u/Ok-Mushroom4527

Please help, I have no idea how to clean my earrings. They aren’t expensive ones, I got most at Claire’s or at the thrift shop.

I was burnt at a hot bar in a grocery store which left me with a diagnosed second degree burn. I don’t want to sue the grocery store, but I want to demand money for pain and suffering. What’s the best way to do this? For context, this is in Maryland, USA

I've recently deconstructed from being a devout conservative Christian to now, a leftist atheist. I'm in a period of deconstructing so many of my beliefs. I've taken the Meyers Briggs test a few times in my life and have gotten different results ranging from INFP, INFJ, ISTJ, EN (something, forgot the other two) and now, after taking it again l've landed at ESFJ.
Anyone wanna analyze why l've gotten this result?
Seems like a controversial personality type from what l've seen...

I've recently deconstructed from being a devout conservative Christian to now, a leftist atheist. I'm in a period of deconstructing so many of my beliefs. I've taken the Meyers Briggs test a few times in my life and have gotten different results ranging from INFP, INFJ, ISTJ, EN (something, forgot the other two) and now, after taking it again l've landed at ESFJ.
Anyone wanna analyze why l've gotten this result?
Seems like a controversial personality type from what l've seen...

Funnily enough, a few weeks before my deconstruction I took a spiritual gifts test, and my strongest gifts were exhortation, followed by discernment. This was an at length test, nothing like a buzzfeed quiz. I’m curious what these “gifts” could mean in a secular sense, or if it holds any merit at all. To add, I’ve never been comfortable with “sharing the gospel” so when I saw that exhortation was my strongest gift I was surprised. I find it ironic that my next strongest gift was discernment since I actually turned completely away from the faith months later. The quiz is linked below.

https://giftstest.com/

I won’t share why in this post, but I went from being a very zealous Christian to now, an atheist in a matter of about 6 months. I feel relief and confidence in my decision, there really isn’t much negative feelings from this deconversion (except for the fact that I identified with false beliefs for so long).

That being said, I still haven’t come out to my pastor or online church community about it. I have an in person church community, and then a big online community on Telegram and Instagram. I know all these people pretty intimately, and feel an obligation to tell them I’m no longer a believer.

I know it will shock them, I’m even surprised at my newfound lack of care for religion as compared to even a year ago. When I tell you I was zealous, I mean it. But personally, I no longer think it’s true so now I could care less.

How should I go about telling my pastor? I’m involved in the church, and a member. I know he personally cares for me, he married my husband and I and also counseled us in our marriage. Married us after having kids before marriage, and counseled us with our one year old twins also in the room since we couldn’t afford childcare. I just think this detail is important to shed a light on the grace he’s shown us so far. He is a southern Baptist pastor though, for further context.

The online relationships may be a bit easier since I don’t have to tell them face to face or even see them at all. But I do still want to tell some people I’m still in contact with. I have no interest in living a double life but I genuinely don’t know how to talk about it.

I won’t share why in this post, but I went from being a very zealous Christian to now, an atheist in a matter of about 6 months. I feel relief and confidence in my decision, there really isn’t much negative feelings from this deconversion (except for the fact that I identified with false beliefs for so long).

That being said, I still haven’t come out to my pastor or online church community about it. I have an in person church community, and then a big online community on Telegram and Instagram. I know all these people pretty intimately, and feel an obligation to tell them I’m no longer a believer.

I know it will shock them, I’m even surprised at my newfound lack of care for religion as compared to even a year ago. When I tell you I was zealous, I mean it. But personally, I no longer think it’s true so now I could care less.

How should I go about telling my pastor? I’m involved in the church, and a member. I know he personally cares for me, he married my husband and I and also counseled us in our marriage. Married us after having kids before marriage, and counseled us with our one year old twins also in the room since we couldn’t afford childcare. I just think this detail is important to shed a light on the grace he’s shown us so far. He is a southern Baptist pastor though, for further context.

The online relationships may be a bit easier since I don’t have to tell them face to face or even see them at all. But I do still want to tell some people I’m still in contact with. I have no interest in living a double life but I genuinely don’t know how to talk about it.

I convinced myself that my faith was robust enough to handle exploring other worldviews and that by understanding others, I could become a more effective witness. I never imagined that, just six months later, faith itself would become a foreign concept to me.

AMA?

If I would have known a few months ago I was going to make this post, I would have been shocked. I seriously loved the Lord with all my heart, surrounded myself with believers, served in my church. All the things. Then life just got really confusing in a multitude of ways that I can expound upon in a later post. I stumbled across a YouTuber, Heliocentric, and he shattered the illusion for me that “if you walk away from Christianity, you were never a Christian to begin with”. I could clearly see his devotion and was able to connect so deeply with the messages he shares. I start binge watching his content for weeks. Then came Tim Whitaker from the New Evangelicals. For further context, I go to a Southern Baptist church, although I’ve never boxed myself into a denomination. I just love my church, so I haven’t left. So you can imagine the difference in theology I’m being exposed to. It makes sense. I see the hypocrisy I was living in (in regards to evangelical, fundamentalist beliefs). I thought, maybe this progressive Christianity actually makes sense. I’m for it, I’ll keep my faith, but deconstruct some toxic theology/ beliefs I once had.

But finally, the straw that broke the camels back were Alyssa Grenfel and Drew from Cosmic Skeptic. Binged their content too and now I feel like everything I once believed is shattered.

Now look. I know it might seem like I let these people influence me or tell me what to think. But this was a slow progression, and a long time coming. I can explain in more detail certain happenings that led me here, but I feel very strangely at peace with not believing in anything at all. Which is so different than how I felt a few months ago. But idk, it’s the same thing Christian’s say when they’re first saved- “the rose colored glasses were taken off, and now I can see clearly. Or, the scales fell from my eyes.” At this point, I’d rather call myself an atheist than agnostic because I’m so burnt out and just want to distance myself from that world.

I guess I just wanted to share that. Also, I’m trying to find what music I like, after years of only listening to Christian music (I really liked CCM… I know lol 😅). So please share any recommendations, any genre is welcomed.

Anything you have to share on what I wrote is welcomed. I need some new people to talk to, I still haven’t “come out” to any of my Christian community yet.