Leaving.

Why are people leaving the Church?

I left the Church when I was 13 years old.
I was never confirmed.

This was 1967.

The reasons that I left the Church were because we (I and my peers) did not think that the Church as we experienced it reflected the teachings of Jesus or the will of a benevolent God.

But the main reason was the Church's attitude towards sex.

The Church seemed to think sexual desire was dirty and sinful and preached punishment for disobedience.

This especially related to homosexual desires although the subject was never referred to openly.

We considered churchgoers hypocrites.

But we never rejected God.
Nor did we reject the teachings of Jesus.

My experience of the Church was that it was dead.
The congregation went through the motions every Sunday reciting the prescribed words and singing the prescribed hymns but it seemed it me that they ignored it during the week and merely acted as if it didn't exist.

Hence the accusations of hypocrisy.

My experience of Church was not good.

So I left.

But I never lost my faith in a loving God.
I just did not know how to reach Him.

As for the teachings of Jesus I believe that the whole of the peace and love movement of the 1960s was based on the teachings of Jesus.

But we were betrayed by our rock stars.

Peace and love became sex and drugs and rock and roll and a generation was ruined.

Other people may have other reasons but this is why I left the Church in 1967.


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