I've been meaning to write something up about the subject of leaving the church because they "lied to me". I have had, of late, a few friends, aquintances or random people tell the world that the are leaving the church for this very reason. As sad as it is for me to lose a spiritual friend I don't get it.
The reason I don't get it is because they refuse to share their side of the story with me so that I can understand (if you're going to tell the whole world you're leaving, then you'd better be ready to tell the reason behind it to every person who cares about you, it's the courteous thing to do, they care about you after all. If you don't want to tell the story behind it, then don't announce it to the whole world).
One person said they wouldn't tell me because they didn't want me to fall away from the church. As much as I appreciate the thought, I'm not some soft, tender hearted little child. I'm actually a cold hearted, pessimistic, logically, skeptical, wildly imaginative, stubborn, lazy, granola hipster, I'll understand and I won't undermine your experiences even if I don't agree with it. I'm a fairly nice person to get along with and I know how a bad experience can taint the rest of your life and reliving it or encountering it again can leave a terrible bitter taste in your mouth. I don't want to know so I can ridicule or argue with you about how wrong you are, I want to know because you are my friend or because I find myself in the same life boat and wonder why I didn't jumped ship.
