It has taken me almost 24 years to figure it out, but I’ve finally quit trying to pretend to be a Christian.

I’ve spent a lot of Sundays in church, had a lot of conversations with “Christians”, and read a lot of books about God, Jesus and religion.

From the outside looking in, it’s wonderful. On the outside, a religious life appears to be all smiles. It’s a lot of Instagram and Facebook posts with Bible verses, conversations about how blessed you are, and discussions about what “God is doing” in your life.

With the convergence of media and how we rely socially on platforms like Twitter, Instagram and Facebook, religion has been simplified to a status update, a like or a share of an article.

We’ve taken the interpersonal side of religion away, and instead replaced it with the sentiment of: “as long as you play Christian, you are a Christian.”

So yes, I don’t want to have anything to do with your religion.

I know how easy it is to try and pretend to be a Christian, because I’ve lived so much of my life doing just that – pretending.

And as I’ve traveled down this road of exploring religion and seeking to understand, I’ve realized that I am one of many that have mastered the art of hypocrisy.

It’s sickening really. The fact that we judge other people for things that are equally as sinful as what we do.

But that is what we do. We talk about how wonderful our relationship is with God, and then turn around and jam out to a song that talks about sex and drugs. Am I advocating one or the other? Nope. But you can’t sit there and judge someone that’s homosexual, after you’ve spent the evening reading 50 Shades of Grey.

I’m a little resentful, I guess that’s probably obvious. Why? Because I’ve been on both sides of the line. I’ve been the kid drinking and jamming out to Lil Wayne, and I’ve been the kid sitting in the front row at church raising my arms and enthusiastically praising God. Can you do both? Sure. But I’ve realized that the pot can’t call the kettle black.

I’m sick of religion. I’m sick of churches full of hypocritical people, but more importantly I’m sick of Christians who have forgotten how to be decent people. Loving someone for who they are doesn’t mean that you support them, all it really means is that you are able to look past their flaws and see that no matter what they’ve done, they’re still human. They’re still a child of God.

Maybe, for once, if Christians would get off their high horse of eternal life and judgment, they’d realize there is a difference between religion and Christianity.

Just because you don’t see someone in church on Sundays, doesn’t mean they aren’t a Christian.