sent in by BornAgainCelt

I'm hoping to get some feedback here, as I really don't know where else to go with my questions. No one knows my thoughts right now & if they did, they'd REALLY be stunned. I've been a high profile in my church for over 30 years - Bible study teacher, church musician, even missionary. But I've had questions well up in me for many years that I've ignored until now.

I'm a musician & while doing graduate work, I fell in love with the music of the Middle Ages, which began a 30 year fascination for anything Medieval, particularly church history. Ohhhh, boy. What I've read, I've just kept to myself. Don't want to rock the boat. Especially when being a church music director has put food on the table for the family. I'd see pettiness and judgement in Xtians, but turned the other way. I've finally realized that I've turned the other cheek so many times that I've been going in circles. But my story begins much earlier....

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sent in by David

I have been posting in the forum under davety227 for about a month and now feel comfortable to post my testimony.

I was baptised as an infant into the Roman Catholic church at the request of my parents. My parents are not overly religious or fanatical in any way, I believe they did it out of tradition more than anything. I then attended a catholic elementary from age six until age fourteen. Although the priests and nuns who taught at this school were very nice, I never really bought into the bible and the concept of Jesus as my savior. I did want to believe, so I tried not to entertain the thought for very long. It wasn't the Christian faith that left a lasting impression on me, it was their views on homosexuals.


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sent in by Jason

"In order to be sure that you are a good person, so that you don't go to hell when you die, you have to pray to Jesus and ask him to live in your heart, okay son?"

"Okay, Mommy. Dear Jesus...."

That was the moment when my little mind began to develop its worldview around the tension wrought pillars of supernatural dualism. For the next 25 years I would be caught in an escalating mental war with myself. Every event and circumstance would ultimately be subconsciously filed under either "Because of God", or, "Because of Satan". I learned to be suspicious of every little thing that entered my thoughts. My DEPENDANCE on God for taking care of me, guiding me in decisions, and protecting me from evil grew, while my FEAR of "Satan", evil, being misled by evil forces, and hell, also grew.

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sent in by Evers

It makes me sick that I did not find out the truth earlier in my life. Religion is truely a self made prison used to control the masses with fear and greed.

I credit the Bush President 43, and Jerry Foulwell with helping me see reality. To the most powerful office in hostory sucking up to a divine power for control of the earth seemed like Hitler to me. I read The "Age Of Reasoning" by Thomas Paine. It was written in the 17 hundreds and the lights came on. There may be a divine power but not the demonic being of revenge who's Bible hates gays, but is OK with owning slaves; children can be stoned for being disrespectful and women have no power at all.

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sent in by Sean

i was born into a "christian" family. every sunday we would go to church and my father would be the pillar of society. then when we got home he would be the violent bully i know and love. i loved going to church as a child. the pastor i had was a wonderfull loving man. and i enjoyed hearing about this loving god who loved me and wanted to be with me.
i suppose i wanted god because my father was so far from the father image i would hear others talk about. he was gone most of my childhood drivin truck (it was sad for me but i also understood he had to put money on the table.)... and when he was home he put me through hell.


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Reading from Compton's Pictured Encyclopedia, 1948, Volume 4, page 140, we find that Easter is the Greatest Festival of the Christian Church, which commemorates the resurrection of Jesus Christ - which festival was named after the ancient Anglo Saxon Goddess of Spring!

EASTER.


The greatest festival of the Christian church commemorates the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. It is a movable feast, that is, it is not always held on the same date. The church council of Nicea (a.d. 325) decided that Easter should be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon on or after the vernal equinox (March 21). Easter can come as early as March 22 or as late as April 25.

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William Edelen
November 30, 2003

Behind every gun in the mideast bloodbath is a religious scripture. Jew and Muslims are slaughtering each other over religion. They are butchering each other over their claim that this is "sacred" ground for their religious tradition. Both are claiming that "God" gave it to them. It is religion that feeds and fuels the violence and the slaughtering of other human beings, and all being done in "Gods" name.

If I hear one more empty airhead use the stupid cliche that "without religion there would be no morality", I think I'll throw up. The fact is this: religion is the direct cause of immorality and amorality. Without religion this earth would be a far, far more peaceful place with far more harmony between cultures and people. Every war going on today on this earth has religion as the fuel keeping it alive.

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sent in by Rachelle

I don't know how many Star Trek fans are out there, but I have always enjoyed the analogy of Christianity to the Borg. They are an alien race in the series that seeks out lifeforms in order to incorporate them into thier group, in an attempt to void the universe of individuality. They encounter a new civilization, capture them and "assimilate them into thier collective". Nothing in my mind could describe chrisitans better, as they too seek to rid the world of personal freedoms. It seems strange to me that the supposed creator of my mind would try so hard to keep me from using it.

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sent in by Apollo

I was “saved” in October of 1981, shortly after the birth of our first child. Stuck with it for almost 23 years as a “Reformed”-Calvinist-postmillennianl “Christian Reconstructionist,” and renounced Christianity in February of 2004.

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sent in by Ed Babinski

Couple who brawled over 'Passion of Christ' arrested
March 19, 2004, 6:18AM
Associated Press
HoustonChronicle.com

STATESBORO, Ga. -- A couple who got into a dispute over a theological point after watching The Passion of the Christ were arrested after the argument turned violent.

The two left the movie theater debating whether God the Father in the Holy Trinity was human or symbolic, and the argument heated up when they got home, Melissa Davidson said.

"It was the dumbest thing we've ever done," she said.

Davidson, 34, and her husband, Sean Davidson, 33, were charged with simple battery on March 11 after the two called police on each other. They were released on $1,000 bail.

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sent in by Chris

There I was, toting my bible around, believing with all my heart it was true. How could it not be true? The whole universe had to have a plan; I had to have a plan. Someone loved all of us enough to create this all for us. This someone was God. The one who loved us so much to send his only son to die for our sins so that we may someday join him in heaven. I was ready to preach about his love, maybe even someday pursue a career in His field.

PRAISE JESUS!

Then it happened.

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sent in by John E. Denison

When I was hired at my current job I didn't know it but I was moving towards leaving Christianity.

I met my employer at a Christian 12 step meeting where I was the featured speaker. He liked what I had to say so he hired me because he wanted to hire ex-offenders but he wanted someone that could help him with this endeavor.

Three years ago I was diagnosed with a rare blood malignancy, the medication made me sick but I could still work. I talked to him and he said as long as I could come in he would find something for me to do. Several times I approached him about my job performance and he said as long as I can break even (I sell and service fire extinguishers) he was ok with it. He said at another time he didn't expect me to keep up with other people he expected me to give him 100% of what I could.

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Jesus is quoted many times in the Bible saying that a believer can ask for anything through prayer and receive it. He even goes so far as to say that mountains and trees can be thrown into the sea simply by praying for it. This is clearly a lie, and can be proven to be a lie by any believer. Simply pray for me to be converted to Christianity right away. Or better yet ask God to move the mountains behind my house. He could make a lot of converts that way. If I’m converted today, I’ll post a public apology on my web site and devote my life to kissing God’s ass. If I’m not converted it would only be fair for you to apologize and devote your life to kissing my butt.

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sent in by Rustifer

I'll never forget that night at a Southern Baptist Revival. The preacher, a travelling evangeslist said "Do you want to see your daddy again after you die? Come on down the aisle, find Jesus, and enjoy eternal life away from hell, where there is wheeping, sorrow, and fire." I was 12, just a kid, and from that point on, I was scared of death and the God who created it.

I didn't go down the aisle that night. I was crying too hard. And the next 3 years was spent trying to get up the nerve to walk down the aisle at a revival to get saved from hell. The revivals only came around twice a year so if I missed one or chickened out, I lived in fear of life and death until the next revival. Finally, I went down the aisle and was crying too hard to say any prayer "confessing Jesus as Savior".


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sent in by Melissa

There is a reason why the 3 biggest institutions in the world are, and have always been, the Government, the Churches and the Banks, it is simple: For power and control over the people. Initmidation and fear support their power and control. This is done, by keeping people divided up, rich from poor, sinner from saint.

I survived the insanity of Christianity. After 12 years of having a haunted mind and chasing this perfect picture of some dream concocted up by some insane wanna-be ruler some 2,500 or so years ago..., then I woke up.

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sent in by Chris

My journey to Humanist started when I was about 17.At the time I was a member of the local Christian Youth group.heck I was what you would call saved!!!! Then one day I started reading some of Richard Dawkins work and I went to my Pastor and asked him a few questions about what I had read.

Well my Pastor automaticaly told me it was lies and only God knows the truth. I was like huh!!!!!

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sent in by J. Grant

I was brought into a Christian denomination because my family was poor. We were 4 kids, divorced mother, living on welfare, and lemme tell ya - that scenario is no treat, no matter what a lot of people think. We often didn't have food, and we lived at a level of poverty most people wouldn't believe still exists in America.

I was a believer. The church offered us food and clothing, got us into a better house, and baptised us. I was raised thinking Jesus and God and the Holy Ghost were all as real as the chair I'm sitting on now. I lived righteously, never smoked, never listened to "evil music", and a slipped word of profanity sent me running for a prayer. I wanted to live right, and go to heaven.

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sent in by Matt Scheeren

For as long as I can remember, I was a Christian. Born and raised as the perfect little kid who never did anything wrong. In truth, I was like that due to the fear of the so-called Christian "hell", that we talked about every single day in Sunday School. The mantra "Fear is the best control" really rings a bell with my situation, because as I grew older I started questioning different things that I was being taught. It started out with the "Eternal Sin", which I was absolutely convinced that I had committed somehow, and worrying day and night about not being able to spend eternity with the Christian "God".

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sent in by Crystal

I wander about in the world I'm a stranger to, a world I know nothing about.
I question everything from the beginning to the end, I have no idea what came before me or what will come after me.

I have garbled memories in the far distances of my mind, of things I should believe,
I just don't remember what they are anymore, I can't decipher them. Did I know at one time what path I should take? Was there a place and a time in my life when things made sense, when I knew who I was?

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sent in by Danny Haszard

I'm Danny Haszard from Bangor Maine usa. Former member of the Jehovah's witnesses.Exited out 1-5-92 was in for 33 years. I was 3rd generation, so they still are holding most of my family hostage. The Watchtower swindled most of my family assets, left me desitute at first but i have recovered much.

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sent in by Allison Korte

In brief, I was born into a Catholic family. I was baptized before I knew how to talk, let alone decide my faith. When I was three, my parents divorced and I was landed with my mother, who was a devout but non-practicing Catholic. What I mean by that is, she never attended church and knew anything about Christianity, but her faith was never questioned when it came to Jesus.

When I turned 8 or 9, I decided I wanted to live with my father. A few years later, my father and I moved to San Antonio, Texas to live with my grandparents. Now my grandparents were even more Catholic than my mom. They went to church EVERY MORNING and they made me go on Sundays. At first, I had a problem with the waking up early part, but then I sort of started liking the mass.

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Fear of the unknown is a recurrent theme throughout the literary compositions of history and the media creations of our own day. Whether it is the bogey-men of children stories, the monsters of science fiction or the evil caricatures of the horror genre’, it is apparent that we humans are simultaneously enamored and terrified of the unknown. Torn between the adventurous spirit of the explorer and the controlling mind-set of superstition and practicality, we find it difficult to balance the dichotomy of our conflicting nature. The questions that haunt us include, “Can a shortcut to the Orient be found or will we sail off the ends of the earth?” or “Is it better to explore the dangers of space, or to be content believing the stars were created solely to light the night,”

The scene in the opening book of the Bible places Adam, translated as man, in a terrible dilemma. He is commanded by his provider to ignore his god given nature. Man, born with an insatiable appetite to know, is told to deny his intellect and bury his desire for knowledge. He is commanded to simply trust and obey, without question, the uncompromising command of his god.

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ON MAN'S FREEWILL
1.) God has an unchangeable plan for everything past, present & future.
2.) Everything that occurs past, present and future will be part of God's unchanging plan.
3.) Thoughts and actions occur and are part of God's unchanging plan.
4.) Thoughts and actions cannot be anything other than what God has planned.
5.) Free-will doesn't exist.

---

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sent in by Joel Atkinson

To sum it up...I got saved in a small country Pentecostal church when I was 14. Before long it was my entire life, leading me into ministry in the form of preaching, teaching, evangelism, counseling, general church work, visiting people, you name it. i first began to preach when i was about 17. I read the bible almost exclusively, only adding to it Christian inspirational books, articles, sermons, whatever.

I loved and listened exclusively to Christian music. I prayed daily and often for hours at a time in my room. loved to worship the lord in singing and physical acts of worship (bowing, dancing, raising hands). I was awarded and praised everywhere among fellow Christians for my faith, even receiving denomination awards such as Mr. Texas for the Church of God one year, super camper awards and so on. I wanted to win the world and I fervently wept for the sinners of the world on many occasions.

So what happened?

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sent in by Dena - aka, Heathenmom

Hi. I've been posting here for a couple of months now and thought I should add my story.

I went to church weekly while growing up. My mother was not especially religious, but would send my brother and I to Sunday School every week. My father was an abusive, alcoholic who only became religious when he'd preach at us while sloppy drunk. I tell you all of this, so that you know why I ended up falling so hard for all of the things I heard at church -- I desperately needed something and I found it in the Baptist Church.

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sent in by Ellie Nonner

I was 16 years old when one of my best friends confronted me about finding something that would change my life. She knew that I battled with depression ever since I was a young child. She professed a religion, a commitment, a relationship that would change my life for the better. She believed that her god would provide a complete healing, that I would finally know the peace I so desperately longed for. In the middle of the courtyard at my high school, a scared 16 year old girl broke down and tears and believed that she had finally found an answer to her problems.

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