RESOURCES FOR RECOVERY FROM RELIGION
Helpful Links for those Leaving Fundamentalism
by Edward T. Babinski and Kenneth Nahigian
Some of the websites listed feature the testimonies of former fundamentalists which some might find interesting, or which they might like to visit in order to add their own stories. Some might like to connect their own websites to a particular "ring" listed.
FORUMS:
Van Allens: Encouraging Ex-Christians
WEBSITES:
The Door Magazine - Religious satire for moderate evangelical Christians, though liberals and atheists can enjoy it too!
Landover Baptist Church - "Conservative. Godly. Republican. Unstoppable" - an amusing satire revolving around Mega-church mentalities.
Things They Don't Tell You About Christianity - The dark side of Christian history.
Critical Evaluations of the "Bible Code"
Biblical Errancy - A newsletter whose editor, Dennis McKinsey, takes believers in Biblical inerrancy to task, even engaging them in debates. Also publishes some letters from former fundamentalist Christians.
Detox - A website for people who suffer from toxic faith syndrome.
The Christian Heritage - More of the dark side of Christianity.
The Ex-Tian Home Page - Website that features books, testimonies and webrings by ex-Christians.
Recovery from Christianity? A list of websites devoted to that topic.
The Skeptical Review - Edited by Farrell Till, a former fundamentalist minister, its articles deal with the Bible, including debates with fundamentalist defenders of the Bible, and letters from fundamentalists and former fundamentalists in a section titled, "From the Mailbag," beginning with Vol. 4, No.4, 1993.
The Secular Web - Gargantuan collection of secular humanist books, articles, essays, news, reviews, even humor. The premier website for freethinkers, with frequent additions and updates.
The Jury Is In: The Ruling on Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands a Verdict
Religious Satirist, James Morrow's website, which features information on "The Godhead Trilogy"
The "Official" Robert Anton Wilson Website
MOVIES
Dogma - A comedy about God and the end of the world by Kevin Smith.
Glorious! - British comedian, Eddie Izzard, addresses the Old and New Testaments.
Rowan Atkinson Live! - British comedian, Rowan Atkinson, plays both a priest reading from an unusual Gospel, and Satan welcoming people to hell.
The Life of Brian - The comedy troupe, Monty Python, depict the life of the extremely unlucky fellow who was born on the same night and next door to?Jesus.
Bedazzled - A 1960s comedy about a man (Dudley Moore) who sells his soul to the devil (Peter Cook), featuring a cameo appearance by Racquel Welch who plays "Lust." (In the year 2000 a whole new version of this film was made.)
CDs:
Only the Truth is Funny - Comedian Rick Reynolds (atheist). Contains some very funny bits about Rick's reaction to his very conservative Christian brother.
Rant in E-Minor - Comedian Bill Hicks (former conservative Baptist).
Warning: Caustic wit, and that's putting it mildly.
You Are All Diseased - Comedian George Carlin (atheist) loves to rant about "humanity" and "God," and this is his most biting work to date. His earlier works, Toledo Window Box, and George Carlin: Class Fool, have a lighter, more poignant air about them, especially when he talks about "God" in the former, and his Irish Catholic upbringing in the latter.
BOOKS:
Good Omens - An extraordinarily funny novel about the Antichrist and the end of the world by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett.
Bible Stories for Adults - A collection of funny and intriguing short stories by James Morrow, including the Nebula award-winning short story, "The Deluge."
The Bible According to Mark Twain - Edited by Howard Baetzhold and Joseph McCullough.
Pope-Pourri - Funny and interesting facts about Catholicism, edited by John Dollison.
Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists - Edited by Edward T. Babinski, a former born again, Bible believing, tongue-speaking Christian, who is now a "reverent agnostic" or "irreverent theist" (take your pick). The book features nearly three dozen first-hand personal testimonies of people who "left" their fundamentalist folds for more moderate to radical religious or non-religious, destinations. It also contains a chapter on "Fundamentalism's Grotesque Past" with information that is not readily available elsewhere, including a look at some of the inhumane actions and teachings of Protestant icons like Luther, Calvin, and Jonathan Edwards and the Biblical teachings that drove them to say and do such things.
Leaving the Fold - Marlene Winell, a former fundamentalist Christian, now a psychologist, tells her personal story of transformation, and discusses some of the basic mind traps that, once recognized, help release people from narrow "fundamentalist fold" mentalities.
Losing Faith in Faith: From Preacher to Atheist ? Dan Barker (former evangelical Christian song-writer and producer), tells how and why he became one of the leaders of the Freedom From Religion Foundation, and writer for the nation's only weekly Freethought newspaper, Freethought Today.
Beyond Born Again - Robert M. Price (who went from fundamentalist Christian to atheist and who now holds two Ph.D.s and is a member of the "Jesus Seminar") examines the arguments employed by conservative evangelical apologists. (This book is available on the Secular Web. See following section on "Websites.")
Prometheus Rising and Quantum Psychology - Robert Anton Wilson explains how individuals and societies create their own "reality tunnels," why we misunderstand each other, and how we can widen our understandings and perceptions.
RELIGIOUS OR SEMI-SO SITES:
The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, reverent religious church/state separationists.
The Unitarian Universalist Association.
The World Union of Deists. "Deism, America's Forgotten Religion."
Also called ChurchState.org, this is a Seventh Day Adventist site supporting a decent separation of Church and State.
The Event Horizon Reader. Thoughtful writings on spiritual dangers of fundamentalism and the Religious Right.
The J. M. Dawson Institute of Church-State Studies at Baylor University.
Ontario Consultants on Religious Tolerance, promoting tolerance, diversity, fairness.
Jews for Judaism, saying no thanks to Jews for Jesus.
A Buddhist Critique of Christianity.
The Isaac Bonewits neopagan homepage. Quirky, but he does get in his digs.
POLITICAL SITES FIGHTING THE RELIGIOUS RIGHT:
Americans United (for Separation of Church and State).
Americans for Religious Liberty.
American Civil Liberties Union.
Archive of articles from the old Institute for First Amendment Studies.
America’s Real Religion. Author Gene Garman defends the First Amendment and Church/State seperation.
CONTRA-RELIGIOUS AND “WALK AWAY” SITES:
American Humanist Association.
Freedom from Religion Foundation.
The Council for Secular Humanism.
The Campus Freethought Alliance.
The Truth Seeker, oldest freethought magazine in the West. A good rag.
American Association for the Advancement of Atheism.
Originally the Quest for the Historical Jesus, now reborn as Atheist Talk Central.
A support site for Christians just starting to doubt.
Watchers of the Watch Tower A breakaway site for ex-Jehovah’s Witnesses.
Our real Christian heritage.
The dark side of Xian history, the things "They" don't want you to know.
The real scuttlebutt on the Bible. Not a pretty sight.
A vast page of resources and links, but the ones in the "Heresies" section are what you want to see.
The (religious) Skeptic's Corner.
Judith Hayes, the Happy Heretic.
The Right Rev. Jim Huber, also Heretic.
The Infidel Guy. Try his audio show!
All about atheism and agnosticism. Questions answers, issued mulled.
Alan Dechert's Go-to-Zero page. He wants to renumber the years.
Adrian Barnett's Wasteland of Wonders – his atheism sub-page.
The freethought supply house for all your argumentative needs.
Christian origins. This writer argues that the resurrection of Jesus was a deliberate hoax.
Reason Works, a commercial site with some incisive writings.
The War on Faith homepage, guns locked and loaded.
Things we didn't learn in Sunday School.
One archeologist and historian dissects the Christ myth.
Celebrity Atheists and Agnostics, a list.
Famous non-theists of history, a bigger list.
The Jesus Seminar, lightning rod for debates about the historical Jesus.
Secular cards, t-shirts and posters.
PARODY, SATIRE AND SARCASM:
Jeff Swenson's cynical comic strip.
The Leviathan, putting the "fun" back in Fundamentalism.
Ask Sister Rosetta.
Queen Jane's Version of the Bible.
SPEWED FROM THE BELLY OF THE BEAST:
The infamous "Rev" Fred Phelps, gay basher.
Kingdom Identity movement. Weird and scary.
Jack T. Chick, the man behind all those tracts.
The earth is the center of the universe. Listen to us, dammit!
The real International Flat Earth Society does not have a website, unfortunately, but this parody site is almost as cool.
The classic Virtual Hell site
(http://www.virtualhell.org/) is offline, alas. But this one remains to remind us that Hell is real. Be sure to wear shoes!
MORE ARTICLES
Don't feel like you belong?
Essay on some historical figures who were not Christians, but made great contributions to society, such as Helen Keller, who was a Humanist.
Changes we undergo "without knowing why"
Essay which takes a critical look at changes that occur in people's lives, influenced by religion and fellowship. Is transformation caused by God or man.
Christopher Reeve (1952-2004)
Article by Warren A. Smith on the life and spirituality of Christopher Reeve. Reeve's life demonstrated that one does not need to hold Christian beliefs to serve as an upstanding example to society on morality.
Religion as Gang-Warfare - Coming to a Theater Near You
Dale Murphy wrote this article, addressing how he sees religion as a dangerous force, that leads to conflicts between ethnic groups. He expresses his disdain about the international and domestic problems created by Religion.
Richard Yao: Founder of the Original "Fundamentalists Anonymous" Resurfaces (briefly)
On 'Diana Speaks' the book which was written by one claiming Diana spoke to them. The author might possibly be Richard Yao, founder of the Original Fundamentalists Anonymous.
Starting a Support Group in Your Area
How do I go about organizing a Fundamentalists-Anon support group in my area? Tips and suggestions.
My Advice about debating with Christians
Advice from Ed Babinski on debating with others of an opposing belief system.
The Great Awakening, Revivals and Calvinism
Discussion on the Great Awakening, Revivals and the lack of longterm effects they have on people.
Why Jesus?
Essay which questions about Jesus, in terms of morality, social justice, equality and compassion.
Christian Psychologist admits manic-depression amongst Pentecostals
Commentary on Manic Depression and what statistics show, with a higher than normal percentage rate among Pentecostals, than other groups.
Fundamentalism and Christianity
Personal discussion on the topic of Christian History, and Persecution of Christianity and other religions.
Original Thoughts on Original Sin
Essay on the Original Sin, guilt and sin, includes compiled quotes by Deitrich Bonhoeffer, Conrad Hyers and Edward Babinski.
Evangelism and Christian Indifference
by John Davies (additional notes by Ed)
Religious leaders should set the example for the nation, on moral issues. Read an article which lists major scandals and fraud committed by well-known televangelists and evangelical preachers.
Definition of Fundamentalism
Collection of quotes and excerpts which define Fundamentalism, from a satirical point of view.
The Psalms, God and Mother Nature
Ed Babinski gives a satirical review of the Old Testament Psalms, based on science. Read how the Psalmists overlooked certain aspects in Nature.
Agnosticism: Reasons to Leave Christianity
Questions from an Agnostic for the Biblical Apologist to answer. These unanswered questions are reasons to leave Christianity and become an agnostic.
FORMER FUNDAMENTALIST TESTIMONIES
Testimony about the Worldwide Church of God
by former Member/Co-Worker David Lee Mooney.
Former Pentecostal Testimony
by Anonymous: FormerX.
Guillaume's Testimony, "Recovering from Christianity"
by Guillaume
Testimony of deconversion from Fundamentalist Christianity.
Still Silent, My Journey through Christianity
by Kevin
Testimony of deconversion from Catholicism.
Mel's FORMER FUNDAMENTALIST Story
by Mel Emurian
Mel gives his account of deconversion.
RECOMMENDED BOOKS
Dare to Think for Yourself: A Journey from Faith to Reason
Born in the Bible Belt of the American South, Betty Brogaard, had questions regarding God and the Bible. Primarily because of growing doubts about the organization’s teachings, she eventually left amidst threats of eternal judgment and punishment.
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