Posts Tagged ‘deconversion’


Apostastic! Part 1: Methodist Madness

August 11th, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

There have been a couple of bible stories (about, not from) in the news in the last few weeks. One was about the “Jefferson Bible,” a version of the four canonical Gospels that Thomas Jefferson worked over with a pair of scissors. He cut out all of the miracles (including the big reveal resurrection) and inconsistencies that he could find, and pasted it into a book he called The Life and Morals of Jesus of Nazareth.

The other was about the planned online publication of the Codex Sinaiticus. The Codex is a Christian Bible, written in Greek and dated from the Fourth Century CE. It contains the oldest surviving complete copy of the New Testament, including books that were later eliminated from the canon, and is missing verses that are included in the current version. The most notable omission is in this early version of the Gospel of Mark, which ends 12 verses earlier than later versions, without mentioning the zombie resurrected Jesus.

Because I am that kind of solipsist, reading these stories got me thinking about my deconversion. I didn’t have a sudden epiphany. It was more a long slide away from my childhood faith. But it was studying the bible seriously that turned on the boosters and sent me careening toward apostasy.

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Apostastic! Part 2: For The Bible Tells Me So

September 3rd, 2008 by Oskar Kennedy

My Methodist upbringing mostly lacked the dramatic elements of more demonstrative religions. The only parts of it that were at all compelling were the bits that came out of the bible.

The Christian Bible has, for all its faults, some pretty good stories, especially for a young boy. Natural disasters, bloody battles, amazing miracles, even some naughtysexiness. And it’s written in such an archaic manner (or translated so inaccurately, depending on the version) that the constant slavery, rape and infanticide are hardly noticeable.

Even for adults, there are some valuable fables and parables. Many portions of the text, especially in the New Testament, contain sound moral and ethical lessons. I wouldn’t look for advice on gender equality or race relations, but if you’ve been hit by a car and you’re bleeding out at the bottom of a drainage ditch? Well, there’s a reason why someone who stops to help is called a Good Samaritan.

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Ex-Believer Extravaganza

April 27th, 2009 by Oskar Kennedy

After a completely understandable unacceptable seven-month delay, I am finally putting the finishing touches on the third installment of my Apostastic! series, about my fall away from the Christian faith in which I was raised. Since I’m fairly absolutely certain that most of you started showing up after the first posts on the topic, I thought I’d give you the opportunity to start at the beginning, so that you have the slightest idea what I’m talking about when I publish Part 3.

Also, in the spirit of making the topic into a conversation, rather than a street-corner soapbox rant, I thought I would open up the old compu-mail for you to share your own deconversion stories. If you’ve got a tale to tell about leaving faith behind, send it off to oskar at symbol suburbanpanic dot com. I’ll put the best ones up as guest posts. Unless you’re chicken, in which case I’ll just read it and I won’t share with the rest of the class.

Of course, if you’re really eager to avoid my (mostly ineffectual) gate-keeping, you could just post your story in the comments. Either way, I look forward to some interesting anecdotes.

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Apostastic! Part 3: A Game Of Questions

May 8th, 2009 by Oskar Kennedy

The Bible as word-of-deity, divinely inspired and able to address any conceivable wrinkle of life, was like the gravity of my Christian faith. Everybody knew it was true, but we rarely discussed it, because everybody already knew it was true. What was the point in rehashing something that everybody took for granted?

Studying the Bible as literature for class, rather than looking to it for divine guidance and wisdom, forced me to abandon this major premise. At first, it was just an intellectual exercise; ignore your conditioned reverence for the text. Assume that it’s just another book, and read it as such. Don’t ignore internal contradictions, or chalk them up to the ineffability of heavenly wisdom. Treat them as you would in any other book, with a raised eyebrow and a firm “WTF?”

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