on Steingard, The lead singer of a Christian rock band, Hawk Nelson, and son of a pastor officially expressed his renouncement of faith on Instagram on Wednesday May 20.
"This is not a post I ever thought that I would write, but now I feel like I really need to," Steingard wrote, explaining the loss of faith didn't happen overnight and it came with questions about God, the Bible, and his upbringing in a Christian home.
Steingard wrote in a chronological manner expressing how he started out and eventually "deconstructed" from his Christian faith and as he also put it, "in biblical terms--to fall out."
Steingard was welcomed and accepted by his fellow Christian Instagram friends and followers with words of support. "Love you bro. Always will" said Jeremy Camp, a contemporary Christian music singer.
Steingard expressed signs of theism, being open to the idea that there is some sort of higher supreme being in the universe. He expressed in a statement, I'm open to the idea that God is there. I'd prefer if he was. I suspect if he is there, he is very different than what I was taught."
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Jon Steingard (@jonsteingard) on May 20, 2020 at 1:51pm PDT
Many of his commenters were also fans of his rock band and sympathized with him.
"As a long time Hawk Nelson fan, it's so relieving to read these words. This has been almost my exact story," said a fan.
While some commenters were angered towards the fact that this renouncement was publicly announced.
"I just have to wonder why you need to proclaim this publicly and shake possibly weaker Christians faith?" said another concerned fan.
Nevertheless, the majority of the reactions to Steingard's renouncement was confronted with kind and reassuring words that ultimately manifested the kind of unconditional love that Jesus had shown for us.