Originally posted on the New Forums by Ex-COG on Aug. 12, 2007.

A good article I ran across today.



Full article:http://davidlrattigan.com/leavingfundamentalism.htm

For some reason I can get into the New Forums again, so I was able to copy it on here, too.

I looked up the article. I will copy a few more snippets from it that I like:

When you become a fundamentalist Christian...you become a part of that....story about God and a group of people thousands of years ago...the story of how you yourself, two millennia after the cross, crossed over onto the right path and became destined for heaven.

[B]eing the sole bearers of truth in a corrupt, not-to-be-trusted world, is the main part of the story itself.

And when you leave that [fundamentalist] universe, it's like suddenly realizing that the world is flat after all.

It hurts because when you're...journeying out of fundamentalism, as it were, according to the story you've switched characters. You're the Backslider. You're the Liberal. You're the Apostate. You're the Unsaved. You've become the Enemy.

(This was a huge one I struggled with. It was HUGE huge. I, a person who had never rebelled against parental authority for the simple reason that it was wrong, was now suddenly the dirty evil unsaved enemy. Nobody needed to tell me--I knew it. It was such a basic, fundamental part of ME that the only way I could cope was to shut it out of my mind. Over the years I became comfortable with my new identity.)

[F]undamentalism promised us security and stability, and stepping outside it can be like a leap into the unknown.....That can be terrifying and overwhelming. Sometimes just staying inside fundamentalism seems a lot more attractive.
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That is all I am going to quote. I have a feeling he remained a Christian because he ends with a quote from Paul Tillich, a mid-20th century theologian. All the same, many of the issues he raises are issues I dealt with in some form or shape at some time or other. How about you?

I agree with the article, in that your whole worldview is tipped upside down. It tipped when I became an Evangelical Christian at the age of 25, so of course had to up-end again when I left it behind. But I wasn't really bothered or upset with what was going on; I felt free, like I had escaped from prison. I haven't been banned by my family or anything like that, though I am sure they think I am a backslider (even though I have never gone into detail with them about my total deconversion, most are aware that I am not a fundamentalist any more). I have lost some friends, as I've found that without Christianity we really had nothing else in common. One thing I struggled with was how I could have fallen for all that crap for years. I had read books critical of Christianity as a young adult; I had examined other religions and philosophies, gaining knowledge about what others believed; I read church history and knew its weakness and viciousness. But I still drank the kool aid! I guess the combination of family/cultural influence along with self-doubt, insecurity and lack of social skills played together and steered me into the churches arms. After I left, all the things I had studied before came flooding back into my mind. I thought "Gah! How did I fall for all of it? I wasted my life, my money, my time following a empty dream!" I felt duped. That was the hardest thing for me about leaving fundamentalism; the admission of my own foolishness.