Any Family Members Who Were Atheist And YOU Were The One Who Deconverted?

[skysoar15]

I hear all the time about families who have a Christian mindset.

 

Are there people who grew up in Atheist or agnostic households who became Chrstians only to deconvert?

 

If so, I'd love to hear your story.

[MOHO]

18 hours ago, skysoar15 said:

I hear all the time about families who have a Christian mindset.

 

Are there people who grew up in Atheist or agnostic households who became Chrstians only to deconvert?

 

If so, I'd love to hear your story.

 

Grew up Mormon and rejected that in my early teens.

 

Figured the non-denominational thing was tolerable and SOUNDED reasonable ...until I married a devout xtian who later became quite fundamentalist after moving to the bible-belt of the Pacific Northwest. This prompted me to REALLY study the Bible in earnest which, in turn, resulted in my deconversion.

 

Does that count?

 

[Ellinas]

In my case brought up in a nominal Anglican environment.  Church was somewhere you went on a Sunday if you felt like it and ignored otherwise; the bible was just a book that you had in the house because everyone did.

 

Converted to fundie style Christianity at University.  Walked away into paganism years later.

 

Not quite the pattern suggested in the OP, but not that far away either.

[skysoar15]

6 hours ago, MOHO said:

 

Grew up Mormon and rejected that in my early teens.

 

Figured the non-denominational thing was tolerable and SOUNDED reasonable ...until I married a devout xtian who later became quite fundamentalist after moving to the bible-belt of the Pacific Northwest. This prompted me to REALLY study the Bible in earnest which, in turn, resulted in my deconversion.

 

Does that count?

 

 

Most definitely. Always interested in hearing from another person's perspective.

[Guest]

I was raised by one parent who was an abusive atheist, the other a co-dependent fundamentalist Christian (which made for a messy marriage and dysfunctional family) then, to make life more interesting, married into a devout Catholic family. Initially as a kid, I was won over by Christianity, but had SO many questions that couldn't be answered. For example, after learning about the Holocaust as a child, I couldn't reconcile how God could send Jews who suffered a hell on earth to a hell in the afterlife. Then when my fundy parent took to the doctrine of pre-destination (when I was an older teen), that made me question my faith even more, but not enough to abandon it. It's too bad that my atheist parent had emotional issues that made it difficult to be emotionally close or have respect for an atheist viewpoint. Had things been different I might have been much more critical of my faith earlier on. I am just now starting to reveal that I am no longer a Christian to select people. I have no doubt that I've already been labeled as "not a REAL Christian" by family, friends, and co-workers due to my history of "rebelliousness." You'd think for that reason it would be a lot easier to come out of the closet, but it's been a challenge.  I've had to settle for finding insidious ways to raise awareness among others about how confounding Christianity can be for intelligent, reasonable, and compassionate people. I can't wait for the day when I can kick open the closet door and seek out atheist friendships. I have none right now and it is a lonely place to be. [insert self-pity party here. . .. . LOL]

[skysoar15]

I hear you on that last part. Im at a church event now. Doing worship I walked outside to try to keep my sanity.

 

My friend who is teaching me to drive convinced me to come. 

 

Hard part for me is that unlike a lot of examples, the Christianity here in this college town seems like the real deal. Some of the kindest people are here. But it drives me nuts to be surrounded by them in all this intimate worship. 

 

Had to remind myself of my real situation instead of being swept up by my emotions. 

[yunea]

I was born Lutheran, like a majority of people are in my country. My mom went from belief in Jesus to belief in aliens to atheism & mocking everyone's beliefs and then back again, and in general I was exposed to many kinds of woo, but never consistently. My dad never speaks about faith issues, he attends church only for funerals/weddings. 

 

In my teens I had a very intense experience converting to Pentecostalism. Among other things it seemed to finally give me some very much needed (albeit black and white) guidelines. I didn't stay an active Pente for awfully long, because my mom was going in a different direction at the time and I was underage so she decided it for me, but I held tightly onto my belief in Jesus for over a decade afterwards and was careful not to do blasphemy. After a burn-out I jumped headfirst into being a new-agey Jesus follower when nearing my thirties. That ended absolutely terribly for both me and my faith.