What causes a person to stop believing in "church doctrine"?

Unc, it was the Church itself, that caused ME to stop believing in anything that it had to say about ANYTHING. As a chld, I was taught one thing, a set of moral values that was "supposed" to be immutable (unchangeable). When I got into High School, I saw that those values that were taught were constantly being changed or ignored by those in "power" in the Chruch AND as I read more and more the WORDS of Jesus in the Bible, I realized that what the Church leaders were doing and saying didn't quite mesh with those words of Jesus. I realized that the Chruch was being run by hypocrites who preached one thing but insisted on something else entirely. I tried to hang in there and get things to turn out properly and realized quickly, that was NOT going to happen. So, I simply left to find my own way. Years later I discovered Wicca. It's basic tenets not only allowed for a person to follow one's OWN conscience it was practically MANDATORY. We are NOT supposed to be sheep, following the way together in synch, we are NOT supposed to be part of the choir, singing that same song in the same identical way as everyone else,. rather, we are supposed to ALL be soloists, singing our songs according to our own interpretations and in our own style. What Goddess says to YOU has absolutely NO relevance to what Goddess says to ME. I am NOT bound by "pacts" between the Gods and YOU anymore than you are bound by pacts made between ME and them. The truth as revealed to you, while true, may NOT be true for me as it is revealed to me by Deity. These concepts were totally foreign to the Church of my youth and simply were not (and continue to not be) acceptable to the Church Posers that be.

Essentially, the Church convinced ME, that it wasn't a true Religion. Goddess and God themselves DID. They brought me to an understanding of what Religion is REALLY all about. An ongoing conversation with Deity that is constant, loving, accepting, and honest to its very core. Listening, reading and finding other ways to worship introduced me to new ideas. However it was direct conversation with Deity that led me to believe in my present Religion. Those conversations led me to follow a life of unyielding acceptance of ALL, simply for their OWN sake. They taught me the TRUE concepts of unconditional love for not only Deity but for EVERYTHING else that exists. They led me to be able to form my OWN forms of worship and to understand that each time I worship was a unique expereince and not only MAY be different each and everytime. It has proven to BE different each and everytime. They made me understand that the moral ideas of Right and Wrong were constant. Right was Right ALL the time and Wrong was Wrong ALL the time, the ONLY thing that mitigated their degree of Rightness or Wrongness was the set of circumstances at EACHindividual occasion. In other words, as long as I follow my conscience, I simply could NOT go off in a wrong direction, because Goddess and God were actually providing me the guidance and advice that was needed, as long as I listened and heeded them, I could do no harm to anyone, not even myself.

Brightest Blessings,

Raji the Green Witch

Knowledge of the bible and Church doctrine, many doctrines of the churches are man made doctrines with a lot of strings attached. For example in my mothers church it is a sin for a woman to wear pants to church but in the catholic church it isn't? It's a sin in the Methodist church African episcopal to drink alcohol but not in the catholic church? Who is right and what does god except? Jesus turned water into wine at a wedding festival and dranked it at the last supper, well i guess by the Methodist rule hes a sinner or do they not know what they are doing with man made doctrines. in one religion only 144,000 are going to heaven and from that religion and all other religions teach every body is going except those who go to hell. I believe in a higher power but not religion or the churches that teach lies and rob the people of their needs.This is what caused me to leave, i would be better off on my own then to be a part of the whore Babylon.

Well, I am personally not a Christian. But I do have an extremely close relationship with God. I grew up in church but left it because there were too many useless things to live up to that actually made me feel depressed and guilty for not being able to live up to them. I love God and love others which gives me this euphoria. The reason Jesus told us to go out of our way to help others is because He knew what effect it would have on us. When you reach out to someone in anyway you feel high on happiness in a way. You do not have to be a Christian at all to be happy, infact it may be the opposite in some ways. Just love God in your own way, talk to Him like you'd talk to a best friend, husband, mother, father, etc. Also something that has been proven to completely heal people of depression is mdma therapy. Please email me, I would like to tell you more about this. I was diagnosed bipolar years ago and do not have it anymore because of this advice I am giving you.

It happenned predominantly when a pastor told my wife that our kids were going to hell if they did not belong to his church. I read the Bible cover to cover 3 times and determined he was nuts and so were half the people in the Bible and I discussed this finding with many others who had done the same. I do like the democracy way of coming to a logical functional common sense conclusion about life. Information has come in at various other times in my life to confirm more of what I think.

The churches kept saying, "It doesn't matter what you think!", and I suppose if they want to use their powers to oppress people like me, they could get away with it if we predetermined that they would get away with it before we were all born. But I don't let them do that easily. I maintain my passion for healing and survival as best I can with others who feel the same way. We don't need some big organization telling us how it is.

Course the next thing is to organize people who think like I do to make a large non profit organization that can put forth those principles so others can share this newer way of being. Maybe some day. But for now, concentrate on the predestined chains in my life, one daughter with Stage IV Cancer and a son with cocaine addictions in jail.

I can only ask for healing for me and my family.

Healing be unto you and yours and me and mine

In Forgive Affirmed Spirit

~skahhh

I was brought up a Roman Catholic. if you read the new testament and the teachings of Jesus you will soon realise they do things that are directly against the teachings of Jesus.

So I went to church of England and led a pure and blameless Christian life only to endure all sorts of awful and unjustified crap in my life. if there was a loving God he would not punish blameless people.

My life has now turned around and I am very happy but its no thanks to anyones God.

because it's bull and i realised how silly the traditions and stories and riutals are. I liked to believe fairytails when i was 6, i think i'm just too old now. I just believe that we should all love eachother and be good, and religion that eaches this i accept, but i still will not follow, because i believe i will be able to do more with out following religion, but myself.

When one wants to do what is forbidden according to Christianity. Like when King Hnery started a new denomination (the Evangilical church) just because he wanted to devorce his wife and marry another.

Good Luck!!

When church doctrine is held up to the light of bible truth.

Hypocrisy, sexism, capitalism, self-righteousness, controlling behavior on the part of the clergy and other members of the congregation, the attitude that people are inherently sh1t....

the list goes on....

What if you didn't stop believing inthe basic precepts, but stopped believing in the church members?