First step for me

By Stan sez ~

First off I am not sure if this is the right place or way to be doing this but I thought I had to start somewhere. I had a really hard time writing this but I feel it is something I had to do.

I grew up Catholic and my impression of god, or rather the one that was given to me, was that he was a benevolent guy with just good intentions. As I grew older and became more involved with the church I saw that this god had a rather dark side and some of his followers were more then happy to hurt others, emotionally or mentally (and yes, physically also), if they thought it was making them look good in god’s eyes or they were advancing the cause. The attitudes of some of these people were more then I could tolerate and I thought that if this is what god is about, well, you can keep it. And to tell the truth, god sounded like he was angry most of the time (a lot like some of his biggest fans).

I quit going to church about 15 years ago and just bottled up the stupid, insensitive things that people had told me over the years. I want to make clear that I do not lump all religious people into one camp. I think however that the person inside is what counts and not what religion they follow.

Here are just some of the things that I was told and I am not making any of these up.

”God allows evil to approach when he sees eternal life slipping away.”

Which translates into you must have been doing something bad because god wouldn’t have allowed bad things to happen to you otherwise. Well OK, that sounds reasonable, but what did I do that ticked him off so bad? Maybe you could tell me so that I can rectify it. I mean I was the guy who used to go to church and your god dumps on me in the most spectacular way that he can.

“God didn’t answer your prayer because you didn’t pray enough.”

Nope, I prayed plenty, I just quit when I figured prayer didn’t work and was a waste of time. Rolled up my sleeves and done it myself, or at least done what I had to do or could do. By the way how much prayer is enough to appease god?

“The tragedy could have been so much worse if god hadn’t intervened”.
I have to wonder…how much worse the tragedy could have gotten for the people who lost their lives or loved ones or everything they own. …maybe they didn’t pray enough?

“Everything comes from god”

Famine, disease, crime, injustice, loneliness, rejection, torture, murder, prostitution, drug addiction, pollution…the list goes on and on. He sounds like he belongs to the mafia or something.

“Not everything comes from god”

THAT came from the same person who said the statement before this one.

“She might have suffered physical abuse from her husband but that’s OK because it made her turn to god and now they’re doing great”

So when is physical abuse by a spouse ever OK? Is this the old saying “the ends justify the means”? The abused woman was a cousin of mine.

“The devil sometimes attacks you by using other people”

Are these the people who are trying to reason with you and explain everything with common sense instead of hocus-pocus?

Like I said before I had to start somewhere and I thought that maybe just sharing some of the ignorant things that I heard over the years was a good start.

There is something I want to say about all this and that I have looked back and I don’t think my ethics and morals had anything to do with being brought up with religion, but rather having respect for other people's rights and feelings.

I hope I don’t get too much negative feedback, but I’ve been holding on this stuff for quite a while and needed to purge it somewhere.