Old Christian books

[Anushka]

What did you guys do with your Bible and other Christian/theological books ? Did you donate it to charity? I don't know what to do with mine.

[Eugene39]

Most went in the trash. There were a couple of books that I was able to sell to a used book store. But I've kept a couple of Bibles, especially the one that helped me deconvert, for sentimental value, I guess. 

[Anushka]

2 hours ago, Eugene39 said:

But I've kept a couple of Bibles, especially the one that helped me deconvert, for sentimental value, I guess. 

 

 

i can't give away my Bible as my family and church will find out my dirty little secret

but, I guess I will either bin the Christian books or give them to a charity shop.

[older]

[★ Citsonga ★]

Personally, I still have most of my Bibles and the reference materials that I thought may come in handy for future reference. I had plenty others that I sold on eBay, along with a lot of Christian music CDs. I should probably go back through the books I kept and whittle down the collection some, but I wouldn't get rid of all of them. Of course, I counterbalance them with books I've gotten since deconverting.

[TheLyniezian]

Most eventually either went to the charity shop or got sold to the bookshop I used to volunteer at if they had any value (I think a collection of John Wesley sermons, the journals of George Whitefield and the Encyclopedia of Bible Difficulties by Gleason Archer maybe). A few I have kept if they were given as gifts by friends or family but mostly as my name is in them or they were sort of "permanently borrowed" from a relative who lives in France.

[Lucy]

Reference book are gone or kept around for laughs. Some of those are really nuts.

 

As for bibles... Plain ones are for reference. Cheap plain ones were donated or tossed. Fancy heirloom special ones are wrapped up and boxed in the attic.

 

I'm not throwing away great great grandmother's Bible when that's the only thing I own of hers. It sucks that a lot of family heirlooms are religious.

[TheLyniezian]

One additional thing to point out: I threw away quite a few books and other stuff when I was a Christian, and now regret doing a lot of that. Now I find it difficult to throw away books of any kind as a result.

[older]

As I mentioned in another post where one of you was trying to deal with forced church attendance, cut out the pages of the Bible, saving the cover, and replace the insides with a detective novel that also includes lots of steamy sex. Then you can sit in church and read your "Bible" and everyone will be impressed with your piety.

 

Another option is to cut out the center of all the pages so you have a hideaway spot for valuable jewelry. A thief wouldn't go through your bookcase opening Bibles to find your diamonds.

[♦ Fuego ♦]

Most went in the trash. I still have a crate or two of books and video tapes. I have a bunch of foreign language bibles, but I don't want those going to Goodwill either. Still, I don't want to cart them around anymore. The videos are the part I'm not keen to toss yet. My reason is that the lying preacher who started my deconversion will likely be touted as a modern day miracle worker by his cult and the Pentecostals when he finally dies, which should be soon. I still kick myself for not making my discovery public. He deserved that. I may still have the exact videos, but haven't gone through them to convert to digital and put it up on YouTube. I'm sure they will simply claim it was another church where the events happened, which is easy to pull apart based on his description of the church.

[1989]

I can count the number of non-Bible Christian books in my collection on one hand, and I even don't quite know where they are.  Fortunately for me my Christianity was intensely private, and my best source of information was the internet, which was both good and bad for various reasons.  I'm loathe to throw any book away though, just like I didn't throw away my objectionable CDs when I converted; I just packed them out of sight in the basement.  Of course, if I had a ton of books on the subject I might have a different opinion, but probably they'd just end up in a closet somewhere, safely hidden from hurting anyone else.

[ConsiderTheSource]

Burn baby burn!

[MOHO]

I still have the one and only Bible I ever owned.

Given to me by my stepson back in 2007.

It has numerous notes, markings, highlights and "WTF"'s in the margins. 

 

Hey, @older,

I was making all those notes and highlights while sitting just outside the sanctuary at Mrs. MOHO's church during Sunday warship. The sheeple thought I was being a good, studious little chrity. 

 

Might come in handy during debates and/or articles/books/postings on Ex-C.

[mwc]

     I have a few things that I've kept for sentimental reasons.  Beyond that I see no reason to have it around.

 

     In all seriousness, I have what seems like about 1000 bibles at my fingertips nearly all the time with full search and all sorts of "magic" that I never could have imagined when I got my trusty KJV with its cross-referenced verses (ooh!).  Who the hell needs to actually *own* a bible except to haul around for show?  Yeah, I guess I know the answer, but whatever.  I don't need one.

 

          mwc

 

[older]

1 hour ago, mwc said:

Who the hell needs to actually *own* a bible except to haul around for show

Had to attend a fundy service recently. I didn't count the Bibles in people's hands, but there were many. I didn't see one of them opened. Very impressive covers and binding, though.

[buffettphan]

9 hours ago, older said:

Had to attend a fundy service recently. I didn't count the Bibles in people's hands, but there were many. I didn't see one of them opened. Very impressive covers and binding, though.

 

I also had to attend a fundy service recently.  What amazed me was when the preacher said "take out your bibles and turn to blah blah blah" the number of people who took out tablets.  I couldn't get close enough to any of them to see what they were really looking at.   But it made me wish I had brought mine.   

[sdelsolray]

Gosh, there are so, so many books that have nothing whatsoever to do with Christianity, or any other religion.  Many of them, certainly more than I could read in a lifetime at five hours per day, are simply wonderful works of literature, poetry, non-fiction, etc.

 

With all of that available, why should anyone want to spend much time at all with books focused o0n the Christian religion?

[offtheromanroad]

They sat on my bookshelf in my mom's appartment for years before I was able to convince myself to throw them in the trash without feeling guilty. i didn't want to give them away bec/ I didn't want to "distribute" them further. Some of them were so wacko I'd be afraid people would think I was totally out of it while Christian. My all time favourite worst Xian book is "Right from Wrong" (Josh McDowell). What a crappy book.

I didn't throw any Bibles away, though. I even bought another one (The Message) one bad day when I felt I had to "turn around" again. Luckily, that feeling didn't last.

[hockeyfan70]

I was a minister for a long time, so I had a ton of books. I gave some away to a place that I applied to be the director of - a non-profit that helped disadvantage teens in the inner city (decided I couldn't fake it even there), some I trashed, and I kept the really old ones I have (I have several from the 1800's/early 1900's).