Back in May of this year, Jon Steingard, the lead guitarist for Christian pop-punk band, Hawk Nelson, made a lengthy public announcement on Instagram, explaining that he no longer believes in God.
“I’ve been terrified to post this for a while – but it feels like it’s time for me to be honest,” wrote Steingard in opening the message he’d been afraid to share for years, adding, “I hope this is not the end of the conversation, but the beginning.”
“This is not a post I ever thought that I would write, but now I feel like I really need to,” he wrote. “After growing up in a Christian home, being a pastor’s kid, playing and singing in a Christian band, and having the word ‘Christian’ in front of most of the things in my life — I am now finding that I no longer believe in God.”
In the months that have followed Steingard’s controversial announcement, he has received severe backlash from critics on each end of the religious to non-religious spectrum—from Christians telling him he’s going to hell, to atheists criticizing him for staying “open-minded” to Christians values.
While being slain on the Internet for his stance, Steingard says he refuses to see religion as a “black and white issue,” but rather one that has gray areas to be explored.
