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Actually, scratch that. You can, and I did it for years.

After I prayed for God to flip the switch back so I could be a believer again and nothing happened, I kept going to church. Walking away from a belief system is as easy as rejecting the idea that two plus two equals five -- you confront the evidence and work with the aftermath. Walking away from a support system is a whole other ball of nope. As a kid, my church family filled gaps that I could never repay. They helped my mom with back-to-school clothes, doctor appointments, childcare, utility bills, babysitting, teacher conferences, flat tires, housing ... just housing in general, and getting me into college. And that was just childhood; as an adult, I had a whole separate church family who hosted my baby showers and brought me casseroles after my kids were born. I cherish every memory I have of the people I shared my faith with.

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It's probably obvious by this point, but I haven't duplicated that environment outside of church. I cherish my co-workers, but I only see them in person every few years and none of them have made me a casserole, not even once. They're still pretty cool, though.

Leaving the church means walking away from an organized support system of people who care about you and want to see you succeed. But it's also a disruption in your culture. I might be the first person on one side of my family in three or four generations to stop going to church and not pass the faith on to my kids. Do you know the old gospel song "Will The Circle Be Unbroken?" The circle is a family of believers who will reunite in Heaven after death, and the song is sung from the perspective of a narrator leaving his mother's funeral. In my family, I broke the circle.

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Speaking of music, think about every genre of music that was built in American churches. Without worship, there'd be no soul music, R&B, rock, country, or grime [sources pending]. The millions of us who left the Christian church are also shutting out a source of inspiration that's fueled thousands of years of art, and I feel really gross about it. By the way, here's how I really know I'm missing out on something important by not going to church: I know my Christian friends and family who read this article are going to add me and my family to their prayer lists. That's a huge deal, and I'm grateful and take it seriously.