specifically, there was some small LGBTQ protests that put the hatred into perspective- there were the protestors (who maybe went out of their way to be annoying and provoke things;), assholes, and everyone quietly cheering for the assholes.
it made me look at my own behavior… and I didn’t want to be an asshole (or perhaps, more accurately said: didn’t want to be that kind of asshole. I’m not a perfect person.). This prompted a slow slide from non-practicing through agnosticism into straight up atheism.
It didn’t help that it took 2-3 years before anyone reached out to me about why I left, and then it was because my mom had asked a pastor to do just that… he didn’t get it when I quote CS Lewis Mere Christianity (“That a person ought be a better person as a christain.”…) I was a better person as an atheist; because I wasn’t obligated to be an asshole.
edit to add: it wasn’t just the LGBTQ hate. that was just the nature of the incident that brought me face to face with the ugly truth. It was easy to say, for example, that West Burroughs Baptist’s aren’t real christians. There’s a lot of out-groups that christians hate on. hell, sometimes those outgroups are even other christians (how many wars have been started between catholics and protestants?) more contemporary, look at the hatred for refugees and asylum seekers.
hate.
specifically, there was some small LGBTQ protests that put the hatred into perspective- there were the protestors (who maybe went out of their way to be annoying and provoke things;), assholes, and everyone quietly cheering for the assholes.
it made me look at my own behavior… and I didn’t want to be an asshole (or perhaps, more accurately said: didn’t want to be that kind of asshole. I’m not a perfect person.). This prompted a slow slide from non-practicing through agnosticism into straight up atheism.
It didn’t help that it took 2-3 years before anyone reached out to me about why I left, and then it was because my mom had asked a pastor to do just that… he didn’t get it when I quote CS Lewis Mere Christianity (“That a person ought be a better person as a christain.”…) I was a better person as an atheist; because I wasn’t obligated to be an asshole.
edit to add: it wasn’t just the LGBTQ hate. that was just the nature of the incident that brought me face to face with the ugly truth. It was easy to say, for example, that West Burroughs Baptist’s aren’t real christians. There’s a lot of out-groups that christians hate on. hell, sometimes those outgroups are even other christians (how many wars have been started between catholics and protestants?) more contemporary, look at the hatred for refugees and asylum seekers.
hatred is a pervasive feature of Christianity.