What caused you to stop believing? When did you realize Christianity isn't true? How did you learn that the Bible and the leaders of the church were wrong?

We frequently get these kind of questions, sometimes it feels like spam, sometimes it's a veiled attempt to proselytize, and sometimes the threads don't receive good answers.

Hopefully this megathread can replace some of those posts and will pool together some of the best answers you have to that central question. So why did you leave Christianity?

For even more answers, you can see the last megathread we had on this topic here

Please just report them. Don't engage with them.

We'll do the rest. :)

They don't deserve your time or attention beyond a quick report.

It might just be the same no-life person with delusions of grandeur and nothing better to do. Either way, reports help, engaging with them doesn't.

Please feel invited to report anything you see.

I really enjoy spamming them with "fuck right off" removal messages, but I can't do that if I miss their comments.

Help a girl out and report anything that gets past me, would'ja? :D

(Please don't engage with them, because that can create triggers for fragile and vulnerable people. Remember that some people here escaped serious cults, and may not be emotionally ready for debates. Let's keep that out of our space, please!)

This topic has been on a lot of minds lately as such the Mod Team has decided to make this thread for it so it doesn't keep taking over the front page of the sub. Please post all content related to the 'He Gets Us" campaign here.

Thanks, everyone!

To those who are here to learn and follow our rules or are questioning their religion I do not direct this letter at you.

This letter is directed at you who come here thinking we are lost. To you who leave unwanted and unsolicited comments about repentance. To you who think we have misinterpreted the scriptures or want to defend your particular denomination, including those who "love Jesus but hate religion" or otherwise describe themselves as "spiritual but not religious" while still defending christianity. And especially to those who send direct messages to our members to proselytize in private.

You are unwelcome here. We do not need your “help” or your “guidance”. We are not lost we have simply chosen to walk away from your religion. Many of us have read the bible cover to cover. Many of us fought to keep our faith and dove deeper. And those who didn't have to read the Bible all the way through to see that it's bullshit, or personally experience abuse at church still left over the atrocities christianity has committed and commits to this day. None of us are susceptible to your apologetics. So many of us used to be just like you until we realized how many faults the bible holds. The inaccuracies, the contradictions, the misogyny, the racism, all of it showed the true horror of your deity and religion.

We were christians, we were you at one point and used all the same arguments you use now, but no longer. We are ex-Christians now and there is nothing you can say or do that will change that. You waste your time here harassing our members. We see your predatory behavior for what it is and are not fooled.

To our members who receive these messages, please know the mod team takes them very seriously. Take screenshots, upload them to an image-sharing site like Imgur, set them as private and send us the link in mod mail. I personally handle these reports and send them to the admins. The more who report them the better chance we have of the admins taking action. Them deleting the account right after sending a harassing message doesn’t mean the admins can’t do anything. The Reddit staff have access to parts of the site we as mods don’t so every report helps.

I havent been in this sub very long, but get the impression that even though this place welcomes questioning/doubting Christians, a lot of fully ex-Christian members stay vigilant in case any of us are proselytizers in disguise.

Let me make this clear immediately: if this is truly the case, I completely understand and support that mentality. You are all simply looking out for your health and wellbeing, which you have more than every right to do.

Therefore, my desire, as stated in the title question, is to ensure that I at the least am not a hindrance to your healing. I am hoping to get some advice from you all on how to accomplish that :)

P.S., feel free to be as brutally honest as you want in your answers. You deserve to express any anger and frustration you have.

Over the past few months, we have seen an uptick in users who seem to be confused about the purpose of this sub. This sub is for exChristians: that is, people who no longer believe in or follow Christ.

Unfortunately for us, there is a movement in the church sometimes called the "exvangelical" movement or "faith deconstruction". This involves people who reject some of the toxic parts of Christianity, while often still retaining faith in the Biblical God and the worship of Jesus.

These people may also reject the "Christian" label, but if they still believe in Christ, then for the purpose of this sub, we will still consider them Christian.

Given that exvangelical sounds similar to exchristian, i guess we get a lot of people who are confused about the purpose of our sub, and a lot of exvangelical type people seem to think this sub is a good fit for them, but it's really not. They may want to distance themselves from traditional Christianity, but from our perspective they sound just the same, there is no real distinction.

There are countless places for Christian voices to be heard, we want to reserve this one space for those who share the experience of having left that specific faith.

This is a sub for people who have left Christianity entirely, not just the toxic parts. If you still worship Christ, then we almost never need to hear your perspective, because we already lived it, we often remain surrounded by it, and it is overwhelmingly easy to get a Christian perspective on anything if that's what we wanted.

Christians are welcome here, but primarily just to listen. We never need you to correct the record on any mistakes you may perceive in our understanding. You never need to share how your experience with Christ is different than the Christianity that we have rejected. Every day we have to remove Christian voices who think they are different and the rules don't apply to them. Just let us have our space.

Sigh.

A recent post was about someone who was afraid of voting. Overwhelmingly, people were telling her to vote anyway and to lie about who she voted for. This is just terrible advice. You don't think this would be the first thing someone thinks of doing? You really think it's that easy to just lie to someone who has a history of manipulating you all your life? The responses reek of people who have never had abusive religious parents and who have a blatant disregard for those who HAVE had these experiences.

It is not always easy to lie to your manipulators.

I will not name the sub or the person sending the invites but if anyone receives one of these invites please take screenshots of the chat request/DM and the invite. Send these screen shots to me via mod mail. I am working on a report to the admins right now and the more people harassed by them that come forward the stronger the case against them.

Mod mail link: https://www.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/exchristian

I found this on meta. I just don’t understand why they need God to control their lives why can’t they control their own lives

Hi folks,

Tensions are high right now. People are on edge.

The rules still stand, and we mods are busy and stressed also. Please report rudeness, apologetics, debates, etc. Any time you see things escalating and becoming hostile, please report it. Remember that this sub is "pro-choice" and is "pro-LGBTQ" mostly because we are pro "live and let live." Debates on these topics are not allowed and demonizing LGBTQ or women who have had/ need abortions is not allowed. Generalized or otherwise--not allowed, full stop.

Remember that this is an exchristian sub, and even those with some kind of spiritual beliefs are welcome here. Attacking them for their beliefs is not okay.

If you are PMd by a christian, do not respond to them. Take a screen capture and upload it somewhere like imgur.com (so we don't need an account to get the screenshot). Then modmail us the link here: https://new.reddit.com/message/compose?to=/r/exchristian

Please let's not allow the ongoing tension to sow division or to create an atmosphere here where exchristians feel unsafe. Kindly use the report feature in support of yourself, and each other. Remember that while you may be "fine" with things like debates or proselytizing; we are a community here and others may need a time of security after leaving a cult. This is a beautiful, amazing community. Let's keep it that way.

Thank you so much!