it but losing every time. I'm lucky that I decided that challenging my faith was necessary for me to believe in it.

[Guest jdaniel0910]

I had an experience two weeks ago that solidified me in my resolve to do what needed to be done, and to call the game of Christianity quits.

 

I met a Christian minister, trying to get answers to my questions from the Bible about how to obtain salvation. He did not answer my questions, but only spoke the typical nonsense I’ve come to expect from educated Christians. And he did it with a great deal of self-assuredness. He was condescending, and did not treat my questions as valid, but just dismissed them as based on my own misunderstanding, just as all the Christians do. He also insinuated that my entire experience with Christianity was a lie, and that I had never really been converted by God. He spoke all of the typical apologist nonsense I have heard over and over again, and he spoke it as though he thought I was hearing it for the first time. He said, just like all of these ministers have told me, that “you can’t just study the Bible and come to answers” but that I need “revelation knowledge from the Holy Spirit.” This of course, was meant to say that my human logic in dissecting the plain contradictions of the Scriptures was insufficient, and that he, unlike I, had special knowledge imparted to him by God that I was unaware of. Still I patiently listened to him, even though he continued to babble off topic, and never allowed me to say much. I had to finally walk away when he told me something so ridiculous that it forced me in the other direction almost simultaneously.

 

That was not a unique situation, unfortunately. Just when I feel like I’m starting to make progress towards a better understanding of Christianity, all I need is a conversation with a learned Christian to throw me to the brink of total atheism and despair. I spent the next few hours in the same depression and confusion that I am used to experiencing after trying to understand the worldview of conservative Christianity. It’s like going to the precipice.

 

Every time I go to a Christian or one of their authorities in order to get answers, it only becomes more clear that they have no answers. It also becomes more clear just how far removed I have become from their worldview. It becomes more obvious, after every attempt to reconcile with these people, that I am fundamentally different from them, and that we can never be reconciled. Just the thought of being with them and thinking as they do repulses me, and this tells me all that I need to know about my standing.

 

I have searched entirely in vain the last few years for anything resembling decent answers to my questions. I have lost my patience, which I have maintained for several years now despite my frustration. I don’t get any answers, because there aren’t any.

 

I feel just like Tolstoy, when he said, “But as soon as I met learned believers or took up their books, doubt of myself, dissatisfaction, and exasperated disputation were roused within me, and I felt that the more I entered into the meaning of these men's speech, the more I went astray from truth and approached an abyss.”

 

What bothers me the most about my talks with Christians, is that they start off with the assumption that every last dogma that they believe in is a God-given, eternal truth, and that it cannot be false no matter what. So, any conversation with them is bound to end up just like mine did with the most recent minister. He cannot say anything to me, except that my questions are based on my own misunderstanding. He cannot help but say that, because the shield over his brain blocks legitimate and honest inquiry, and were he to admit that my questions were valid, he would be admitting that there are legitimate chinks in the armor of his belief system. But this is impossible for him to do. His worldview says that he has the absolute truth, and that any deviation from that is a satanic lie. So no matter what evidence I present to him, he is incapable of listening to me, or giving my questions the honest consideration that they deserve. So it has been with all Christians, in my experience. Talking to them has been an exercise in vanity. They cannot help but avoiding my questions, dismissing them, and using circular logic such as, “The Bible is true because it’s the Word of God.”

 

That was the pivotal moment for me. I was still entertaining thoughts of Christianity, though a totally alternate version of it. I am glad that I talked to that minister.

[Foxy Methoxy]

Was there a pivotal moment for you when you realised- this is wrong for me?

 

I was 16 and raised in Pentecostal churches. I bought into everything they taught, but as a teenager, I started to drift away from the church goer mindset and become more *gasp* secular. I was playing tennis with a friend who was a few years older than me and a leader in the youth group. I was beating him pretty badly and trash talking him the way guys sometimes do. He acted like he was cool with it, but I could tell I was really pissing him off, so I stopped. The damage was done. At the next prayer meeting, he stood up and announced I had a demon of pride in me and it needed to be cast out.

 

I then had a roomful of Pentecostals trying to exorcise me.

 

I didn't make a scene while there, but I knew it was payback for being an ass while playing tennis the day before. I was deeply hurt. I had considered him a close friend. That ended up being the last time I participated in a church function of any kind until recently. The other day, I decided to attend a church service at my old church just to see how things had changed over the past 17 years. When I last attended, they had a private school, over 1000 members, and all kinds of extras like a fancy gym, huge playground, daycare, and massive sanctuary. Now, the property is for sale, the school has closed, they're bankrupt, and have less than 20 members attending services and hoping for a miracle to bring their church back to life. I wasted a lot of energy hating them and feeling hurt by them when I was younger. Now, I almost feel sorry for them. The people who still attend seem like nice people. If they were my neighbors, I'd loan them a rake or a cup of sugar, but spiritually, they seem to have (using their own terminology) "lost the anointing."

[gypsy79]

Mmmmm...the pivotal moment. I was reading a book on the history of religion a few years ago. I learned for the VERY FIRST TIME that religions pre-dating Christianity also had man-gods born of virgin mothers. I always thought that the story of Jesus' birth was both literally true and unique to Christianity. After all, that's what my parents had always told me. At first, finding out that other religions contained similar stories made me think the story of the man-god must be true. For a few minutes, it actually strengthened my belief in Christianity -- until I realized that someone else going through the same exact process as me could find their belief in [insert religion with a man-god story here] strengthened.

 

Like everyone else, the deconversion process was much longer than the pivotal moment mentioned above, starting a long time before and ending about 3 months after, but that was definitely the pivotal moment.

[Andy]

I was surfing the internet one afternoon and came across a page of crazy religious fundamentalist quotes which sort of put me in an anti-religious mood (though by itself this didn't shake my belief). Then I followed a link to a whole list of biblical contradictions and falsehoods. I knew about some of them already, but with all of them there at once... I was left with not a reason nor desire to believe, so I didn't. And I haven't looked back since.

[Guest goodfaith]

"That was the pivotal moment for me. I was still entertaining thoughts of Christianity, though a totally alternate version of it. I am glad that I talked to that minister."

 

I think a lot of us are waiting for the new christianity, which isn't a religion so much as a good generous way of life.

 

Just hearing the Catholic Pope's comments this week make me realise how many of these old men want to drag the world back into the dark ages...and keep their power.

 

'Now, the property is for sale, the school has closed, they're bankrupt, and have less than 20 members attending services and hoping for a miracle to bring their church back to life. I wasted a lot of energy hating them and feeling hurt by them when I was younger. Now, I almost feel sorry for them. The people who still attend seem like nice people. If they were my neighbors, I'd loan them a rake or a cup of sugar, but spiritually, they seem to have (using their own terminology) "lost the anointing." '

 

I think a lot of churches will close over the next few years- their people don't really believe in anything and have simply moved on to the next big thing...

 

*

 

It was tough for me to go back the the Methodist church yesterday, people assumed I'd come back, and I was blunt- I'm just here to do my friends a favour and I will never attend again.

I know it might shock people, but I don't want people befriending me just to draw me back in. The ones who are genuine will understand and stay in touch, and the false-friendliness has already upset me enough.

My experience is that any organisation which is in any way cultish the people drop you when you stop attending and giving to them though.

[Foxy Methoxy]

I think a lot of churches will close over the next few years- their people don't really believe in anything and have simply moved on to the next big thing...

 

 

Very true. I've been to a handful of church services recently and all the messages have contained a similar theme: we're not worthy. They sing songs about how great it will be when they're dead and get to go to heaven. These preachers just don't get it. People don't go to church to learn how to die. They go to church hoping to improve their lives. How morbid is it to sing about how great it will be once your dead and then listen to some old guy in a suit go on about how unworthy we all are? They're supposed to be saved from all that misery. Ironically, as often as they stress that we must accept salvation, they haven't accepted it and instead dwell on damning themselves with every word. It's mind boggling. If only the leadership of these churches could step outside their self imposed limitations and see that life is good and heaven is right here on Earth, maybe people would actually benefit from their teachings.

[Seeker630]

----- but I don't want people befriending me just to draw me back in. The ones who are genuine will understand and stay in touch, and the false-friendliness has already upset me enough.

My experience is that any organisation which is in any way cultish the people drop you when you stop attending and giving to them though.

 

One helluva good litmus test though, you must admit. Kind of sorts out the wheat from the chaff in the friends crop doesn't it?

[MWTP]

My pivitol moment was when I had a meeting with a professor of Hebrew at a Bible college near me. I had studied every reference that we have translated into English as the word "hell" in it's origional language and context using Strong's concordance. I had independantly come to the conclusion that the traditional understanding of the doctrine of hell as a metaphysical torture chamber, in fact, the whole idea of a metaphysical after-life itself, when examined in the origional languages seemed very fuzzy. What was clearly taught was a resurrection, not the other. I wanted to talk to this guy figuring that if anyone could set me straight, and put me back on a more orthodox path it would be this guy. I will never forget when I told him my conclusions. He looks at me and says: "You're exactly right. I agree with you 100%" I then began to wonder: What other beliefs do I have that if I scrutinized them in thier origional languages would be "fuzzy?" This began years of reading and study for me. I have not ruled out there being a God, but I have to say that I am pretty much an agnostic. I just don't know...

[Zaramon]

Good question. My pivotal moment came when a goup of Inquisitors from my church came to my house to tell me how poisnous introducing my adult bible class to the edited out books of the NT was. The Pastor sent a goon squad to correct me so I quit teaching and quit the church in the comfort of my own living room. I continued to study on my own not only the edited out books but the history of religions and findings (or should I say non-findings) of modern middle eastern archaeology.

 

Boy Howdy what a relief that was!

[Vomit Comet]

I was dating this girl, and I really loved her. But she was a nominal Catholic and I was still stuck in Pentecostalism. I wanted her so bad, and there she was naked in my bed, but I couldn't do it. I was too scared demons would take up residence in her womb by way of my cock, and I held back for her protection. But there was no way I could have told her all that because she would have never believed me. She broke down crying. And then I dumped her a few days later because I was too scared that demons would get her because she was an unbeliever in intimate relation to me.

 

I thought that the strength of my conviction would impress her so much that it would win her to Christ, and then I could be with her again. But the opposite happened. She went full atheist.

 

That just destroyed me.

 

Several months later it happened again. I was in bed with a girl but I balked and backed out at the last minute because I was too scared demons would get her. If I was just a run of the mill Baptist damn fucking straight I would've fucked them both good and proper. But because of bat-shit Pentecostalism there was a demon behind every fucking rock, and from just one major slip-up, they can invade the life of someone close to you who's unsaved (or not saved enough) and drive them to madness, ruin, deprivation, and even suicide.

 

I hated it so much. I wanted to have sex so bad. I was 28 and still a goddamn virgin. When I was 18 I was totally sure that God would bring me a wife by age 24. 24 came and went, virtually nothing to show for it. Then 25. 26. 27. I just got more and more desperate. So I dated the nominal Catholic girl after hitting it off with her. We loved each other. And religion destroyed it.

 

Well, at age 28 this ladyfriend of mine decided she wanted me to fuck her. I told her about the demonic shit, about the Prophetess who called me up in the middle of the night from 10,000 miles away to warn me against fornicating or else very bad things would happen. She said "what, you're going to let the Psychic Friends Network keep you from getting laid?" I thought she'd be scared off after I told her all that shit, and she almost was, but she was persistent. A few weeks later she fucked me.

 

At first I was like "oh shit! Bad bad bad things are gonna happen! Very very bad things!!!" I was in full panic mode. But nothing bad happened. This was September 2007.

 

And then I met my girlfriend, and we were humping like rabbits. She was a European atheist, as far away from a fundie as you can get in this world. She accepted my belief system even though she thought it was silly and absurd. This was November 2007.

 

I started having nightmares about demons sucking her into hell and me being helpless to stop them. It just kept happening, night after night, with me waking up screaming in the morning. Finally I got fed up. I woke up from one such nightmare, and I looked up to the ceiling from my bed. I had cried out for Jesus in my dream, and I thought I saw a ball of light (that usually meant an angel had come to the rescue). But something inside me told me it wasn't real. So I threw up my hands in rage and frustration and I said "fuck it" and I deconverted right then and there. I finally got sick of the madness. This was December of 2007.

 

It was 7 a.m. Normally I don't crawl out of bed until noon. I hurled myself from bed and ran to the computer. I had remembered the term "Ex-Christian" from years and years ago while dicking around in Yahoo Categories looking for Christian sites. The term came back to me so I ran it through Google and found this place. If it wasn't for this place, I would have either reconverted or wound up in a mental hospital.

 

When I first showed up, under another name, I was just another newbie, albeit a little loonier and more frantic than usual. And a month later I left in a huff out of residual resentment for vocal atheists. But then I came back under this current name. But I really must stress this: you guys saved my fucking ass. I would have either reconverted out of sheer horror or I would've ended up in a fucking psych ward after running outside screaming my head off and wandering around in a stupor.

 

2007. What a fucking year it was. I lost my virginity and my faith, the two best things I've ever lost.

[Guest QuidEstCaritas?]

Dude, VC.

 

That is fucking awesome.

[gypsy79]

I think a lot of churches will close over the next few years- their people don't really believe in anything and have simply moved on to the next big thing...

 

I agree. In fact, the church down the street just closed down because it didn't have enough members to support itself. Although it has nothing to do with me personally, I still feel a sense of personal accomplishment and happiness every time I pass by that sign that says they are now worshipping at _______ ________ Church. *Victory dance!* We do miss making fun of the stupid church sign, though, you know all the stupid sayings they put up week after week?