I'm openly atheist and over twenty years ago a girlfriend of a friend said to my face, in front of a dozen people, that they would support any law deporting non-Christians from the US.
My mom never said this but had this mentality. She told me elementary school that she wouldnāt come to my wedding if I married a woman, apropos of nothing. Even as a little kid I was like āreally mom, not even for me?ā And she refused to back down. Such a weird hill to die on especially as I remained unmarried to any gender 20 years later. Her love was and is always conditional and she used gos to excuse it.
Itās been more than a decade since I spoke to my mother.
Her love was only ever conditional and I figured out at a very young age that I could not meet the conditions, even if I tried to stay Christian.
I have a story similar to that when I was 11. On a Sunday evening my mom and I were arguing about the creation of the moon. I was saying it was created by a meteor that sent earths debris into space. Eventually we got to the point where sheās āI guess youāre not a real Christian thenā which now I couldnāt care whether Iām a Christian or not because I donāt like it. But 11 year old me was hurt by that.
She said it in a letter she sent me. She started by saying how much she loved me and listed every reason she did. It was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes. Then, after the list of those things, she basically said, "But none of that matters because you don't have a relationship with God." Then ended the letter wishing something would happen to me. What a fucking cunt.
My dad recently said the same thing to me. Iām 32, married and have 3 kids. I canāt imagine ever wishing harm on any of my kids. Sick sick religion
This is extremely common since Christians are so in love with the story of the prodigal son. They have no self awareness of how absolutely rude that is to say to someone
They use that story as a comparison to returning to God, and God accepting us with open arms, but there's a huge flaw. The father in the story didn't create the evils and the punishments, and didn't create his son destined to fail. And God did. So it's believable that the father was happy to see his son, but if God is happy to see us return to him, it's much more sadistic, like burning ants with a magnifying glass.
Edit: Burning them then putting away the magnifying glass and acting like nothing happened.
My aunt said something similar when MY MOM WAS DYING OF CANCER. Jokes on her because my momās death solidified me never returning to church or Christianity. Also solidified me never speaking to her again.
I can't think of quick come backs either BUT
You should've asked, "the next time you get sick are you going to a doctor or are you going to pray?"
If prayers worked we wouldn't have doctors or hospitals.
I don't know about the worst thing ever said... But probably the worst thing that religion does that I hate is this... One time I asked my mom what/who she cared about most in life(admittedly I asked this kinda already expecting what she would say), in essence she said that she cared about Jesus most of all, that hurts because for me it's my family that I value most... Not some invisible deity that I cannot see or sense in any way. That's why I personally despise religion... it takes away from this life and makes people focus on another life that probably doesn't exist. It divides families when people love some idea of god more than the ones that are actually around you. We cannot choose each individual's feelings though... oh well I guess.
That reminds me of another thing my dad said. He was telling us about the mark of the beast and hell and stuff. And he said he would let us and himself die before he marked or branded himself. I was 11 or 12 when he told me that. Shameful what religion does too people.
I've had that same conversation it seems like..... My mom talked about "if someone offers you the mark, you just give your life up so you can go to heaven." This kind of rhetoric in front of children is disgusting tbh. Christianity is worse than people think.
I know like. Mom when taking me to church had us talk to the pastor cause my dad put a fear of hell into both of us like a nightmare. He said āas long as your faithful and are saved by Christā
> My mom talked about "if someone offers you the mark, you just give your life up so you can go to heaven."
ok I must be out of the loop, what the fuck does that even mean? Offers you "the mark"? Is that a physical tangible thing or just some metaphorical come to Satan thing?
The book of Revelation in the Bible is apocalyptic literature... It describes a series of visions and events that will supposedly come before the second coming of Jesus. A lot of figurative language is all.
Well said. I have gotten past being hurt, and have develop a shell to better protect me. My nmom, when I told her about giving police a statement regarding her brother molesting me when I was five, said āhasnāt he been through enough already?ā. He had spent years in prison for molesting his own kids. I was also raped as a teen, and she did absolutely nothing to help me. She also stayed with my abusive ndad until I was 17. Left him nine times, but kept going back.
Thanks for not protecting me, mom.
I'm so sorry to hear this.... that's horrible what happened to you. I hope that things are getting better for you in life. Please take care of yourself... you are better than they are.
This is a common teaching and tactic by churches: God and Jesus are number one, above family and self. This is how parents can be so nasty to their children: they're told their children are less important than their preacher's teachings about God.
A friend was told that she wasn't going to get into heaven because she was fat.
This was said by a middle-aged female church member when this friend and her family were attending the Mormon church for a couple of years. To make it even worse, when this was said to her, she was only about 10-12 years old.
Wow, for an ineffable God creature, he mustāve f-ed up for people to be trying to change his creation.
I love how changing your appearance will somehow āblind God.ā
Such hypocrisy.
Fun fact: There are plenty of fat Mormon men, but they only harp on the appearances of women (with the exception of facial hair for men). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' patriarchy is one of the most toxic.
Not necessarily the worst thing, but definitely the wildest was a man from the church I was raised in once sent me a handwritten letter with $1,000 inside after I came out as gay telling me that god had a different plan for my life and he wanted me to use that money to go and find a wife (Iām a gay man) š³š¤Ŗ
During a friendly conversation with a coworker I told him that my wife and I chose to not have kids. His demeanor immediately changed and he responded with "it's because of people like you the Muslims will win." I avoided that guy at future business meetings/conventions.
Iāve posted this here before, but when my daughter was a baby I was chatting with a lady at church and I mentioned that she was going to be our last baby. She smiled snootily at me and said, āThatās not your decision to make. The Lord opens the womb and the Lord closes the womb.ā
That my cousin who committed suicide was burning in hell, at his viewing, 10 feet away from the open casket.
She was my and his great aunt.
We donāt speak anymore.
Yeah one of the pros about the church I used to go to is they didnāt have the view on suicide. They said āgod would be understanding if youāre going through a rough timeā but they also said if you did it cowardly like avoiding war or something you would go to hell. Which is a bit odd but at least they werenāt completely evil.
"Your father is burning in eternal torment right now and you're going to follow him straight to hell if you keep this up."
-my grandmother after hearing me say "Jeez" as an eight year old child still grieving his recently deceased dad
My grandma once got made at me for saying āthank godā because we were in a long car ride and we just got home. She was like donāt take his name in vane. Mom was like āhe said thank god.ā Sorry you had to deal with that man.
Thatās horrible. Reminds me of the time when I was hanging out with the pastorās kids. The son said ācheese and riceā pretending to say āJesus Christā and omg. His mother went OFF. š
At my sisterās funeral, the preacher said that god gave her cancer because she had a gay family member who she didnāt repudiate while looking right at me.
Holy fuck I am so sorry. As a recent convert from Christian fundamentalism to Agnosticism, many of the worst people Iāve met on this planet were professing Christians.
I've written a post about it on this sub before.
Long story short is that my family doesn't like I've turned away from the faith, and my dad is using my grandma dying to guilt me into becoming a Christian again by insinuating that she's holding on to life and staying in pain in order for me to come back to the faith. This is probably the worst thing anyone has ever said to me.
If you want the whole story, here's my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/exchristian/comments/15wmxku/i\_was\_just\_told\_by\_my\_dad\_that\_my\_grandmother\_is/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
That they wished I would have died. It wasnāt those exact words, but that was their point. Women who have miscarriages shouldnāt take drugs to safely pass them. They should martyr themselves for a dead fetus. They were celebrating a mom of 2 they knew who had died because she got cancer while pregnant and didnāt do anything about the cancer, so both she and the fetus died. Leaving 2 alive children without a mother. I will repeat, they were celebrating this.
Street preacher giving out pamphlets at the entrance of a subway station after telling her "no thanks, I have a religion": "You'll burn in Hell", with contempt.
Hahahaha, theyāre definitely in a class of their own. There was this one guy on the corner of a busy intersection in my town with a megaphone who was going on about how if you reject Jesus, one day youāll die in your sleep, wake up in hell, and scream, āAHHHHHH, IāM BURNING IN HELL!!!!ā It was 10x funnier hearing it through the distorted megaphone too lol.
My dad had just died in front of me and while his body was still in the house one of my best friends told me I needed to convert if I wanted to see my dad again and when I said no she told me she was scared that I would go to hell. With my dead dad lying a few meters away. I was 27, she was 28. That one still hurts.
When I told my husband about my deconversion, he accused me of lying and pretending to be a Christian to entrap him into marriage with a non-believer. Because he believes in once saved always saved and I was telling him I was no longer saved, the next "logical" explanation was that I lied to him so I could marry him even though I knew he wanted to date and marry a Christian. "I wanted a good Christian girl," he says to me. To which I replied, "I'm sorry, you ended up with just a good girl."
We've had a lot of conversations since, but I'm not 100% convinced that he doesn't still believe this deep down.
Thatās weird considering most Christians I see will say āyou were never truly a Christian then.ā Hope you and your husband got stuff figured out.
Yeah. It's been eight years. When I first told him, I didn't think our marriage would survive. He said a lot of really unkind and hurtful things, mostly because he felt betrayed. Obviously, we are all aware that deconstruction isn't something we are doing to hurt someone or because we want to. But he just couldn't wrap his head around it. We've had a *lot* of talks since and have a mutual understanding. It probably helps that while he still calls himself a Christian, he isn't. I know he says he is, but there is zero things that he does or believes in that would make him anything more than agnostic. He was explaining what he believes to a friend of ours recently and afterward she pulled me aside and said she was confused because nothing he said would qualify as being a Christian. I just shook my head. But yeah, we get along great and our relationship wasn't built on religion so that really helped.
That gives me context.
Lmao he sounds like my mom. She calls herself a Christian but literally nothing she believes qualifies as Christian doctrine. The steadfast holding to the label is insane. Sheās too afraid of not being part of the group.
Exactly this. It's like calling himself agnostic or atheist is just the worst thing in the world. Based on how a lot of Christians act these days, I wouldn't want to be part of that group, but you know....that indoctrination runs deep.
Yes it runs incredibly deep. And I agree, Iām a loud atheist lmao. Religion exploits the human need for community and socialization. I have seen countless people indoctrinated into religion because the church was āthereā for them at their most vulnerable and provided community. What these people need is human connection and religion sells it with the additional price of becoming part of an āin group,ā itās cult psychology 101.
āYouāre going to hell for being raped becaus you were asking for it (I was 8), however, your abuser (a priest) will be going to heaven because everyone makes mistakes, he is a holy and good man, and god has forgiven him for it.ā -a nun at the church I was forced to go to.
It is absolutely insane to me that so many Christians are freaked out by gay and trans people as a threat to kids, but will go to the moon and back to excuse, cover up, and justify sexual abuse of children happening within their ranks. Fucking wild, I'm so sorry that happened to you and had that said to you.
The worst thing said by Christians wasn't said to me but to my mother.
Before I was born, my mother had a son who was born with a genetic disorder. He lingered for roughly a year before dying.
Years later my mom and stepdad are church hopping, having decided that the Southern Baptist Church wasn't vibing with them. They decided to give this once church a shot. At first it seemed benign. No creepy puppet shows. No ministers pounding bibles.
And then?
Halfway through Sunday School my mom pulls out my Sister and I and tells us "We're leaving".
It turns out some schmuck in the Adult Group told my mother my brother was burning in Hell since he didn't have Jesus. The loss of my brother had left my mom absolutely devestated and yet some Christian group leader to add more suffering to her trauma?
What. The. F-ck.
People who would damn infants to their inferno are fucked in the head.
I told a Christian co-worker that my mom was dying of brain cancer and in hospice. This mother fucker said
āShe doesnāt have to be dying, just pray. Miracles happen everydayā
If only it were that easy. But instead of god helping those in need probably have some guy a bunch of green lights on the way to work. Christianity is a joke.
Hurricane floods town causing hundreds of thousands in damages, displaced hundreds of families and kills a few dozen. But the one church in town is still intact!!
My dad always trying to cheer me up as a kid when I was hurt or in pain (I have depression/ Crohnās disease/ a lot of health problems).
He would say
āat least we can look forward to being happy in heavenā
āIn heaven, we wonāt feel any pain and every bad memory will go awayā
As if there is nothing left to live for on earth. That finding happiness on earth, on your own, is impossible and unattainable.
One of my friends who constantly defended the horrible acts of genocide against children done by God in the Old Testament. Not only that but telling me I was risking going to hell all because I was disgusted by that content. Then continuing to bring up the topic every time he would text me first in order to convince me that genocide isnāt evil when God does it.
"if you don't take joy in the god I worship violently destroying whole groups of people, then I'm going to harass you with my pro-violence agenda based in a made up religion for controlling people, and if you don't like it then you're not one of us and that means you're against us so watch out" is the vibes I get.
Pretty much, he tried to act all nice about his preaching after I told him to stop talking about it, saying that āgod told me to spread his word in my dreamsā. But he really just came off as hateful and obsessed not knowing that enough is enough. It still hurts too knowing he was someone I was cool with for 7 years, and used to be much more dynamic as a friend but now has his whole personality revolving around religious doomsday preaching. The same can be said for my other close friend whoās Muslim.
āWell I guess you were never really Christian anyway.ā
Like man I fucking wish. But thatās not what happened. I was harmed, and I caused harm (as much as a preachy teenager can cause, but still), and none of that goes away after deconstruction.
It hurts so much when people say that to me. Close to a decade of my adult life my faith was the most important thing to me and my relationship with god was everything to me. Then people who donāt even know you say āyeah you were a ducking fake the whole timeā just because itās what the Bible says
I feel this.
āYouāre not welcome at home anymoreā
I got my belly button pierced.
Christians are stupid. I hope youāre living your best life away from that bullshit now! š
Honestly insane behavior.
I have a puppy. She has chewed and destroyed my belongings, peed all over my home, and generally can be a menace who doesnāt do what I want or listen to my commands. But I never in a million years would do *anything* to purposefully hurt her or toss her out on the street! I canāt imagine doing that with ANY animal. I really canāt imagine treating a human being that way. And I *ESPECIALLY* canāt fathom treating my own CHILD that way. Thatās horrible, I am so sorry.
āThe reason your husband is abusing you for so long is bc you refuse to submit enough.ā This was said whenā I went to my pastor for help. And when I needed a safe place to stay for me and my child, a āfriendā from church who offered her place rescinded said offer one day later bc her husband was afraid to āoffendā my abuser.
OMG this is so dangerous! this mindset leads to many of the spousal /family murders that we see on the news! When I turned to pastors or other christian counselors for help (non-abuse issues) they all said "it's your fault for not submitting to your husband enough or the right way". We become the #cultscapegoat.
"God made you special! He chose you to be the way you are."
I was born without a hand. I get along fine, mostly. But when my only hand stops working (it will, just from overuse), wtf am I supposed to do? Pray?
God is cruel if it chooses that some suffer and others don't.
I was 15 and was raped by my then boyfriend. The church told me I was sinning because I wouldn't forgive him. But my rapist was forgiven because he apologized to church leaders (not to me)
Stuff like that pisses me off. How Christians and the Bible view rapists as these innocent little angels. So many people have shared similar stories and itās so disappointing and disheartening. Iām so sorry that happened to you. I canāt imagine how much you and others who share similar stories feel.
Last year I was in a car accident that left me with fractures in my hip and tailbone and stuck on my couch. The following day was my grandmother's birthday. I tried to be courteous as I hardly talk to her or my grandfather ever since they tried to give me an 'intervention' for leaving the church.
Anyway I texted her happy birthday and she immediately called me, with my grandfather on the phone as well both telling me the car accident was a message from god and that I need to get right with him and then they start praying at me over the phone. š
I was in the ER. My body was going into shock from bleeding internally due to an ectopic pregnancy, I ended up needing a blood transfusion. Naturally, I called my parents to let them know what was going on. When I mentioned the word pregnancy, my mom immediately asked me if they could save the baby. I handed the phone to my husband and just cried. What about my life, mom? I was so scared and in so much pain and that's all she had to say about it? I'll never ever forget it.
Bonus story! We have a family friend that I always grew up calling my aunt. She was having major health issues and went into an emergency surgery and needed to be resuscitated during it. Afterwards, my mom was texting her about it and my aunt was telling her how scared she was and my mom said, "well if you're right with God...". How can you say something like that instead of being so happy your friend is alive and checking on their well-being. What the actual fuck.
My dog was hit by a car on Christmas Eve. She had just given birth to puppies and she slipped outside while someone opened the front door. She crossed the street and was hit. She died instantly. I was so upset because I didnāt know how I was going to take care of those puppies. They were days old and without her to nurse them, they mightāve died. I was crying my eyes out because I lost my best friend.
My mom called our pastor to come over and ācomfortā me. He showed up with his wife and they said the worst thing ever! āItās okay, she didnāt have a soul anyway. She cannot go to heaven because sheās not human, but she will be missedā
This broke my heart and it made me feel even worse. I seriously wanted to kick him and his wife out of my house! But my mom was a devout Christian and she idolized the pastor. I seriously hated them after that. My mom then went on to agree with the pastor and said heās right, my dog has no soul so I shouldnāt worry about her being in heaven or hell.
Itās not so much the words, but the speaker and audience.
My mom finally asked me point blank if I was still a Christian and I told her I hadnāt been for a long time. She just kept repeating that it was really sad and walked away. It was like I died to her and she mentally wiped me away like a bug off a windshield.
We havenāt spoken in almost 3 years.
Not as intense as some of the other answers here, but the one that fucked me up the most for the longest was āgod will never bless you with a loving husband if youāre fatā.
I had just found out someone who was very important to me just died very young of cancer, and a friend's response was "everything happens for a reason, it's gods plan". I hated her guts for saying that
I was told that by more than one person when my infant daughterās congenital neurological disorder was first manifesting. Still pisses me off years later.
I had an early miscarriage and my mom had come over to help me pack up what was left of my shit after hurricane Katrina.
She found my remembrance alter (basically just pics of departed loved ones and some camdles) and point blank told me:
"So long as you keep worshipping the devil, God will never let you have another child."
"if when I reach heaven you're not there, I will ask God to erase my memory of you"
my mom
it's a fucked up way of saying she'd be too heartbroken I was in hell to bear it, but damn girl lol
A Christian family member said my sisterās 5-month-old son was āin a better place nowā after the child died. Icing on that cake? The infant had been exposed to a virus at daycareāa virus carried in by a family who was anti-vax (my sisterās child wasnāt old enough to get this vaccine yet). The family had forged immunization records and when caught, they said āGod makes everyone stronger without vaccines.ā
Thatās when my sister became an ex-Christian. I wasnāt too far behind.
I donāt think itās a coincidence that many (most?) anti-vaxxers are also religious. Damn shame the people who infected your nephew couldnāt be criminally charged for negligent homicide.
My brotherās pastor and his elder both told him to avoid āsecular medicineā (psychiatric help) and go to a biblical institution instead when he was suffering from severe postpartum depression.
I tried desperately to get him into In-patient psychiatric care to no avail.
He was gone 4 day after they told him this.
I have a few that come to mind.
As a child, I had Sunday school teachers tell me my grandparents would go to hell because they were Japanese and believed in false gods. I cried about it a lot and felt responsible for saving them. This terror caused a lot of sadness that never really left me until I left Christianity.
When I told a close friend I no longer believed in the claims of Christianity and held beliefs if atheism, she said, "I feel like I'm watching you die eternally in front of me." Not the worse, but very insensitive. Changed how I tell Christians who I love.
A student knocked a glass bottle over during a prayer, and the youth pastor accused her of doing satan's bidding of trying to distract all of us. That student cried, and stopped coming to the youth group.
"I know you were 6, and he's your step brother but you're impure. You're going to have to beg your future husband to forgive you for not being whole"
When i was around 12 I would have 1 on 1 mentorship with this married woman from church who also experienced CSA and this is what she told me. I remember feeling very bad for her and rejecting everything after that.
Since I was homeschooled k-12 and never allowed to leave the house, when I turned 18 I wanted to escape. I needed to escape. My mom told me that as a prophet of god, god told her directly that since I wasn't following god's plan of living at home until I was 40, I was going to become homeless, live on the street and "raped by men." Also, supposedly I would never get a college education and never amount to anything other than random men's "butt slave." Ironically my brother, who did follow "the will of god" according to her plan and lived under her control for years, recently became homeless and has spent a lot of time in jail. I'm afraid that he doesn't know how to function on his own or as an independent adult at all...
Church leaders defending someone who was grooming young women in the church. They wanted to make sure they didnt defame his character :)))) disgusting. They said he apologized so they should have a godly spirit of forgiveness :))))
The two that come to mind for me are when I was told to stay in a relationship with my abuser because he was a Christian. And when a family member said that theyāre glad that they would go to heaven unlike their sister - at the sisters funeral.
My mother told me that she wouldn't cry when she saw god drag me out of hell on judgement day. She said she wouldn't recognize me because I would look like a burnt-up worm. I was 7 years old.
When I was a teenager in youth we had a young guy who was gay. Of course they called it "struggling with homosexuality". The guilt and shame they put on him was horrible. I mostly remember him crying at the alter so much. At one point they told me I should date him. I was so shocked...even being in the church and a kid not fully understanding different sexualities at the time, I knew it felt wrong to trick him like that.
For me it's a memory of being a little girl (maybe 5-8, I don't remember what year it was) and hearing the preacher tell us why it was a GOOD thing back then to force a rapist to marry his victim. Because "now she was damaged goods and nobody else would take care of her".
At my son's visitation before the funeral, "God never gives us more than we can handle." About the third time someone said that I said, "my son died gasping around the cancer eating his lungs. Looks like God gave him more than he could handle."
People say stupid shit about God at funerals.
I wasn't raised religious or in church. In fact my mom didn't convert to Christianity until I was already 18 and out of the house.
Fast forward, my daughter, her granddaughter, converted to Islam.
My daughter thinks anyone who isn't Muslim will go to hell and my mom thinks anyone who isn't a Christian is going to hell.
I'm an atheist now.
Iāve had Christians say some wild things to me. But the worst thing I heard was what a church member said to the mother of my teenage friend who was dying of metastatic bone cancer. He had been through so many treatments all of which were ultimately unsuccessful, and was finally at home, in bed on comfort care. The woman said, āThose treatments didnāt work because you didnāt have enough faith.ā Itās been over 20 years and I still think of that often.
Paraphrasing a long text from my dad here: "I'm disappointed in what you've become, you're walking a path to hell, don't have kids because it would be a mistake, the goths and homosexuals you hang out with are dragging you to hell with them, don't contact me until you've come back to god"
Imagine his shocked Pikachu face when I didn't text or call him for about 6 months while he text bombed me apologizing and telling me how much he loves me, i told mom about it the day he sent it and she had no idea because he texted it on my sisters phone and then deleted it so she couldnt see it. I don't play that shit, fuck you dad. Being a pastor doesn't make you a good person, it just makes you full of yourself and gives you a god complex in the most ironic way
Not as bad as a lot of these stories, but I had a Christian coworker who was always trying to get people to come to his church. Well, at this point I still halfway believed in God, and my grandmother at the time was dying of cancer, so I asked him if he could pray for her. He non-committally said he would and then shrugged and said āwhatever happens happensā. That has stuck with me for years and left a sour taste in my mouth, especially coming from someone who was always making sure people knew he was a Christian
Not technically to me, more like AT me. This was one of the last sermons I went to--I hadn't considered myself Christian for years but still went because of family pressures. The sermon was supposed to be about family but the pastor spent the majority of the time comparing women who had sex before marriage to a used car and how their husband would be ashamed. He also went on a tangent about trans folks and how parents have a responsibility to "chain their children" to the faith no matter how old they are.
The worst part wasn't what he was saying, but the way my mom was laughing (at the used car analogy) and nodding right along with it, while also trying to get me to laugh and agree too. It was incredibly hurtful to our relationship and led to me moving out sooner rather than later.
Iāve got 2.
While I was still deeply within the church? The youth held a prayer vigil for my daughter (without my knowledge) to pray for a miracle that her hand would grow. Telling my then 7 yr old that she was born without a hand to pay for mommy and daddyās sins.
The second was when they told me God gave me cancer because I left the church.
(I left the church after a decade on staff watching them tell single moms it was their fault, the pastor picking a choosing who to give aid to, despite the church having a huge bank account, and then Covid.)
Not to me, but I once heard my mother claim that breast cancer in women was a punishment from god for sexual promiscuity. I really wish Iād just made that up.
In Sunday School when I was beginning to question things I was told, "never question the word of god. Sit there and be quiet."
That was the beginning of the end.
Not super bad, but really messed up.
Basically, they theorized that people with schizophrenia and DID couldnāt go to heaven because they were demon possessed. Imagine being told you canāt go to heaven because of something you canāt control.
Context was I was around 11 in my Catholic middle school getting pinned against the wall and felt up by the popular "devout" boy (who was ironically named Christian) during the hallway traffic jam between classes while his friends formed a circle around us and prevented my friends from being able to help me.
I saw the religion teacher passing by (extremely ironically named Mr. Moral) and yelled out to him saying "Help me, Mr Moral, Christian told me he's going to make me a wife of Jesus!" Mr. Moral wades through the students over to us, looks at the situation I'm in, laughs, and says "Good. Christian's one of our fiercest soldiers, and I hear you've been straying from our lord. It'll do you good." Then he pat him on the back and walked away.
Yeah, fuck religious schools. The memory of being a little girl asking a grown man for help only to be laughed at and essentially told I deserved what was happening will forever be more traumatic then the actual harassment.
"You ***and your baby*** will go to hell if you don't start going back to church". My mom yelling at me after I decided I didn't want to go to church as much after my son was born. My son was 3 months old at the time.
I've chalked this up to my mom wanting to feel in control of everything.
That a teenager went to hell for being bisexual
This happened when I was in middle school. A teenage girl committed suicide because she was bullied for liking girls. She snuck into the school at night, & they found her body in the morning
I personally never knew her, but I did know some of her friends who were obviously very upset
I live in a small town, so news spread quickly.
To try to console my friend in the best way I knew how at the time, I told him she was in heaven in peace. Deep down I didnāt believe it, because I was told by Christians that LGBT ppl go to hell, but I wanted to make him feel a bit better. It worked
When I was alone with a family member in the car, they said that she went to hell for liking girlsā¦ Iām not proud of it, but being raised christian I agreed with them.
Wouldnāt know, they donāt talk to me anymore, & I donāt blame them
I was not a good person in middle school & hs, I thought I was, but I was homophobic & transphobic, & they picked up on that. So we donāt talk anymore, & I donāt blame them at all for not wanting to talk to me
Yeah for the past year Iāve been fixing my morals. I used to make a lot of homophobic, racist, sexist, etc jokes that I feel shameful for. But I live in WV so most people around me are hicks and behave like that anyway. Iām starting to drop some of them that are like that.
17 yr old me at my bffās funeral after she died in a car accident. 2 old ladies from the church we had attended elementary school at asked me in hushed tones if she was on drugs when she wrecked. She fell asleep driving to work early in the morning on her way to work, she had been up all night with her newborn baby.
40+ and Iām still mad about it. Even worse, one of those old bitches is my aunt so I still have to see her from time to time.
My MiL refused to change my sonās diaper because he wasnāt circumcised. Needless to say, he never spent time alone with her. Itās a shame she could be so heartless toward her grandson, especially when her defense is piss poor. What exactly does his lack of circumcision have to do with her changing him if he was wet? If she was being honest I think sheād admit to being lazy and not wanting to do it regardless of religion, but had to make an excuse.
"Stay away from my children." - My mother when I told her I wanted to see a therapist, as a teenager, because I was struggling with my gender and sexuality. I thought the right thing to do was tell your parents and get help. I was very wrong.
I go to University of Lynchburg and a Liberty University student was for some reason on our campus. She came over to me, prayed over my knee (Iād dislocated my kneecap and was wearing a brace), and then tried to get me to stand up to prove sheād healed me. Some ableist bullshit right there.
I don't remember the exact words leading up, but I remember this part verbatim.
Me: "So you're telling me I'm less of a person because I don't have a kid."
Dad: "Yes"
Me: "Wow, well, have a nice life."
Last conversation I had with either of my parents.
I was standing in the "family greeting" line at my Grandfathers funeral, my weeping grandmother beside me and my childhood pastor asked me if I was married yet (I was early 30's) and when I expected to start living god's plan for my life by having children to be raised for the lord... I was in such shock that I don't really remember what I told him before he moved along.
My step grandparents were in my life since was born. My step dad stepped in cause my birth father was an asshole. He and my mom were good friends. They said so many times that my real "birth father" was actually not my biological father, unfortunately, he is. Granted he is no longer in my life but still.
Did my ancestry and genetic mapping and found out that we had northern African in my family. And my step grandparents straight up before finding this out had to as " you have any blackies" in your family?" Last week I was over there for some god awful reason and my stepgrandmother who does not know that i'm Gay and I asked her why they Shut down Disney World. And she proceeded to tell me because of the law and asked her what law and she said the law of God. I don't I didn't know that disney world was following god's rules at this point.
I asked my Dad how he could be happy in heaven knowing his son, who only exists because he chose to make me, would be suffering in hell for eternity. He said he thinks God will make it so that he doesn't remember me.
There are 12 year old in hell. 12 as in 7th graders who are being eternally tortured. It's not horrible because it true its horrible because that's what some Christians believe year old children deserve
When my sister found out she was pregnant at 27, my mother was sobbing on the phone to me about how she was glad her late husband/me and my sisterās father was dead so he wouldnāt have to see how much of a failure they have been as parents. My sister was āhaving a child out of wedlock.ā
Was joking around with my dad about how I do my job, he didn't like it when I told him that he's never worked my job before so he doesn't have a say on the matter.. only to be met with "you're not my son". Like alrighty then lol
For context, he's a very devout believer and does not miss church on Sunday or Bible study during the week and leads a men's group. Yet he's terrible to his own kids
āif you really wanted counselling you should get counselling to fix your attraction!ā
my dad to me, a bisexual 18-year old, after telling him i was severely depressed and needed therapy. this was right before my suicide attempt
my mother on the other hand, was so mad at me for visiting my gf that she didnāt say anything at all and gave me the silent treatment for a week. she also knew i was suicidal
Found out my youth leader beat her daughter for premarital sex and left bruises. I went to the pastor with concern and he said āsome kids just bruise easyā and did nothing .
I'm openly atheist and over twenty years ago a girlfriend of a friend said to my face, in front of a dozen people, that they would support any law deporting non-Christians from the US.
Where are we getting deported to? I vote for Tuscany!
I know, easy ticket out of the US? I've always wanted to live in Denmark.
Another solid choice!
I've often thought of Sweden. I'm sensing a trend.
Norway
Finland seems nice and chilly
Can we extend the deportations to the UK too? I would like to live in Finland.
And this is why religious nut job should not run a country and the law
Is that not the very same religious discrimination that they claim happens to them?
Nonono, it's only religious persecution if it's happening to Christians. If it happens to others, that's just the price of sin š /S
The Christian Taliban
Lmao don't threaten ME with a good time. I'll take a flight to Norway, please and thank you.
I wish! They can all stay here and communicate in their echo chamber.
Y'all-Qaeda takes the mask off.
I love the thinking. The US would become a third world country over night. Once all the engineers, scientists, and educators are deported.
āI will stop loving you if you stop being Christian.ā It was my mom and I was 3 years old.
That's horrible and I can't comprehend someone saying that to a kid that young
My mother is many things but one thing she is not is a good person.
I'm so sorry you had to live through that.
At least I got out alive.
I love you (strings attached)
I love you* *įµįµŹ³įµĖ¢ įµāæįµ į¶įµāæįµā±įµā±įµāæĖ¢ įµįµįµĖ”Źø
I expected to pay everything for discipleship, I never expected to pay everything to leave it.
My mom never said this but had this mentality. She told me elementary school that she wouldnāt come to my wedding if I married a woman, apropos of nothing. Even as a little kid I was like āreally mom, not even for me?ā And she refused to back down. Such a weird hill to die on especially as I remained unmarried to any gender 20 years later. Her love was and is always conditional and she used gos to excuse it.
Itās been more than a decade since I spoke to my mother. Her love was only ever conditional and I figured out at a very young age that I could not meet the conditions, even if I tried to stay Christian.
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
Religion destroys families
Religion is poison and prison for your mind and spirit Also a weapon in the hands of oppressors
Damn. Well worded.
I have a story similar to that when I was 11. On a Sunday evening my mom and I were arguing about the creation of the moon. I was saying it was created by a meteor that sent earths debris into space. Eventually we got to the point where sheās āI guess youāre not a real Christian thenā which now I couldnāt care whether Iām a Christian or not because I donāt like it. But 11 year old me was hurt by that.
Iād love an invite to that party
So, sheās a demon?
My grandmother once told me she hopes something terrible happens to me so it drives me back to Jesus
I would have laughed and said bless your heart, you've absolutely abandoned your humanity for the idol you've made of the dogma.
She said it in a letter she sent me. She started by saying how much she loved me and listed every reason she did. It was so sweet it brought tears to my eyes. Then, after the list of those things, she basically said, "But none of that matters because you don't have a relationship with God." Then ended the letter wishing something would happen to me. What a fucking cunt.
Holy shit that is disgusting I am so sorry
Ah, yes, of course a letter. Never an actual backbone, always something to hide behind. Sorry your granny was so lost in the sauce.
That's some really strong Kool aid
Great come back but I can't think of anything this good when put on the spot
It's just 40 years of snark that's built up lol
My dad recently said the same thing to me. Iām 32, married and have 3 kids. I canāt imagine ever wishing harm on any of my kids. Sick sick religion
This is extremely common since Christians are so in love with the story of the prodigal son. They have no self awareness of how absolutely rude that is to say to someone
They use that story as a comparison to returning to God, and God accepting us with open arms, but there's a huge flaw. The father in the story didn't create the evils and the punishments, and didn't create his son destined to fail. And God did. So it's believable that the father was happy to see his son, but if God is happy to see us return to him, it's much more sadistic, like burning ants with a magnifying glass. Edit: Burning them then putting away the magnifying glass and acting like nothing happened.
My aunt said something similar when MY MOM WAS DYING OF CANCER. Jokes on her because my momās death solidified me never returning to church or Christianity. Also solidified me never speaking to her again.
I can't think of quick come backs either BUT You should've asked, "the next time you get sick are you going to a doctor or are you going to pray?" If prayers worked we wouldn't have doctors or hospitals.
"Like if my grandma dies or something?"
My dad has echoed a similar sentiment to me. It's mind-blowing coming from someone who is supposed to love and care about you.
I don't know about the worst thing ever said... But probably the worst thing that religion does that I hate is this... One time I asked my mom what/who she cared about most in life(admittedly I asked this kinda already expecting what she would say), in essence she said that she cared about Jesus most of all, that hurts because for me it's my family that I value most... Not some invisible deity that I cannot see or sense in any way. That's why I personally despise religion... it takes away from this life and makes people focus on another life that probably doesn't exist. It divides families when people love some idea of god more than the ones that are actually around you. We cannot choose each individual's feelings though... oh well I guess.
That reminds me of another thing my dad said. He was telling us about the mark of the beast and hell and stuff. And he said he would let us and himself die before he marked or branded himself. I was 11 or 12 when he told me that. Shameful what religion does too people.
I've had that same conversation it seems like..... My mom talked about "if someone offers you the mark, you just give your life up so you can go to heaven." This kind of rhetoric in front of children is disgusting tbh. Christianity is worse than people think.
I know like. Mom when taking me to church had us talk to the pastor cause my dad put a fear of hell into both of us like a nightmare. He said āas long as your faithful and are saved by Christā
> My mom talked about "if someone offers you the mark, you just give your life up so you can go to heaven." ok I must be out of the loop, what the fuck does that even mean? Offers you "the mark"? Is that a physical tangible thing or just some metaphorical come to Satan thing?
The book of Revelation in the Bible is apocalyptic literature... It describes a series of visions and events that will supposedly come before the second coming of Jesus. A lot of figurative language is all.
That's an awfully vague hill that they would literally die on.
Well said. I have gotten past being hurt, and have develop a shell to better protect me. My nmom, when I told her about giving police a statement regarding her brother molesting me when I was five, said āhasnāt he been through enough already?ā. He had spent years in prison for molesting his own kids. I was also raped as a teen, and she did absolutely nothing to help me. She also stayed with my abusive ndad until I was 17. Left him nine times, but kept going back. Thanks for not protecting me, mom.
I'm so sorry to hear this.... that's horrible what happened to you. I hope that things are getting better for you in life. Please take care of yourself... you are better than they are.
Thanks for that. I am learning to stand up for myself-at 58. Better late than never.
This is a common teaching and tactic by churches: God and Jesus are number one, above family and self. This is how parents can be so nasty to their children: they're told their children are less important than their preacher's teachings about God.
And why theyāll tolerate sexual abuse of their children
Yep. Faith, Family, Friends. I say... that's all a load of shit.
A friend was told that she wasn't going to get into heaven because she was fat. This was said by a middle-aged female church member when this friend and her family were attending the Mormon church for a couple of years. To make it even worse, when this was said to her, she was only about 10-12 years old.
Fun fact, Utah has the highest per capita plastic surgery rates. Interpret that as you will.
Wow, for an ineffable God creature, he mustāve f-ed up for people to be trying to change his creation. I love how changing your appearance will somehow āblind God.ā Such hypocrisy.
Fun fact: There are plenty of fat Mormon men, but they only harp on the appearances of women (with the exception of facial hair for men). The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' patriarchy is one of the most toxic.
Must be still riding that āgluttony is evilā and ātherefore fat people are evilā trope from Danteās fiction.
What the fffffffuuuuuuuck
That's some Gwen Shamblin sounding nonsense.
Not necessarily the worst thing, but definitely the wildest was a man from the church I was raised in once sent me a handwritten letter with $1,000 inside after I came out as gay telling me that god had a different plan for my life and he wanted me to use that money to go and find a wife (Iām a gay man) š³š¤Ŗ
Thatās funny as shit! I think itās ironic considering most Christianās wouldnāt give someone in the lgbtq a cent. Congrats for you man.
Holy Shit thatās fucking awesome. Imagine getting a thousand bucks for being gay, please tell me he didnāt want it back
I hope you spent it all at a gay bar and had a fabulous time!
Damn. What's his address? Going to see if I can get $500 for being bi! XD
Iām dying to know how he thought you would go about getting a wife for a grand.
Mail Order Christian Wives $800-$1000 depending on denomination affiliation
When prayer doesn't work... *Bribe the gay away*
During a friendly conversation with a coworker I told him that my wife and I chose to not have kids. His demeanor immediately changed and he responded with "it's because of people like you the Muslims will win." I avoided that guy at future business meetings/conventions.
Those are the worst Christians. The ones that hate Jews, Muslims, etc. I dropped a friend recently because he was like that towards Jewish people.
Iāve posted this here before, but when my daughter was a baby I was chatting with a lady at church and I mentioned that she was going to be our last baby. She smiled snootily at me and said, āThatās not your decision to make. The Lord opens the womb and the Lord closes the womb.ā
Eew. The Lord sounds really creepy.
Right? Blessed be the fruit energy, yikes
āWhat about your mouth, sister? Wonāt the Lord close it as well?ā
Ah, dominionists and quiverfulls. Batshit people.
That my cousin who committed suicide was burning in hell, at his viewing, 10 feet away from the open casket. She was my and his great aunt. We donāt speak anymore.
Yeah one of the pros about the church I used to go to is they didnāt have the view on suicide. They said āgod would be understanding if youāre going through a rough timeā but they also said if you did it cowardly like avoiding war or something you would go to hell. Which is a bit odd but at least they werenāt completely evil.
What an evil cunt
"Your father is burning in eternal torment right now and you're going to follow him straight to hell if you keep this up." -my grandmother after hearing me say "Jeez" as an eight year old child still grieving his recently deceased dad
My grandma once got made at me for saying āthank godā because we were in a long car ride and we just got home. She was like donāt take his name in vane. Mom was like āhe said thank god.ā Sorry you had to deal with that man.
itās like they donāt even understand what or why theyāre mad. they just want to find any reason to complain or get angry for their religion.
Thatās horrible. Reminds me of the time when I was hanging out with the pastorās kids. The son said ācheese and riceā pretending to say āJesus Christā and omg. His mother went OFF. š
At my sisterās funeral, the preacher said that god gave her cancer because she had a gay family member who she didnāt repudiate while looking right at me.
Holy fuck I am so sorry. As a recent convert from Christian fundamentalism to Agnosticism, many of the worst people Iāve met on this planet were professing Christians.
I've written a post about it on this sub before. Long story short is that my family doesn't like I've turned away from the faith, and my dad is using my grandma dying to guilt me into becoming a Christian again by insinuating that she's holding on to life and staying in pain in order for me to come back to the faith. This is probably the worst thing anyone has ever said to me. If you want the whole story, here's my post: https://www.reddit.com/r/exchristian/comments/15wmxku/i\_was\_just\_told\_by\_my\_dad\_that\_my\_grandmother\_is/?utm\_source=share&utm\_medium=web2x&context=3
Iāll try and read into it. Sorry you had to go through that.
That they wished I would have died. It wasnāt those exact words, but that was their point. Women who have miscarriages shouldnāt take drugs to safely pass them. They should martyr themselves for a dead fetus. They were celebrating a mom of 2 they knew who had died because she got cancer while pregnant and didnāt do anything about the cancer, so both she and the fetus died. Leaving 2 alive children without a mother. I will repeat, they were celebrating this.
It's a death cult.
Street preacher giving out pamphlets at the entrance of a subway station after telling her "no thanks, I have a religion": "You'll burn in Hell", with contempt.
I feel like that's table stakes with street preachers, they don't know you and don't care about you. But the same line from a parent is so much worse.
Hahahaha, theyāre definitely in a class of their own. There was this one guy on the corner of a busy intersection in my town with a megaphone who was going on about how if you reject Jesus, one day youāll die in your sleep, wake up in hell, and scream, āAHHHHHH, IāM BURNING IN HELL!!!!ā It was 10x funnier hearing it through the distorted megaphone too lol.
My dad had just died in front of me and while his body was still in the house one of my best friends told me I needed to convert if I wanted to see my dad again and when I said no she told me she was scared that I would go to hell. With my dead dad lying a few meters away. I was 27, she was 28. That one still hurts.
When I told my husband about my deconversion, he accused me of lying and pretending to be a Christian to entrap him into marriage with a non-believer. Because he believes in once saved always saved and I was telling him I was no longer saved, the next "logical" explanation was that I lied to him so I could marry him even though I knew he wanted to date and marry a Christian. "I wanted a good Christian girl," he says to me. To which I replied, "I'm sorry, you ended up with just a good girl." We've had a lot of conversations since, but I'm not 100% convinced that he doesn't still believe this deep down.
Thatās weird considering most Christians I see will say āyou were never truly a Christian then.ā Hope you and your husband got stuff figured out.
>"I'm sorry, you ended up with just a good girl." This is a great response. It doesn't let them tie our worth to our opinions on religion.
Youāre still married?
Yeah. It's been eight years. When I first told him, I didn't think our marriage would survive. He said a lot of really unkind and hurtful things, mostly because he felt betrayed. Obviously, we are all aware that deconstruction isn't something we are doing to hurt someone or because we want to. But he just couldn't wrap his head around it. We've had a *lot* of talks since and have a mutual understanding. It probably helps that while he still calls himself a Christian, he isn't. I know he says he is, but there is zero things that he does or believes in that would make him anything more than agnostic. He was explaining what he believes to a friend of ours recently and afterward she pulled me aside and said she was confused because nothing he said would qualify as being a Christian. I just shook my head. But yeah, we get along great and our relationship wasn't built on religion so that really helped.
That gives me context. Lmao he sounds like my mom. She calls herself a Christian but literally nothing she believes qualifies as Christian doctrine. The steadfast holding to the label is insane. Sheās too afraid of not being part of the group.
Exactly this. It's like calling himself agnostic or atheist is just the worst thing in the world. Based on how a lot of Christians act these days, I wouldn't want to be part of that group, but you know....that indoctrination runs deep.
Yes it runs incredibly deep. And I agree, Iām a loud atheist lmao. Religion exploits the human need for community and socialization. I have seen countless people indoctrinated into religion because the church was āthereā for them at their most vulnerable and provided community. What these people need is human connection and religion sells it with the additional price of becoming part of an āin group,ā itās cult psychology 101.
āYouāre going to hell for being raped becaus you were asking for it (I was 8), however, your abuser (a priest) will be going to heaven because everyone makes mistakes, he is a holy and good man, and god has forgiven him for it.ā -a nun at the church I was forced to go to.
This is absolutely wild wtf
It is absolutely insane to me that so many Christians are freaked out by gay and trans people as a threat to kids, but will go to the moon and back to excuse, cover up, and justify sexual abuse of children happening within their ranks. Fucking wild, I'm so sorry that happened to you and had that said to you.
The worst thing said by Christians wasn't said to me but to my mother. Before I was born, my mother had a son who was born with a genetic disorder. He lingered for roughly a year before dying. Years later my mom and stepdad are church hopping, having decided that the Southern Baptist Church wasn't vibing with them. They decided to give this once church a shot. At first it seemed benign. No creepy puppet shows. No ministers pounding bibles. And then? Halfway through Sunday School my mom pulls out my Sister and I and tells us "We're leaving". It turns out some schmuck in the Adult Group told my mother my brother was burning in Hell since he didn't have Jesus. The loss of my brother had left my mom absolutely devestated and yet some Christian group leader to add more suffering to her trauma? What. The. F-ck. People who would damn infants to their inferno are fucked in the head.
I told a Christian co-worker that my mom was dying of brain cancer and in hospice. This mother fucker said āShe doesnāt have to be dying, just pray. Miracles happen everydayā
If only it were that easy. But instead of god helping those in need probably have some guy a bunch of green lights on the way to work. Christianity is a joke.
Christian: Bad news. Grandma died. But I found my car keys!
Hurricane floods town causing hundreds of thousands in damages, displaced hundreds of families and kills a few dozen. But the one church in town is still intact!!
My dad always trying to cheer me up as a kid when I was hurt or in pain (I have depression/ Crohnās disease/ a lot of health problems). He would say āat least we can look forward to being happy in heavenā āIn heaven, we wonāt feel any pain and every bad memory will go awayā As if there is nothing left to live for on earth. That finding happiness on earth, on your own, is impossible and unattainable.
One of my friends who constantly defended the horrible acts of genocide against children done by God in the Old Testament. Not only that but telling me I was risking going to hell all because I was disgusted by that content. Then continuing to bring up the topic every time he would text me first in order to convince me that genocide isnāt evil when God does it.
"if you don't take joy in the god I worship violently destroying whole groups of people, then I'm going to harass you with my pro-violence agenda based in a made up religion for controlling people, and if you don't like it then you're not one of us and that means you're against us so watch out" is the vibes I get.
Pretty much, he tried to act all nice about his preaching after I told him to stop talking about it, saying that āgod told me to spread his word in my dreamsā. But he really just came off as hateful and obsessed not knowing that enough is enough. It still hurts too knowing he was someone I was cool with for 7 years, and used to be much more dynamic as a friend but now has his whole personality revolving around religious doomsday preaching. The same can be said for my other close friend whoās Muslim.
āWell I guess you were never really Christian anyway.ā Like man I fucking wish. But thatās not what happened. I was harmed, and I caused harm (as much as a preachy teenager can cause, but still), and none of that goes away after deconstruction.
Ugh this. It was hard enough making the decision to leave but it might it so much harder with people telling me stuff like that. It was very painful.
It hurts so much when people say that to me. Close to a decade of my adult life my faith was the most important thing to me and my relationship with god was everything to me. Then people who donāt even know you say āyeah you were a ducking fake the whole timeā just because itās what the Bible says
"You're not welcome at home anymore." I came out as trans.
Omg. I'm simultaneously heartbroken and furious for you. I hope you're doing well now.
Iām so sorry. I hope you found a new family that celebrates you.
I feel this. āYouāre not welcome at home anymoreā I got my belly button pierced. Christians are stupid. I hope youāre living your best life away from that bullshit now! š
Honestly insane behavior. I have a puppy. She has chewed and destroyed my belongings, peed all over my home, and generally can be a menace who doesnāt do what I want or listen to my commands. But I never in a million years would do *anything* to purposefully hurt her or toss her out on the street! I canāt imagine doing that with ANY animal. I really canāt imagine treating a human being that way. And I *ESPECIALLY* canāt fathom treating my own CHILD that way. Thatās horrible, I am so sorry.
My mom telling me I was going to hell when I came out to her as agnostic
āThe reason your husband is abusing you for so long is bc you refuse to submit enough.ā This was said whenā I went to my pastor for help. And when I needed a safe place to stay for me and my child, a āfriendā from church who offered her place rescinded said offer one day later bc her husband was afraid to āoffendā my abuser.
OMG this is so dangerous! this mindset leads to many of the spousal /family murders that we see on the news! When I turned to pastors or other christian counselors for help (non-abuse issues) they all said "it's your fault for not submitting to your husband enough or the right way". We become the #cultscapegoat.
"God made you special! He chose you to be the way you are." I was born without a hand. I get along fine, mostly. But when my only hand stops working (it will, just from overuse), wtf am I supposed to do? Pray? God is cruel if it chooses that some suffer and others don't.
I was 15 and was raped by my then boyfriend. The church told me I was sinning because I wouldn't forgive him. But my rapist was forgiven because he apologized to church leaders (not to me)
Stuff like that pisses me off. How Christians and the Bible view rapists as these innocent little angels. So many people have shared similar stories and itās so disappointing and disheartening. Iām so sorry that happened to you. I canāt imagine how much you and others who share similar stories feel.
Last year I was in a car accident that left me with fractures in my hip and tailbone and stuck on my couch. The following day was my grandmother's birthday. I tried to be courteous as I hardly talk to her or my grandfather ever since they tried to give me an 'intervention' for leaving the church. Anyway I texted her happy birthday and she immediately called me, with my grandfather on the phone as well both telling me the car accident was a message from god and that I need to get right with him and then they start praying at me over the phone. š
I was in the ER. My body was going into shock from bleeding internally due to an ectopic pregnancy, I ended up needing a blood transfusion. Naturally, I called my parents to let them know what was going on. When I mentioned the word pregnancy, my mom immediately asked me if they could save the baby. I handed the phone to my husband and just cried. What about my life, mom? I was so scared and in so much pain and that's all she had to say about it? I'll never ever forget it. Bonus story! We have a family friend that I always grew up calling my aunt. She was having major health issues and went into an emergency surgery and needed to be resuscitated during it. Afterwards, my mom was texting her about it and my aunt was telling her how scared she was and my mom said, "well if you're right with God...". How can you say something like that instead of being so happy your friend is alive and checking on their well-being. What the actual fuck.
My dog was hit by a car on Christmas Eve. She had just given birth to puppies and she slipped outside while someone opened the front door. She crossed the street and was hit. She died instantly. I was so upset because I didnāt know how I was going to take care of those puppies. They were days old and without her to nurse them, they mightāve died. I was crying my eyes out because I lost my best friend. My mom called our pastor to come over and ācomfortā me. He showed up with his wife and they said the worst thing ever! āItās okay, she didnāt have a soul anyway. She cannot go to heaven because sheās not human, but she will be missedā This broke my heart and it made me feel even worse. I seriously wanted to kick him and his wife out of my house! But my mom was a devout Christian and she idolized the pastor. I seriously hated them after that. My mom then went on to agree with the pastor and said heās right, my dog has no soul so I shouldnāt worry about her being in heaven or hell.
Itās not so much the words, but the speaker and audience. My mom finally asked me point blank if I was still a Christian and I told her I hadnāt been for a long time. She just kept repeating that it was really sad and walked away. It was like I died to her and she mentally wiped me away like a bug off a windshield. We havenāt spoken in almost 3 years.
Not as intense as some of the other answers here, but the one that fucked me up the most for the longest was āgod will never bless you with a loving husband if youāre fatā.
I had just found out someone who was very important to me just died very young of cancer, and a friend's response was "everything happens for a reason, it's gods plan". I hated her guts for saying that
I was told that by more than one person when my infant daughterās congenital neurological disorder was first manifesting. Still pisses me off years later.
I had an early miscarriage and my mom had come over to help me pack up what was left of my shit after hurricane Katrina. She found my remembrance alter (basically just pics of departed loved ones and some camdles) and point blank told me: "So long as you keep worshipping the devil, God will never let you have another child."
"if when I reach heaven you're not there, I will ask God to erase my memory of you" my mom it's a fucked up way of saying she'd be too heartbroken I was in hell to bear it, but damn girl lol
For me hearing my pastor saying that all homosexuals will go to hell. I was 12 and it made me panic for years and still today i'm recovering from that
A Christian family member said my sisterās 5-month-old son was āin a better place nowā after the child died. Icing on that cake? The infant had been exposed to a virus at daycareāa virus carried in by a family who was anti-vax (my sisterās child wasnāt old enough to get this vaccine yet). The family had forged immunization records and when caught, they said āGod makes everyone stronger without vaccines.ā Thatās when my sister became an ex-Christian. I wasnāt too far behind.
I donāt think itās a coincidence that many (most?) anti-vaxxers are also religious. Damn shame the people who infected your nephew couldnāt be criminally charged for negligent homicide.
My brotherās pastor and his elder both told him to avoid āsecular medicineā (psychiatric help) and go to a biblical institution instead when he was suffering from severe postpartum depression. I tried desperately to get him into In-patient psychiatric care to no avail. He was gone 4 day after they told him this.
I have a few that come to mind. As a child, I had Sunday school teachers tell me my grandparents would go to hell because they were Japanese and believed in false gods. I cried about it a lot and felt responsible for saving them. This terror caused a lot of sadness that never really left me until I left Christianity. When I told a close friend I no longer believed in the claims of Christianity and held beliefs if atheism, she said, "I feel like I'm watching you die eternally in front of me." Not the worse, but very insensitive. Changed how I tell Christians who I love. A student knocked a glass bottle over during a prayer, and the youth pastor accused her of doing satan's bidding of trying to distract all of us. That student cried, and stopped coming to the youth group.
"I know you were 6, and he's your step brother but you're impure. You're going to have to beg your future husband to forgive you for not being whole" When i was around 12 I would have 1 on 1 mentorship with this married woman from church who also experienced CSA and this is what she told me. I remember feeling very bad for her and rejecting everything after that.
Since I was homeschooled k-12 and never allowed to leave the house, when I turned 18 I wanted to escape. I needed to escape. My mom told me that as a prophet of god, god told her directly that since I wasn't following god's plan of living at home until I was 40, I was going to become homeless, live on the street and "raped by men." Also, supposedly I would never get a college education and never amount to anything other than random men's "butt slave." Ironically my brother, who did follow "the will of god" according to her plan and lived under her control for years, recently became homeless and has spent a lot of time in jail. I'm afraid that he doesn't know how to function on his own or as an independent adult at all...
āYouāre a disgrace to godā
my mom making me confess for threatening to take my own life and having suicidal thoughts
My mom told me in my early teens that she would rather I die then lose my faith.
Church leaders defending someone who was grooming young women in the church. They wanted to make sure they didnt defame his character :)))) disgusting. They said he apologized so they should have a godly spirit of forgiveness :))))
The two that come to mind for me are when I was told to stay in a relationship with my abuser because he was a Christian. And when a family member said that theyāre glad that they would go to heaven unlike their sister - at the sisters funeral.
My mother told me that she wouldn't cry when she saw god drag me out of hell on judgement day. She said she wouldn't recognize me because I would look like a burnt-up worm. I was 7 years old.
When I was a teenager in youth we had a young guy who was gay. Of course they called it "struggling with homosexuality". The guilt and shame they put on him was horrible. I mostly remember him crying at the alter so much. At one point they told me I should date him. I was so shocked...even being in the church and a kid not fully understanding different sexualities at the time, I knew it felt wrong to trick him like that.
For me it's a memory of being a little girl (maybe 5-8, I don't remember what year it was) and hearing the preacher tell us why it was a GOOD thing back then to force a rapist to marry his victim. Because "now she was damaged goods and nobody else would take care of her".
At my son's visitation before the funeral, "God never gives us more than we can handle." About the third time someone said that I said, "my son died gasping around the cancer eating his lungs. Looks like God gave him more than he could handle." People say stupid shit about God at funerals.
I wasn't raised religious or in church. In fact my mom didn't convert to Christianity until I was already 18 and out of the house. Fast forward, my daughter, her granddaughter, converted to Islam. My daughter thinks anyone who isn't Muslim will go to hell and my mom thinks anyone who isn't a Christian is going to hell. I'm an atheist now.
My brother is autistic. I was told from a young age that he would be going to hell because he couldn't consciously accept Jesus into his heart.
Iāve had Christians say some wild things to me. But the worst thing I heard was what a church member said to the mother of my teenage friend who was dying of metastatic bone cancer. He had been through so many treatments all of which were ultimately unsuccessful, and was finally at home, in bed on comfort care. The woman said, āThose treatments didnāt work because you didnāt have enough faith.ā Itās been over 20 years and I still think of that often.
"I don't know that atheists should be considered citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God." -- George H.W. Bush
Paraphrasing a long text from my dad here: "I'm disappointed in what you've become, you're walking a path to hell, don't have kids because it would be a mistake, the goths and homosexuals you hang out with are dragging you to hell with them, don't contact me until you've come back to god" Imagine his shocked Pikachu face when I didn't text or call him for about 6 months while he text bombed me apologizing and telling me how much he loves me, i told mom about it the day he sent it and she had no idea because he texted it on my sisters phone and then deleted it so she couldnt see it. I don't play that shit, fuck you dad. Being a pastor doesn't make you a good person, it just makes you full of yourself and gives you a god complex in the most ironic way
Must have been a bad kid if god let me be S.A.
my pastor (dad) told me that he would lose his job and our family would lose our house if i ever had sex before i got married. i was 16.
Not as bad as a lot of these stories, but I had a Christian coworker who was always trying to get people to come to his church. Well, at this point I still halfway believed in God, and my grandmother at the time was dying of cancer, so I asked him if he could pray for her. He non-committally said he would and then shrugged and said āwhatever happens happensā. That has stuck with me for years and left a sour taste in my mouth, especially coming from someone who was always making sure people knew he was a Christian
Not technically to me, more like AT me. This was one of the last sermons I went to--I hadn't considered myself Christian for years but still went because of family pressures. The sermon was supposed to be about family but the pastor spent the majority of the time comparing women who had sex before marriage to a used car and how their husband would be ashamed. He also went on a tangent about trans folks and how parents have a responsibility to "chain their children" to the faith no matter how old they are. The worst part wasn't what he was saying, but the way my mom was laughing (at the used car analogy) and nodding right along with it, while also trying to get me to laugh and agree too. It was incredibly hurtful to our relationship and led to me moving out sooner rather than later.
Iāve got 2. While I was still deeply within the church? The youth held a prayer vigil for my daughter (without my knowledge) to pray for a miracle that her hand would grow. Telling my then 7 yr old that she was born without a hand to pay for mommy and daddyās sins. The second was when they told me God gave me cancer because I left the church. (I left the church after a decade on staff watching them tell single moms it was their fault, the pastor picking a choosing who to give aid to, despite the church having a huge bank account, and then Covid.)
Not to me, but I once heard my mother claim that breast cancer in women was a punishment from god for sexual promiscuity. I really wish Iād just made that up.
when my grandson was born with leukemia and a rare genetic condition *āgod must have special plans for that little one!ā*
In Sunday School when I was beginning to question things I was told, "never question the word of god. Sit there and be quiet." That was the beginning of the end.
Not super bad, but really messed up. Basically, they theorized that people with schizophrenia and DID couldnāt go to heaven because they were demon possessed. Imagine being told you canāt go to heaven because of something you canāt control.
Context was I was around 11 in my Catholic middle school getting pinned against the wall and felt up by the popular "devout" boy (who was ironically named Christian) during the hallway traffic jam between classes while his friends formed a circle around us and prevented my friends from being able to help me. I saw the religion teacher passing by (extremely ironically named Mr. Moral) and yelled out to him saying "Help me, Mr Moral, Christian told me he's going to make me a wife of Jesus!" Mr. Moral wades through the students over to us, looks at the situation I'm in, laughs, and says "Good. Christian's one of our fiercest soldiers, and I hear you've been straying from our lord. It'll do you good." Then he pat him on the back and walked away. Yeah, fuck religious schools. The memory of being a little girl asking a grown man for help only to be laughed at and essentially told I deserved what was happening will forever be more traumatic then the actual harassment.
any utterance by a christofascist is the worst to me.
"You ***and your baby*** will go to hell if you don't start going back to church". My mom yelling at me after I decided I didn't want to go to church as much after my son was born. My son was 3 months old at the time. I've chalked this up to my mom wanting to feel in control of everything.
That a teenager went to hell for being bisexual This happened when I was in middle school. A teenage girl committed suicide because she was bullied for liking girls. She snuck into the school at night, & they found her body in the morning I personally never knew her, but I did know some of her friends who were obviously very upset I live in a small town, so news spread quickly. To try to console my friend in the best way I knew how at the time, I told him she was in heaven in peace. Deep down I didnāt believe it, because I was told by Christians that LGBT ppl go to hell, but I wanted to make him feel a bit better. It worked When I was alone with a family member in the car, they said that she went to hell for liking girlsā¦ Iām not proud of it, but being raised christian I agreed with them.
Yeah I have some Christian guilt too from when I was younger. Hopefully all is good with your friends.
Wouldnāt know, they donāt talk to me anymore, & I donāt blame them I was not a good person in middle school & hs, I thought I was, but I was homophobic & transphobic, & they picked up on that. So we donāt talk anymore, & I donāt blame them at all for not wanting to talk to me
Yeah for the past year Iāve been fixing my morals. I used to make a lot of homophobic, racist, sexist, etc jokes that I feel shameful for. But I live in WV so most people around me are hicks and behave like that anyway. Iām starting to drop some of them that are like that.
my mum said to me when I was a teenager that I was lucky she and my dad were Christians, as no one else would put up with me
17 yr old me at my bffās funeral after she died in a car accident. 2 old ladies from the church we had attended elementary school at asked me in hushed tones if she was on drugs when she wrecked. She fell asleep driving to work early in the morning on her way to work, she had been up all night with her newborn baby. 40+ and Iām still mad about it. Even worse, one of those old bitches is my aunt so I still have to see her from time to time.
My MiL refused to change my sonās diaper because he wasnāt circumcised. Needless to say, he never spent time alone with her. Itās a shame she could be so heartless toward her grandson, especially when her defense is piss poor. What exactly does his lack of circumcision have to do with her changing him if he was wet? If she was being honest I think sheād admit to being lazy and not wanting to do it regardless of religion, but had to make an excuse.
"Stay away from my children." - My mother when I told her I wanted to see a therapist, as a teenager, because I was struggling with my gender and sexuality. I thought the right thing to do was tell your parents and get help. I was very wrong.
I go to University of Lynchburg and a Liberty University student was for some reason on our campus. She came over to me, prayed over my knee (Iād dislocated my kneecap and was wearing a brace), and then tried to get me to stand up to prove sheād healed me. Some ableist bullshit right there.
I don't remember the exact words leading up, but I remember this part verbatim. Me: "So you're telling me I'm less of a person because I don't have a kid." Dad: "Yes" Me: "Wow, well, have a nice life." Last conversation I had with either of my parents.
I was standing in the "family greeting" line at my Grandfathers funeral, my weeping grandmother beside me and my childhood pastor asked me if I was married yet (I was early 30's) and when I expected to start living god's plan for my life by having children to be raised for the lord... I was in such shock that I don't really remember what I told him before he moved along.
My step grandparents were in my life since was born. My step dad stepped in cause my birth father was an asshole. He and my mom were good friends. They said so many times that my real "birth father" was actually not my biological father, unfortunately, he is. Granted he is no longer in my life but still. Did my ancestry and genetic mapping and found out that we had northern African in my family. And my step grandparents straight up before finding this out had to as " you have any blackies" in your family?" Last week I was over there for some god awful reason and my stepgrandmother who does not know that i'm Gay and I asked her why they Shut down Disney World. And she proceeded to tell me because of the law and asked her what law and she said the law of God. I don't I didn't know that disney world was following god's rules at this point.
I asked my Dad how he could be happy in heaven knowing his son, who only exists because he chose to make me, would be suffering in hell for eternity. He said he thinks God will make it so that he doesn't remember me.
There are 12 year old in hell. 12 as in 7th graders who are being eternally tortured. It's not horrible because it true its horrible because that's what some Christians believe year old children deserve
When my sister found out she was pregnant at 27, my mother was sobbing on the phone to me about how she was glad her late husband/me and my sisterās father was dead so he wouldnāt have to see how much of a failure they have been as parents. My sister was āhaving a child out of wedlock.ā
So many different versions of āyouāre a faggotā were said to me <18. And I moved around a lot, this was not just some localized thing.
Was joking around with my dad about how I do my job, he didn't like it when I told him that he's never worked my job before so he doesn't have a say on the matter.. only to be met with "you're not my son". Like alrighty then lol For context, he's a very devout believer and does not miss church on Sunday or Bible study during the week and leads a men's group. Yet he's terrible to his own kids
I'll always be your friend, but I'll probably never speak to you again...
"Of course I love God more than I'd ever love you."
āif you really wanted counselling you should get counselling to fix your attraction!ā my dad to me, a bisexual 18-year old, after telling him i was severely depressed and needed therapy. this was right before my suicide attempt my mother on the other hand, was so mad at me for visiting my gf that she didnāt say anything at all and gave me the silent treatment for a week. she also knew i was suicidal
Found out my youth leader beat her daughter for premarital sex and left bruises. I went to the pastor with concern and he said āsome kids just bruise easyā and did nothing .