What’s the reason you stopped going to church?

46 comments

  1. I was never a believer, but I liked the idea of the community of church.

    Then, when I was 12, a priest said if you don’t support our President and what he’s trying to do in Afghanistan and Iraq then you should leave. So I left.

    Edit: I thought this was askreddit not askmen and I am not a man. My bad.

  2. The Catholic Church started shielding pedos, ignoring their own teachings and just watched the world go to shit without trying to encourage civility because it was easy and non-confrontational. Catholic Church to me is just a scam now.

  3. stopped going to catholic church because of all the sexual abuse by preachers…just couldn’t do it.

  5. COVID was the catalyst, but it only revealed what I was hiding from myself for years- i no longer truly believed.

  7. I’m back now but churches don’t support single men and often look at us trying only to see our sin and with their hands out for tithing

  8. Because there’s so much hypocrisy in church today. Instead i read the bible and have a personal connection to my creator

  9. Used to attend a Catholic Church.

    As I got older, I started to question Religion.

    But one thing I find funny, and contradicting, is when they say “Money is the Root of Evil”….and like 3 minutes later, they pass a bin around to give them Money…..

    Oh, and Priests molest little Boys.

  10. Realized religion is just part of a large set of tools to keep masses in line and rob desperate people of their money.

  11. Never bought into the idea that we are condemned to hell no matter or actions except for Jesus. Why not make our own actions the deciding factor?

  12. Why did I stop going to church? Dads a minister. Both parents hyper religious and even more judgemental. I decided all religion is a money and power grab. What’s better than threatening you in this life AND the next?? Hate all religion.
    If yours makes you happy, great. Don’t convert me.

  13. Giving up half of my Sunday, if I want to pray, ill do it at home.

    I don’t need Bill & Grace to see me out on Sunday to KNOW im worshipping god, religion should be between you and god, not you and the entire town. I have games to play lol If god made me in his image, they must have loved video games, cause I sure do 😛

    Do I love church?… not so much. The corruption of the churches is NOT helping, but the covering up, and JUSTIFICATION of pedo’s is a nail in the coffin for me.

    Better question, why would someone still support a corrupt church? surely god would not judge you for not blindly accepting the pedo giving the speech who claims to speak on behalf of god. “I am also not saying anyone speaking is a pedo, but the ones who were discovered were brushed under rugs.”

    OH, and the endless war against homosexuality, for morally LOVING people, they can be the angriest, most hate-filled people I’ve ever met who claim to believe in god.

    that and I think the absolute worst after the kids is the **endless profits,** used by the men of mega-churches, who steal from the public to afford their lavish lifestyles while donating nothing and living the opposite life god told them to live.

    TLDR: I believe in god, I just don’t believe in the men representing him at church.

  14. I belonged to a religion that was founded by an evil man and perpetuated by evil men. The church calls them prophets.

    I couldn’t stomach singing songs praising men who were pedophiles and polygamists and misogynists and violent.

    Wanna read some juicy stuff, read up on this church.

    My church rhymes with Rormon.

  15. When I found out they were “ok” with gay people but only if they remain single and don’t act on their “urges” fuck that.

  16. Got out of the habit of going. Plus, I barely knew anyone at the church I grew up in because nearly everyone I knew who went there had moved away so trying to fit in never felt right.

    And while this may sound bad, there weren’t any single people my age there

    I’ve thought about finding a different church to go to I often work on the weekends

  17. Got kicked out for asking if God created everything, then isn’t God both good and evil? It was a southern Baptist church. I go now sometimes because my wife does, but I don’t believe in it anymore.

    Edit: she goes to a methodist church. I don’t set foot in southern Baptist churches anymore.

  20. Beyond not believing any of it, I have children and church doesn’t sound like a very safe place for them.

  21. When the priest I grew up with grabbed me by the balls and squeezed until I ruptured a testicle because I refused to have anal sex with him… that’s about the time I started to reconsider my faith.

    Fuck the Catholic Church.

  22. I grew up Mormon and stopped going a few months ago. For the past 5-7 years, I’ve found out that the leaders hid certain historical truths from members. I don’t really get along with anyone in even a social way at church. They are mostly right-wing families and I’ve become very much Leftist. I can’t participate in a religion that’s not honest with its members about the origin (especially Joseph Smith and his book of Mormon “translation.”)

  23. Didn’t… it left me. Long story short can’t tell the difference between churches and businesses these days. Even smaller churches are run by the old guard instead of the Bible. By that I mean “well this is the way we do it”. By the way I’ve got a degree in Biblical studies. Still believe just don’t go to a building.

  24. The priest announced to the congregation who they should vote for president, because their individual choice is the “most faithful.”

  25. Outside of being an atheist, the kind of church I used to go to took up too much of my Sunday. I wouldn’t be able to watch my football.

  26. Priest was trying to groom me. I had already suffered severe sexual abuse. He thought I was an easy target.

    Looked him up when everything broke with the catholic church. Most priests got transferred. This fucker was immediately defrocked, he was that bad.

  28. I looked around me and realized how full of shit everyone was.The hypocrisy was also overwhelming. Christians preach “love”, “acceptance”, and “forgiveness,” but then judge and belittle those around them. It made me want to vomit.

    Then you get into all the holidays, which are just pagan holidays to make conversion easier back in europe, and the fact that the savior they praise is depicted as a white anglo male when he was actually dark skinned. It just bleeds fake.

    Its laughable because if 90% of America ran into Jesus as he really was they would dismiss and discard him.

    Also, the people I knew who didn’t go to church were actually better human beings.

  29. My mom used to bring unhoused people to church, and after a couple years the pastors told her to stop because it was making other people uncomfortable. I never went to church again.

  31. I was a hindu and grew up in a part of India where religious communal hate was very normal and it just caused me to hate religion and how it was used by politicians to divide people and cause violence. It started with not following religion and I eventually stopped believing in God. People fought over this stupid shit and a lot of people died so I decided that don’t wanna be a part of that

  32. I’m assuming you mean a Christian or other Abrahamic type faith. That being said I stopped going when I started being sexually attracted to other boys my age. Every other guy was going on about the girl with the biggest tits in our class but all I could think of was wanting to fuck the Quarterbacks ass in the locker room after practice. That made me very angry. I was angry at myself for being different, angry at all the other guys for being normal and angry at that supposedly loving, all caring God type figure that claimed He made us all in HIS image but yet made ME an abomination that he despised. I stopped going to church and after much soul searching and living life found my peace within the Asatru Faith.

  34. I was in sixth grade and we went every week until our weirdo deacon was giving a sermon about gay people going to hell. My dad stood up as loud as possible made the whole row stand up and he walked out and slammed the door behind him. Never went again besides funerals and weddings n shit

  35. After my daughter died, all the people in church who said they would be there for me…went on a deer hunt the day of her funeral.

    Oh and their God didn’t heal her like they said. Oh wait, I didn’t have enough faith. It WAS my fault.

  36. The prosperity gospel. When I was a kid, church had a sense of community. Then the biggest employer in town (mine) shut down. For the most part all the churches grabbed on to the prosperity gospel. Talking about giving more to god and church and you will be rich. I witnessed several families give everything to their churches and become destitute. It was a weird time.

  37. I got smarter as I got older.

    Plus I was raised Catholic, and i don’t support pedophiles.

  38. I was raised Episcopalian. Mom was very involved with the church, so I was as well. I was an Acolyte and in the choir. I was often told n 2-3 services every Sunday. Youth group member.

    as a side note, without the youth minister to help me through a lot of issues in my teens I might not be here now.

    So if he church was a big influence on me growing up.

    Then I went away for 3 years. US Army. I did a lot of growing up while enlisted.

    I came home, and that very first Christmas went to midnight services with Mom. And didn’t have to open the Bible for verses or the hymnal for the songs. It was all EXACTLY as it had been before I left.

    It hadn’t changed. I had. It’s not that I didn’t believe. But I came to the realization that if, indeed, there were some all powerful, all knowing entity out there then I didn’t need to be in church to talk to “him”.

    All was well. Then life punched me really hard. The love of my life got cancer. I had a near fatal motorcycle accident. I recovered, she went into remission. We were 2 months in to what was going to be a wonderful life together.

    Then she died. In my arms.

    It was then that I decided that the fallacy of a all knowing, all seeing, all loving God was nothing more than an appeasement to the people unwilling to face their own mortality.

    If “he’s “ out there, he knows. If he’s all forgiving, I have been forgiven. As for all loving? All that is wrong with this world wouldn’t be if he were.

    Instead, I have lived my life doing what I think Kim would have wanted me to do. I talk to her every day. I have found a wonderful woman who accepts me for the flawed human that I am.

  39. The Fucking music. Before every service, loud as a concert at 8 am they’d play 20 minutes of shitty Christian rock. I couldn’t do it. Loved the sermon, but I couldn’t do with the music

  41. Used to be forced to go with my parents, didn’t enjoy it but kept them happy so went along with it. When at school we had mandatory Religious Education.

    I remembered asking a fairly logical question to the quite devout teacher, getting a blanket response and just asking “but why?” Did this a few times then got an”BECAUSE ITS WRITTEN IN THE BIBLE” screamed at me. Didn’t really feel like an acceptable answer.

    Has a serious talk with my parents about it when I got home and although disappointed they didn’t try to push the point much more and from then on I was an atheist.

    The whole of my childhood believing that doing something wrong could lead to me being burnt alive for an eternity was traumatic af and hate that it’s still such a defacto way of getting kids to stay in line.

  43. Because of how often I was going. Growing up my parents forced me to go to church 11 times a week. No I’m not joking and no that’s not a mistype.

    I went to church:

    * Monday – Friday: Christian Private School

    * Monday night: Young Men’s Bible Study

    * Wednesday Night: Youth Service

    * Thursday night: Men’s Bible Study

    * Saturday Night: Church service

    * Sunday Morning: Church Service

    * Sunday Night: Youth Service.

    Additionally we had morning devotionals, evening devotionals, and then once a week (Fridays because it was one of the only days we didn’t go to church) we had 2 hour prayer sessions where everyone would gather around the table and we’d pray about what was worrying us (and explain what God did about our problems from the last week).

    Additionally additionally, my parents would take my paycheck and force me to donate 10% to the church regardless of if I needed the money or not.

    Growing up like that made me super jaded about organized religion.

  44. Worked at a church through college. Stopped going after we found that the same preacher who would often tell me that he’s not sure how much longer they could keep me on was stealing thousands from the church. When the leadership team found out, he found another job multiple states away and left taking a couple of the churches Imacs with him. The church did nothing about it…..

  45. They all just act so fake while at church. Also, seeing people pretend to care about the poor, while the parking lot is packed full of $60,000 SUVs, just seems fucked up. Also, the music sucks.

  46. I believe in God, I believe Jesus Christ was His son and died for my sins, I believe He is in control of my life and that I owe Him my love. I do not think that I need to converse and associate with some of the biggest hypocrites and pieces of shit I’ve ever met by going to church.

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