Letters From Leavers

In a recent email from a Christian student at Fuller Seminary named Tim Bowers he tells me that a classmate and him are doing a project called Letters from Leavers and that "it is essentially a webspace for people who have left the Church to write a “Dear John” letter to the Church."

Tim continues, "It may sound weird coming from a Christian (I hope it doesn’t) but I am very interested in hearing your story and would love you to check out the site. If the site interests you we would love it if you could help us out by sending any folks that you know that might want to connect with a site like this to the page. Thanks so much for your time and consideration."

Then he adds, "I assure you this is no ploy to try to re-evangelize you. We are genuinely interested in hearing your story and that’s it. You can post anonymously to the site so no one will be able to contact you if you don’t want them to."

I have already posted my deconversion story here, but others may want to do so. If so, have at it.

12 comments:

Jennifer said...

It seems like an interesting project. But it does not address leaving Christianity, only leaving a church. There is a big difference.

Tim Bower said...

Jennifer,

I agree that there is a big difference with leaving Church and leaving Christianity. We recognized that in creating the site and if you go to write a letter there are 3-4 survey questions that we ask you to fill out and one of them is "Which best articulates your current affiliation with the church?" and one of the responses is "I not only left the Church but I am no longer a Christian."

If that category describes you would we like to hear your story as well.

Anonymous said...

is this guy from the School of Theology or the school of world mission?

Anonymous said...

I dont understand how christians can honestly say that they only want to hear our stories without having any intention of trying to evangelize. If this is so, then what do they hope to gain? Are we a part of a sociological experiment? Lets find out why some people leave christendom? What forms does Satan take to decieve them? Maybe they feel that they can be more "equipped" to deal with apostates. It seems to me to be rooted in is some pathetic people using other people's issues to entertain themselves while simultaneously giving themselves a feeling of superiority. Why dont you guys go interview Ted Haggard, maybe you can figure out how someone could preach against homosexuality while being gay the whole time. It's simple, if you want to know why we dont believe anymore, it is because we are honest. Period. You believe because you want to believe, and you reject/ deflect arguments against your beliefs. Seriously, how can you defend and believe in a god who says that you can beat someone because you own them? Or have sex with a young girl who was captured in war? The fact is, Christianity was made up by men. And we came to terms with that fact, and so should you.

Anonymous said...

I have not left the Church yet, but I feel like I have left Christianity. I am not really sure. I have been a Christian so long that I feel like it I cannot leave it so abruptly, so I am still reading, writing and asking questions.

I must be a 'tweener'.

Tim Bower said...

Jimmy Li said
"is this guy from the School of Theology or the school of world mission?"

I attend the school of Theology at Fuller

adam s said
"It seems to me to be rooted in is some pathetic people using other people's issues to entertain themselves while simultaneously giving themselves a feeling of superiority."

I am sorry you feel this way. Our website is not entertainment to me at all nor do I feel superior to any person who has posted there.

Steve said...

I think this is a good idea, because at least someone who is a Christian is willing to hear why I left. Alot of people I used to be friends with simply get very angry and don't listen to my side of the story.

Perhaps some will be persuaded by what is posted there.

Also, even if it doesn't address specifically "leaving Christianity" there are plenty of letters there from people who did just that.

Cheers,

steve

Anonymous said...

While things like this always make my Spidey sense tingle, I would like to give this person the benefit of the doubt. Hopefully, he just truly wants to understand why some people think in a way that is alien to him. I find such sentiments commendable. Hopefully, he can understand why so many ex-religionists would be a little gun-shy (I certainly do, given the number of seemingly innocent questions I receive that turn into full court press conversion attempts) but if his motivation is sincere curiosity, I wish him luck.

Jennifer said...

Having been a soul-winning Christian my entire life prior to the leaving the fold a year ago, I have to say that the creators of the site are more than likely trying to figure out what churches are doing wrong so they can work on fixing it. I doubt that they feel superior, but probably feel great remorse and grief over the souls that have been lost and want to take steps to keep more from leaving the fold. Just a guess.

Anonymous said...

That might very well be the case, but what these people need to realize is that most people here did not "leave the church" because of the people in the church persay. Most of us came to a realization that the bible is a work of fiction. So, "fixing the church" is moot.

Jennifer said...

I agree.

RebelSnake said...

As a member of the PFA in Greensboro I can attest to the fact they will start preaching at some point. We had a runin with a church group at some of our meetings and they tried their level best to "save" us poor heathen atheists from the infernal fires of damnation. It doesn't matter what they tell you they will start preaching at some point. They just can't help themselves.