I suppose I excluded some important detail. The reason I had wanted to read the Bible then was so I could better understand God's word and confront my family with that understanding. But reading the Bible didn't clarify things for me the way I thought it would, instead of clear instruction on right and wrong I found more hypocrisy and contradiction, as well as a disturbing focus on the appropriate conduct of slave-owners and the treatment of women as property.

Reading the Bible gave me the same whiplash I felt seeing the hypocrisy of the people around me, which made me realize that it wasn't in spite of their faith, but because of it.

They probably just lost their faith in the society around them.
And started reading Bible with understanding instead of faith