Question by xatungova: Deist escaping from church organization; what kind of fellowship or club should I join?
I was a member of a fundamentalist christian (evangelical) church for some time, then in search of biblical truth I became a member of a Seventh Day Adventist church where I currently reside and have been in that church for more than a year. However, unsatisfied with organized religion, I started to question a lot of the doctrines and affirmations regarding the nature of God and humanity, and at the end of it, I ended up becoming much more deistic in my way of thinking.

I hold a firm belief in the existence of God in the sense of a universal creator and architect of the universe and that we sentient and sapient lifeforms are created possessing his divine light. However, the creator God in which I believe is not necessarily the Hebrew Deity of the Tanakh, and although I respect Christian believers and Judeo-Christian culture, I no longer believe in the Bible as the inerrant word of God. Therefore I consider myself a Deist.

One of the main reasons I decide to distance myself from christian doctrine was the notorious inconsistencies of the nature of Jehovah within the biblical theological framework. For example, the “loving and benevolent God” of the New Testament contrasts sharply with the version of God depicted in the Old Testament who not only orders the bloodthirsty and merciless massacres of various pagan tribes including defenseless women and children but also orders the Hebrews to kill their own people by stoning just for lighting fire on the Sabbath, the same God who hardened the Pharaoh´s heart just so he could cast divine judgement upon a nation.

Another reason I wanted to leave was the fact that the organization deemed everything outside of its approved range as mundane, wrong or satanic, and as a consequence, I often felt on edge and paranoid in everyday life. I also was starting to get sick of certain aspects of christian morality. Although I believe that reasonable protestant morality is a good system of morality in many ways and have respect for our Judeo-Christian cultural heritage, I started to get tired of all that “turn the other cheek” nonsense which for me is nothing more than moral weakness and most of all the attitudes of self-abasement and excessive humility which characterize Christianity. The christian idea that we as a race are so inherently immoral and degenerate that we are beyond hope (without the intercession of the Messiah) and have nothing positive to offer just gives me despair! I don´t want to live this life with such a weak mentality anymore.

I am now a Deist but have a great interest in exploring spirituality.

I still attend the same Adventist fellowship but not as often and with much less enthusiasm than before. Almost everyone I know personally is from that church. Outside, I have very little interaction with people. Almost all of the close friends are members and it is as though I have nobody outside of the organization as the only non-adventist friends I have are back in my homeland and no longer bother with me. Basically, my Adventist fellowship is the only real social life I have. Also I cannot speak to any of them how I really feel because you cannot discuss anything with them, they always respond with “X is so because the Bible and Ellen White say so” and have no room for compromise.

I feel I cannot leave the organization because than would totally kill my social life and cut me off from most of my friendships, but I want to leave some day, maybe when I find another kind of society or club.

What kind of societies, clubs or group activities would you recommend for a Deist like myself as a substitute for a church fellowship?

Best answer:

Answer by Cindy
look into a Unitarian church…they believe in everything

What do you think? Answer below!