"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."
These are the words of Jonathan Steingard, a Canadian musician and lead vocalist for the popular punk-pop Christian band Hawk Nelson.
Steingard recently took to Instagram to publicly share his declaration of disbelief in God.
"The last few words of that sentence were hard to write," Steingard continues in his post. "I still find myself wanting to soften that statement by wording it differently or less specifically - but that wouldn't be true."
The musician shares he has been dealing with his own disbelief over the past several years.
"It didn't happen overnight or all of a sudden," Steingard says. "I have been terrified to be honest about this publicly for quite some time, because of all that I thought I would lose.
"I'm still scared, but I'm writing about this now for a few reasons."
Steingard shares he no longer feels he can avoid sharing his change of heart, saying "It felt dishonest not to talk about it." He adds that many of the doubts that have led him away from faith are doubts shared by close friends and family members, which has affirmed his own feelings and led to what the singer calls "openness and transparency" in sharing his journey.