Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement

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Conversion, deconversion, and disenagement
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• Classical vs. contemporary paradigms p. 216
• Deconversion move from one religion to another
  (But how about becoming skeptics, agnostics, or
  atheists?)
• Disengagment detach from mainstream religion
• What are the similarities and difference between
  deconversion and disengagement?

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• Seth grew in a Christian family in Oklahoma
• Nothing made sense when getting older
• God in the OT condones rape and genocide
• Oral Roberts University God would like Oral
  Roberts unless he gets 1 million

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Losing my religion and found peace

• Lobdell, W. (2009). Losing my religion How I
  lost my faith reporting on religion in America
  and found unexpected peace. New York Harper.
• Dr. William Lobdell was a Christian who
  investigated the Catholic sex abuse cases. He
  reported that in one case a mother sent her
  daughter to a Catholic retreat camp. The young
  girl was raped by a group of priests and was
  pregnant.
• The church told the mother that her daughter was
  a bad girl, and then covered this up by sending
  the young girl out of the country.

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• He also reported that he attended a church
  meeting. In the meeting the members voted to name
  a church after an abusing priest (The priest had
  admitted the crime). A policeman was among the
  audience. He stood up and yelled, I am a cop. I
  see criminals every day. Shame on you! All of you
  are Christians. But no one ever mentioned the
  victims. And now you want to name a church after
  a criminal!
• Dr. William Lobdell described that this
  experience is his road to Damascus (in a
  reversed fashion). Later he lost his religion and
  found unexpected peace.

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You lost me

• The author of Unchristian
• Use empirical data and statistical methods, not
  just guessing or use a preconceived theory
• 18-29 years old

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Three types of devonversion or disengagement

• Nomads
• wander around the church and maintain their
  church connections and relationships
• not fully committed, inconsistent
• Prodigal
• Deny the faith for various reasons
• e.g. sexual conducts, intellectual challenges
• 4 out of 5 evangelicals have sex, just like the
  general population
• Exile
• Like Daniel, wants to be faithful to God in
  Babylon (a non-Christian culture)
• would like to transform the culture, but without
  support from the church.

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Is college a faith killer?

• No. The tendency of deconversion happens around
  the senior year of high school.
• About 60 percent of young people who went to
  church as teens drop out after high school.
• Christians are too confident that they know the
  answers (52)
• Churches are out of step with the science world
  we live in (41)
• Christianity is anti-science (34)
• I have turned off by the creation-evolution
  debate (34)
• Christianity makes complex things simple (29)
• Christianity is anti-intellectual (26)

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Assignment

• Talk to a person who changed his religious belief
  (e.g. from Christian to Buddhist, from Hindu to
  Christian, from Christian to atheistetc.) about
  his or her deconversion experience.
• Do not debate with him or her. Just listen and
  try to understand his or her thought process.
• What are the reasons of his or her deconversion?
  Intellectual? Life crisis?
• Present your findings in class