Popularity Of deconversion stories

  • Thread starter Thread starter Rock7
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
R

Rock7

Guest
Having perused The web you somehow end up At websites like fundamentalists anonymous and exchristian.net. Having seen some of the accounts I am curious why stories of apostasy are so popular? One story is that Kenneth W Daniels a former evangelical missionary to Africa who wrote a memoir called Why I believed reflections of a former missionary. Though what I’m asking is why is there this sudden emergence of accounts regarding former missionaries, pastors, priests and the like who questioned the faith and what not in other words why such an apostasy occurring and why is it so popular to discuss it?
 
Rock7 said:
Having perused The web you somehow end up At websites like fundamentalists anonymous and exchristian.net. Having seen some of the accounts I am curious why stories of apostasy are so popular? One story is that Kenneth W Daniels a former evangelical missionary to Africa who wrote a memoir called Why I believed reflections of a former missionary. Though what I’m asking is why is there this sudden emergence of accounts regarding former missionaries, pastors, priests and the like who questioned the faith and what not in other words why such an apostasy occurring and why is it so popular to discuss it?
Click to expand...
Misery loves company. :rolleyes:
I was agnostic for the first 47 years of my life and I can testify that there is nothing there!
 
Rock7 said:
What is your explanation for the popularity of such accounts?
Click to expand...
We are living in the high technology, instant information, internet age. Many people don’t believe they need a God anymore. They are replacing God with constant mindless information and entertainment (like twitter, etc). But I believe that after a period of time, they will find that there is not much there to comfort them in a time of distress or tragedy.
 
I presume it is confirmation. Other persons who avoid the faith want to be confirmed in their decision to stay away.

We have nice conversion stories too, to help confirm us in our faith, though. :o And from deconversion accounts I’ve read, I do not recall much that engaged the evidence for the faith very well.
 
Rock7 said:
Having perused The web you somehow end up At websites like fundamentalists anonymous and exchristian.net. Having seen some of the accounts I am curious why stories of apostasy are so popular? One story is that Kenneth W Daniels a former evangelical missionary to Africa who wrote a memoir called Why I believed reflections of a former missionary. Though what I’m asking is why is there this sudden emergence of accounts regarding former missionaries, pastors, priests and the like who questioned the faith and what not in other words why such an apostasy occurring and why is it so popular to discuss it?
Click to expand...
The world is the devils playground!
 
But what is your take on those who at least seemed to be truly faithful such as Kenneth Daniels or some other who seemed to walk the walk? What I am asking is why is it that even seemingly the most devoted are led into apostasy whether it be by intellectual, social, or spiritual means? To put it succinctly why are there ministers and those raised in the truth falling away? Is this something the Church as well as all believers should be concerned over?
 
Rock7 said:
But what is your take on those who at least seemed to be truly faithful such as Kenneth Daniels or some other who seemed to walk the walk? What I am asking is why is it that even seemingly the most devoted are led into apostasy whether it be by intellectual, social, or spiritual means? To put it succinctly why are there ministers and those raised in the truth falling away? Is this something the Church as well as all believers should be concerned over?
Click to expand...
This is a very good question. The first time I heard about priests molesting children I was in shock, as were many others. Can a person truly know, love and serve God and fall into such vile sins…some even to the point of denying that He even exists? Do people deny the existence of Satan and not keep up their guard? Perhaps it is pride, truly I don’t know.

Yes, I believe that all believers must be concerned and stay on guard. Trust no man. Pray always, trust in the Bible. Sometimes the ones who can preach the best sermons are tools of Satan.
 
Honestly, I don’t think the popularity of deconversion stories is outpacing that of conversion stories. I’ll occasionally listen to EWTN’s “The Journey Home”, which is all about adults who convert from other forms of christianity, from non-christian religions, and from no religion at all to Catholicism.
 
=Rock7;11534614]Having perused The web you somehow end up At websites like fundamentalists anonymous and exchristian.net. Having seen some of the accounts I am curious why stories of apostasy are so popular? One story is that Kenneth W Daniels a former evangelical missionary to Africa who wrote a memoir called Why I believed reflections of a former missionary. Though what I’m asking is why is there this sudden emergence of accounts regarding former missionaries, pastors, priests and the like who questioned the faith and what not in other words why such an apostasy occurring and why is it so popular to discuss it?
Click to expand...
Where grace abounds’ Satan is VERY near by.

God is IMO, testing His Church for many reasons. Abortion and lack of Faith being two of the more evident causes.

Because God’s “writes” His TRUTH on our hearts [BECAUSE THIS IS A FACT THESES GRIEVOUS SINNERS WISH TO [1] DENY [2] FIND ANY SUPPORT FOR THEIR SIN

Jeremiah 31:33
But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, after those days, saith the Lord: I will give my law in their bowels, and I will write it in their heart: and I will be their God, and they shall be my people

They seek to justify their sinful actions and many jump on that downhill ride.🤷
 
I wonder if some of these pastors and evangelists were really converted to start with. When one has a one on one encounter with Jesus, it makes a real change in a persons’ life. If the encounter is not supported by a walk with Jesus,(didache) spiritual growth and then discipleship one can backslide. In the spiritual life if you are not going forward, you are going backward. If we go back far enough our last stage will be worse than our first stage before we met Christ. Grace brings with it responsibility, to share Gods’ blessings, gratitude and faithfulness. To him who is given much, much is expected. Those who remain faithful are special targets of the Devil. So they have to be on guard. What king doesn’t consider the power of the enemy forces before battle to be prepared. for engagement.
 
ynotzap said:
I wonder if some of these pastors and evangelists were really converted to start with. When one has a one on one encounter with Jesus, it makes a real change in a persons’ life.
Click to expand...
While we can’t truly know the hearts of people, it’s far too easy to dismiss a conversion or a deconversion by assuming the person’s position beforehand was not solid. This not only applies to people moving away from Catholicism but also moving towards Catholicism. It wouldn’t be fair or charitable to dismiss the strength of a person’s prior belief or non-belief if he or she decides to become a Catholic. Moving away from Catholicism is no different.

Sometimes the hardest thing to accept is that when a person takes a stance on something that we disagree with that he or she does so with sincerity, patience, and with eyes open.
 
Rock7 said:
But what is your take on those who at least seemed to be truly faithful such as Kenneth Daniels or some other who seemed to walk the walk? What I am asking is why is it that even seemingly the most devoted are led into apostasy whether it be by intellectual, social, or spiritual means? To put it succinctly why are there ministers and those raised in the truth falling away? Is this something the Church as well as all believers should be concerned over?
Click to expand...
Shallow ground, shallow faith. I don’t mean that as the idea the they didn’t do anything, but rather a lack of theological depth. People can slip into “doing” so much that they think is for God and neglect the meat of the faith. Also, because of man’s will, they can indeed decide that what they espoused for all that time is false. Now, does that mean they were never saved to begin with, or that they have indeed become apostate? Thank God (literally) I’m not the one that has to decide that.

Now, on the other side of things, apologists like me “like” to read about these stories so I can see if there is a hole that needs filling in apologetics circles. Are these people coming up against tragedy and can’t face it? Are they turning to materialism? Do they see truth in other religions? Do they struggle with the idea of Hell?

One big thing I see amongst younger people is that lack of formal argumentation for the faith. I think apologetics should be playing a much bigger role in this day and age.
 
Mike_from_NJ said:
While we can’t truly know the hearts of people, it’s far too easy to dismiss a conversion or a deconversion by assuming the person’s position beforehand was not solid. This not only applies to people moving away from Catholicism but also moving towards Catholicism. It wouldn’t be fair or charitable to dismiss the strength of a person’s prior belief or non-belief if he or she decides to become a Catholic. Moving away from Catholicism is no different.

Sometimes the hardest thing to accept is that when a person takes a stance on something that we disagree with that he or she does so with sincerity, patience, and with eyes open.
Click to expand...
The statement was not meant to be uncharitable and it is an easy and obvious assumption to make. I made the statement because I have found that we take many things for granted, even in my own faith. Conversion is one of them, and a big one. That is why Evangelization is so needed. We can’t convert only God can do that. We can be instruments used by God to predispose one to receiving conversion. Real conversion lies deep with-in our souls It is something that one does not forget because it makes such a change in ones life, eg. an aimless life, for one with a beautiful goal, it can heal mentally, physically, bring a close relationship with ones Creator which is the most important, it is sealed in love, the experience of the love of God for that individual person. What a blessing. As Kliska stated, a statement that embodies the Parable of The Sower of the seed Some seed (Jesus is the Good News) fell on shallow soil and died, some fell on rock and thorns (the superficial lures of the world) and the seed was stifled. Some seed was immediately snatched away by the Devil. Then some fell on good soil These are people who accepted Christ, and for love of Him kept His teachings bore their trials, loved: their neighbor to the best of their abilities. Nurtured the relationship they made with their Saviour. and bore the fruit of grace. I can’t believe that a person on solid ground would lose the Faith. Apparently the ground wasn’t too solid. A life built on Faith in Jesus is a life built on a Rock, sound pretty solid to me! 🙂
 
God is merciful. He planted in every human a natural desire to know the truth, even in an atheist. For that reason I can’t accept that a “so called atheist” is devoid of some knowledge of God, even primitive cultures show a respect for a “higher power”. I also noticed a lot of anger in some of them. Anger clouds ones judgement. I can understand how we see hypocrisy in the actions of people, but I also know what is judged as hypocrisy is accidental hypocrisy. We contradict our selves without knowing it. This is one of the weakness of human nature. A lot of harm has been done by this weakness. Its one of the effects of original sin, a spiritual blindness Sometimes we are victims of hatred ourselves, and it is a strong move to return hatred for hatred, in doing so we alienate people and choose to be unfriendly, and they become unfriendly to us. Of course this is not the Christian philosophy of life, thank God. We must practice unconditional love for the love of God. This takes supernatural help, called "Grace- the work of the Holy Spirit, the gift of Christ.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top