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Author Topic:   Should Churches Learn from Deconversion Stories?
dwise1
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Message 1 of 2 (583978)
09-29-2010 4:38 PM


On FaceBook, former fundamentalist Ed Babinski referenced a blog, Honest Evangelism and the Importance of Deconversion. In it, the author, Dean Thomas of The Pines Training Centre in Australia (judging by the URL), mentions some notes he rediscovered on deconversion and discusses the experience of deconversion as well as referencing Babinski's book, Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists. Unfortunately, it is very difficult to distinguish between Thomas' own words and any text that he is quoting. Some excerpts (possibly his own experience, but more likely from his rediscovered notes):
quote:
Fundamentalist Christianity was for me an 11-year ordeal of confusion, self-censorship and self-abasement. After the joy of my initial religious experience wore off, I moved into the modus operandi of Christian fundamentalists everywhere: I shut down emotionally and instead relied on the Bible to dictate my feelings. In Christian fundamentalist circles this is known as living by faith.
In my mid-20s I experienced a severe crisis which led me to question the wisdom of living in this manner. Over a period of about a year I allowed myself to think the doubtful thoughts which I had been filing away in the back of my mind for so long. I felt as if I was issuing a direct challenge to God himself, and lived in great fear of divine retribution. My doubts led me to discover that it was indeed possible to make sense of life, to make decisions for myself, to set and attain goals, and to know my own heart. My spiritual path forked. Do I remain true to honesty, or true to the faith? I chose honesty. Thus was I deconverted.
For several years I believed my experience to be unique. In time I met another person who had defected from the ranks of Fundamentalist Christianity; then another, and others still. I am now convinced that the number of Americans who have had a deconversion experience of some type is much greater than one would suspect.
Deconversion is currently an under-studied phenomenon which could provide an important perspective from which to understand religion in America. . . .
Then from Thomas' note's comments on Babinski's book, which is a collection of 33 deconversion autobiographies of "from people once active and highly visible within the ranks of Fundamentalist Christianity":
quote:
Surprisingly, the testimonies present only two key factors in their authors’ deconversions. The first is related to external circumstances, including the behavior of other church members, leadership, or the denomination. The second is wholly internal: church doctrine simply becomes untenable.
. . .
Another interesting aspect of the deconversion experience is that it is largely involuntary. Not one of Leaving the Fold’s contributors relates a process in which he consciously decides to leave the faith with deconversion as a goal. The testimonies are of those who set out to find their answers in an effort to maintain their faith. Only grudgingly did they come to accept that the answers for their questions were to be found outside church doctrine. In various ways each describes how he was forced by intellectual honesty to face his discoveries.
It may seem surprising at first to think of deconversion as an involuntary act. However, I would point out that the initial experience of being saved is very often itself involuntary. Converts are generally not provided with all the facts necessary to make an informed decision. Instead, revival meetings and proselytization efforts are engineered to create a specific vulnerable emotional state within the target. The convert is then manipulated into accepting whatever religious message the evangelist has to peddle. Individuals converted by such deceptive methods have not voluntarily chosen to convert; they have been coerced. It is a difficult thing to accept that one has been duped. No one chooses discover that he has been lied to.
Dean Thomas then discusses briefly how that article and his dealings with the deconverted on-line have changed his approach to evangelism.
My point here is that this is a case in which an evangelist has listened to the deconverted and has thought about what he has heard and as a result has reevaluated his approach. Why can't other evangelists and their churches do the same?
The practical answer is that those others and their churches almost never hear those deconversion stories, and when they do then they discount them or even deny that deconversion ever happens. Nowadays when one leaves their current employment, whether voluntarily or not, part of the process is a departure interview: the newly ex-employee is asked about his experience working for the company and to identify any problems that he encountered. IOW, the company wants to know what they are doing wrong.
Churches have no departure interviews, so they don't get any feedback from ex-members, except for the ones sufficiently disgruntled to write a nasty-gram. Ex-members simply drop out, stop attending, lose contact with the church. Ignorant of what it had done to drive those ex-members away, the church continues along its way driving even more members away.
The questions are:
1. Would it benefit churches and evangelists to learn why Christians of their own persuasion deconvert?
2. Should churches and evangelists try to learn what they're doing wrong from deconverts and try to correct their methods accordingly?
3. How would churches make up for the current lack of departure interviews?

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Message 2 of 2 (584086)
09-30-2010 8:17 AM


Thread Copied to Faith and Belief Forum
Thread copied to the Shouldn't Churches Learn from Deconversion Stories? thread in the Faith and Belief forum, this copy of the thread has been closed.

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