I consider myself an ex-christian (who else does?)

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Sometimes I am wary of admitting I am a Christian because I feel when one says they are a Christian, most people think they are the right wing fundamentalist hit you over the head with a Bible types. Then you have the religion that gets confused with spirituality. There are a lot of manmade rules that interfere with spirituality, in all faiths. As for myself and churchs, I have always been judged by how I dressed, what I drove, etc., by other Christians. That's the nature of people, most people. But there are many others that are not narrow minded selfish judgemental people....I think some people who call themselves Christian really are not.

You shouldn't have to be wary, some of us have been around the block long enough, and gotten to know people as people, to know better about these kind of stereotypes. I used to be a Christian, and on the one hand I learned valuable skills through my "church" (Jehovah's Witnesses are wary of this term), I also had a good social life and generally a very productive existance. On the other, I made some stupid decisions about my education and future - based on a firm belief that the world would end by 1992 - that I'm still paying for today. But whose fault is that, theirs or mine? Some of those guys I was hanging out with are doctors now.

Bottom line is though, I don't believe that I'm much of a different person now for being an atheist, than I was as a Christian. I'm not any less of a good, caring person but neither am I a less intelligent or questioning person.

You are right in saying that judgmentalism is the nature of most people, and that judging of your appearance and behaviour is not going to stop if you ever renounce Christianity and remove yourself from other Christians. It is everywhere, and too many atheists seem to believe that reversing the ideological polarity of that same hatred and bigotry is a worthwhile way of getting their point across. I advocate rejecting it altogether, looking at the individual and considering everything that goes into what they are. Hell, maybe I'm not an Aspie after all...

Some interesting discussions at http://www.secularity.com especially in the "Controversy" forum.

Yes, I'd consider myself an ex-Christian, twice over actually.

I was raised to go to church, but early in my teenage years I saw through the inconsistencies being taught and lived in my local community. The "official" rules of the game, the Christian life of the commandments and the sermons did not reflect the real life of the village. It was a thing of lip service, and I rejected it.

A good number of years later, it was pointed out that what I had rejected may well not have represented real Christianity, and that I could have thrown out the baby with the bathwater.

In the meantime I had already worked out the limitations, not to say myths, of optimistic scientific humanism so a second, more adult look, seemed worthwhile.

I took this as seriously as I knew how. It was at the core of my life for many years and the joy of having a core belief, a framework for understanding the universe, a society within which frinedship was much easier than previously, is difficult to describe.

In wanting to pursue Christianity well I was an avid student. And it was there that the problems started to appear. In the history of the church, and of the bible. In studying how the early church fathers and other outstanding theologians of the Christian faith had handled scripture, and how Christianity has been expressed in different places and times.

Neither the bible nor the church is what many believers think or wish they were.
Discovering this took years, as questions had many possible answers, and different answers carried complex ramifications.
By this time I was teaching people to lead bible studies and training people in evangelism. It was not an easy thing to give up. It would have been much easier to keep going through the motions, were it not for a core principle that I had to be honest.
I even did two courses on liberal theology in an attempt to find a workable solution.
(it's not on, logically, but that's a separate topic)

At the the good bible believing church I attended I enquired VERY discretely as to how other people handled doubts and problems, and received a shock. About a third of the people who would discuss this did not really believe. They said they did and also so acted, as required, in order to preserve the community, the fellowship and friendship which was the essential thing to them. Years on, this makes somewhat more sense to me than it did at the time.

I made the opposite decision. I could not say things I no longer believed just to keep my friends. And yes, I lost nearly all of them.

Yes, definitely an ex-Christian. And no, I'm not sure I have anything better to sell to people.
Reality may be darker than most people want to face. Douglas Adams suggested it, and so have other writers and thinkers. It may not be much, but a nice warm myth may be the best (temporary) comfort there is.

"What do you want?"
"I want the truth"
"You can't handle the truth!" (Nicholson and Cruise, A Few Good Men)