A Former Christian Minister Turned Atheist

[JamesDHampton]

Hello Everyone!  My pen name is James D. Hampton. I am a former Christian turned atheist with a degree in biblical studies who worked in ministry for over 15 years before deconverting from Christianity in 2022. As of now, I am anonymous to the public. Only my wife and a few close friends know. But I started a blog under my pen name just this year. If you're interested, it is www.ExaminingChristianity.com 

 

I always had a love for studying the Bible, but the more I studied when I was a Christian, the more I began to see problems that started to undermine what I had always believed.

I was trained in apologetics, and while these answers often pacified young Christians just needing to know how they could respond to their skeptic friends in a social media debate, I came to realize that the simplistic and often shallow answers were not sufficient in addressing and engaging serious questions and inconsistencies. So I decided to strengthen my faith by doubling down on my studies and prayer life.

 

Over multiple years, I read close to 400 books and hundreds of peer-reviewed articles with the specific aim of keeping my faith. I spoke with dozens of Christian friends, pastors, colleagues, professors, and scholars.

 

In addition to reading the Bible, I researched multiple fields of study while praying something would help my faith. I studied textual criticism, philosophy, early church history, social anthropology, human psychology, neuroscience, archeology, human biology, comparative religious studies, ancient Near Eastern religions, cultures of the current and ancient world, ancient genres in which the Bible was written, and so much more hoping to find something, even a thread, I could hold on to. Yet, all these fields led me to one conclusion: There is no good evidence for the supernatural, including “God” or gods.

 

I had to make a decision to either be committed to my faith or be committed to following the evidence wherever it led.

 

I cried out to God, prayed endless prayers, and dug, and dug, and dug trying to keep my faith. Eventually, it got to the point where the only way I could hold onto faith with what I knew was if I did so dishonestly and just ignored all the evidence. But that’s no faith at all.

 

I quickly learned that faith isn’t an arbitrary choice like putting on clothes in the morning. While I could still choose my behavior and go to church, take communion, worship, and play the part on the outside, I couldn’t make myself believe it was true no matter how hard I tried.

 

By this time, I had gone through multiple methodologies trying to hang on to Christianity; from extreme fundamentalism, mainstream evangelicalism, moderate Christianity, and non-denominationalism to High Church, liberalism, extreme progressivism, and even panentheism I realized I couldn’t make the supernatural worldview make sense with the evidence and data no matter which direction I went.

 

I didn’t leave Christianity because I failed to ask, seek, and knock. On the contrary; asking, seeking, and knocking is what led me out of Christianity. I could either stay in Christianity dishonestly or I could leave it honestly. I chose the latter.

 

As an atheist, I still love studying. Even though I am no longer in ministry, I spend a good part of my life studying because it is a passion I’ve always had and still enjoy, and it is so pertinent to our culture. So I decided to start this blog to share my research and findings with others.

 

Even though I’m an atheist, I’m not anti-religion in and of itself, nor do I believe we should be antagonistic toward believers. That said, I’m against any harmful or hurtful religion and I’m convinced most fundamentalism falls into this camp. However, I don’t believe it is fair to say all religions (or all forms of Christianity) are intrinsically toxic.

 

As I still have many Christian friends who are pastors, professors, scholars, and just everyday common Christians, I have seen the good that some forms of religion and Christianity have done, are doing, and can do (typically more liberal and progressive forms). My goal is to build bridges by creating open and honest dialogue. The only way we can do that is if we remain open-minded and respectful of others.

 

I’ve learned a lot through cultural anthropology, neuroscience, and psychology; and one thing is clear: Religion is complicated. People believe for many reasons and that’s not going to change anytime soon. Relationships, society, culture, community, family, conditioning, emotional needs, purpose, and many other reasons go into it. That’s why I try to respect people who remain in faith and are not a harm to themselves or others, even though I strongly disagree with their supernatural beliefs.

I would love to be an assist here and help out in any way I can. I look forward to "meeting" you all. 

[sdelsolray]

Welcome.  Your journey has been rather thorough and is quite inspiring.  I am not surprised where it has led you.

 

Many here have made similar or analogous journeys ending up with a better understanding of their beliefs and of themselves.

 

You indicated that you are currently "in the closet" with nearly all of your social network.  Be forewarned that fully coming out is typically an arduous experience, at least for most folks.  Should you choose to become public with your awakening, remain civil, maintain intellectual and emotional honesty, and realize that the scorn, vitriol, shunning and outright hate directed at you will be caused by the deep and longstanding religious indoctrination of the infected, among other reasons.

[TABA]

Hi “James”,

 

Welcome again to the commmunity!  Congratulations on your blog.  I have read several posts and find it be be of a high quality indeed.  It’s always nice to see the irony of a former believer produce material like this using knowledge and education gained in the service of the faith!    
 

15 hours ago, JamesDHampton said:

I would love to be an assist here and help out in any way I can.

There have always been members here who have a formidable knowledge of the scriptures and other topics.  This can be very useful in debunking Christianity, assuring people - especially hesitant or tentative apostates - that they are on firm ground.  So your knowledge and experience can be great assets to this community!  We occasionally have Christians sign up and participate in The Lions Den.  We allow this because we are confident that we have better arguments than they do, and demonstrating this fact can be a valuable service to our audience, even If it almost never moves the needle with the participating believer.  You never know when somebody shows up who fancies they can impress us or even somehow defeat us!  
 

I hope to get to know you better, James.  I’d be interested to know more about your time in the ministry and the timeline of your deconversion, as well as your current status.  I’m glad to make your acquaintance and thanks for introducing yourself!

 

Best Regards,

”TABA”

[◊ Weezer ◊]

Welcome James!  Your story is almost a carbon copy of mine.  I think my journey really took a turn when I began to pray to understand truth, whereever it led me.  I wasn't a minister, but was employed by a church related Children's Home and social service agency, and they required membership in the "Church of Christ."  

 

Overall, for 30 years I have agreed with your idea of live and let live with religion, but I am beginning to think any belief in a supernatural all powerful god is not healthy.  It opens the door to magical and authoritarian thinking.  And at present Christian Nationalism is scaring the H... out of me.  In a way I am beginning to believe we need to get on our soap boxes and point out the potential that certian brands of religion has.  It is certainly not the teachings of Jesus.  

 

I am looking forward to having you around.

[JamesDHampton]

On 2/24/2024 at 8:49 PM, sdelsolray said:

Welcome.  Your journey has been rather thorough and is quite inspiring.  I am not surprised where it has led you.

 

Many here have made similar or analogous journeys ending up with a better understanding of their beliefs and of themselves.

 

You indicated that you are currently "in the closet" with nearly all of your social network.  Be forewarned that fully coming out is typically an arduous experience, at least for most folks.  Should you choose to become public with your awakening, remain civil, maintain intellectual and emotional honesty, and realize that the scorn, vitriol, shunning and outright hate directed at you will be caused by the deep and longstanding religious indoctrination of the infected, among other reasons.

Thanks! Yeah, that's one reason why we're remaining private right now. There might come a day (and I'm sure there will) when I will go public, but just not right now. 

[JamesDHampton]

On 2/25/2024 at 11:14 AM, TABA said:

Hi “James”,

 

Welcome again to the commmunity!  Congratulations on your blog.  I have read several posts and find it be be of a high quality indeed.  It’s always nice to see the irony of a former believer produce material like this using knowledge and education gained in the service of the faith!    
 

There have always been members here who have a formidable knowledge of the scriptures and other topics.  This can be very useful in debunking Christianity, assuring people - especially hesitant or tentative apostates - that they are on firm ground.  So your knowledge and experience can be great assets to this community!  We occasionally have Christians sign up and participate in The Lions Den.  We allow this because we are confident that we have better arguments than they do, and demonstrating this fact can be a valuable service to our audience, even If it almost never moves the needle with the participating believer.  You never know when somebody shows up who fancies they can impress us or even somehow defeat us!  
 

I hope to get to know you better, James.  I’d be interested to know more about your time in the ministry and the timeline of your deconversion, as well as your current status.  I’m glad to make your acquaintance and thanks for introducing yourself!

 

Best Regards,

”TABA”

I'm always up for a good intellectual discussion with anybody. Excuse my ignorance, but what is "The Lion's Den?"

[JamesDHampton]

On 2/25/2024 at 12:32 PM, Weezer said:

Welcome James!  Your story is almost a carbon copy of mine.  I think my journey really took a turn when I began to pray to understand truth, whereever it led me.  I wasn't a minister, but was employed by a church related Children's Home and social service agency, and they required membership in the "Church of Christ."  

 

Overall, for 30 years I have agreed with your idea of live and let live with religion, but I am beginning to think any belief in a supernatural all powerful god is not healthy.  It opens the door to magical and authoritarian thinking.  And at present Christian Nationalism is scaring the H... out of me.  In a way I am beginning to believe we need to get on our soap boxes and point out the potential that certian brands of religion has.  It is certainly not the teachings of Jesus.  

 

I am looking forward to having you around.

Interesting! My background is in the Churches of Christ as well. 

Yeah, I agree with you about Christian Nationalism. My wife (who is also an atheist now) and I were talking about just how much it seems like America is regressing due to conservativism, conspiracies, and supernatural beliefs. Personally, I still think this falls under fundamentalism. I know of no liberal/progressive Christians who are a threat to themselves or others. It doesn't mean they don't exist, but typically it is only fundamentalism where one finds Christian nationalism and harm toward self and others. But this is all anecdotal. I might be completely off base. 

[TheRedneckProfessor]

1 hour ago, JamesDHampton said:

Excuse my ignorance, but what is "The Lion's Den?"

The Lion's Den - Ex-Christian.Net

[◊ Weezer ◊]

5 hours ago, JamesDHampton said:

 

 But this is all anecdotal. I might be completely off base. 

 

You are not completely off base.  I have just been in a mood lately to be angry with any religion that is fear based with a magical god.