From the Harmonic Atheist: Sexism in Christianity: My experience as a Woman: Melanie Trecek-King
“Today I spoke with Melanie Trecek-King, who grew up in a conservative Christian environment but ultimately deconverted as the truth claims of Christianity fell apart.
We discussed many topics, including:
• Growing up in a conservative fundamentalist church that preached young earth creationism.
• Hearing messages early on about women being created to serve men and that women’s roles were very restricted to ensure men kept all the power.
• Being traumatized by the extreme misogyny, patriarchy, and hyper control of women that she was exposed to in church.
• Being told that being female was bad and the cause of the fall and all bad things in the world.
• Receiving messages in church about a woman’s value being directly connected to her virginity.
• Hearing Christians “poison the well” about science, evolution, and atheism.
• Learning about cultural anthropology and connecting the dots about how gods were invented.
• Realizing that religion is used in almost every culture to justify sexist power structures.
• Realizing that the Yahweh character is psychopathic and that the Old Testament is full of toxic messages.
• Deconverting from Christianity and focusing her life on rationality and critical thinking.
• Seeing strong sexism in atheist communities.
• Creating a system for her students where she helps teach skills not facts by walking them through critical thinking, information literacy, and science literacy.
• Understanding why facts don’t change our minds.
• Being aware that we often fall for misinformation when we are not skeptical enough and do not recognize our biases.
• The importance of having boundaries with conspiracy theorists and people who have fallen prey to misinformation.
Thanks to Melanie for sharing her story, insights, and work!”
Watch on YouTube.