By a humble Wiccan ~
Blessed be, my name is Robert Malcolm Richardson III, and I am pleased to make your acquaintance.
As you have doubtlessly guessed, I am an Ex Christian (If you have not, then you must be lost), and I was delivered from the clutches of Christ. I would be most humbled if you would take a moment, and hear my tale.
Alright so, I was born in Georgetown, South Carolina (Bible Country), and I was from the start a very different sort of southerner, raised in the Southern Baptist fashion, doubtlessly the worst years of my life. You might be wondering how a person could possibly escape the church in such a hard core Jesus-freak area, well, contrary to what you might think, the younger generations of my native town are slowly detaching from our former faith, and the old Christian hierarchy is crumbling steadily, but back onto subject, whilst growing into a young Christian in my hometown, I began to at last take a serious look at my beliefs.
Not surprisingly from family and peer influence, I chose the path of Christ (regrettable) and was a zealous, pious spreader of the word(ugh) destined on the path of a minister. We moved to Grenville, SC, when I was 12, and I thought I was in the Bible belt before...I was clearly wrong... the people here are hard core christian, no exceptions(we'll see about that). In the year 2008, I fully accepted Christ as my savior (I don't mean to lose you, this has a point, but humor me if you will) and I was a full Christian. Then in 2009, I would receive a huge awakening, a personal loss came upon the family, but I remained faithful, thinking this to be my first real test by God. As the weeks went by I began to notice things previously brushed under the Biblical rug, contradictions, lack of logic or common sense, you know what I'm saying. I began to doubt the very foundations of Christianity, a fragile faith, strike at the foundation and it collapses.
I began to scorn the enforcement of Christianity on others, began to reject my own former beliefs (I have never looked back), I hated the church, and Christ, and if God was as they said he was, then I could not bare to utter his foul name. I began slowly to search, cautiously, mind you, for a faith that more appealed to the way I had come to look at the world, and the Divine rewarded my search, as I came to find Wicca, my current faith, I have been Ex Christian for over two years.
I personally believe that in my struggle, I was delivered from the church, my christian phase was to please others around me, not to fit my own beliefs, I believed what I was taught to believe, a fate I wish on no human being, to be trapped in the faith of another. I stand proud to tell my fellow humans that faith is a choice, a personal one, and NO ONE has the right to tell you the "right way", there is no right way, no one true path. I have forsaken a Biblical, Monotheistic view, to my eyes, the Divine has no one form, it is everywhere, in everything, but 'tis my view alone, and I force it on no one.
When it comes to the church, what can I say, it's bad news, and none so pious as it seems, the Bible and Christ do not fill the church's coffers. The church has thrived on the misfortunes of the people, and have not ceased this injustice, not for a second. Christ? a mystery? Divine intervention? Nay, my brothers, twas nothing more than a man, flesh and blood, not God incarnate.
As for the Bible, a book of malicious lies and falsehoods, written in pen and ink, hardly the tools of the Divine. Books are missing within it, the ones present have been twisted and changed as to exert control over the masses.
Their version is so mutated from its original form that it is a wonder that they practice it to begin with, once I became familiar with the New Age and Neo-Pagan movement, I was in love, and I now live in harmony with the natural world, as I have said, I have never returned to the church.
i cannot tell anyone what to believe, living strictly by a code of "to each his own", but believe this, i have seen the inner workings of Christianity, they are false and most destructive, they govern the thoughts of their "flocks" through fear-mongering, 'tis through fear, not faith, that Christianity lives.
I hope you find the right faith for you as an individual, as was my struggle, blessed be.
As you have doubtlessly guessed, I am an Ex Christian (If you have not, then you must be lost), and I was delivered from the clutches of Christ. I would be most humbled if you would take a moment, and hear my tale.
Alright so, I was born in Georgetown, South Carolina (Bible Country), and I was from the start a very different sort of southerner, raised in the Southern Baptist fashion, doubtlessly the worst years of my life. You might be wondering how a person could possibly escape the church in such a hard core Jesus-freak area, well, contrary to what you might think, the younger generations of my native town are slowly detaching from our former faith, and the old Christian hierarchy is crumbling steadily, but back onto subject, whilst growing into a young Christian in my hometown, I began to at last take a serious look at my beliefs.
Not surprisingly from family and peer influence, I chose the path of Christ (regrettable) and was a zealous, pious spreader of the word(ugh) destined on the path of a minister. We moved to Grenville, SC, when I was 12, and I thought I was in the Bible belt before...I was clearly wrong... the people here are hard core christian, no exceptions(we'll see about that). In the year 2008, I fully accepted Christ as my savior (I don't mean to lose you, this has a point, but humor me if you will) and I was a full Christian. Then in 2009, I would receive a huge awakening, a personal loss came upon the family, but I remained faithful, thinking this to be my first real test by God. As the weeks went by I began to notice things previously brushed under the Biblical rug, contradictions, lack of logic or common sense, you know what I'm saying. I began to doubt the very foundations of Christianity, a fragile faith, strike at the foundation and it collapses.
I began to scorn the enforcement of Christianity on others, began to reject my own former beliefs (I have never looked back), I hated the church, and Christ, and if God was as they said he was, then I could not bare to utter his foul name. I began slowly to search, cautiously, mind you, for a faith that more appealed to the way I had come to look at the world, and the Divine rewarded my search, as I came to find Wicca, my current faith, I have been Ex Christian for over two years.
I personally believe that in my struggle, I was delivered from the church, my christian phase was to please others around me, not to fit my own beliefs, I believed what I was taught to believe, a fate I wish on no human being, to be trapped in the faith of another. I stand proud to tell my fellow humans that faith is a choice, a personal one, and NO ONE has the right to tell you the "right way", there is no right way, no one true path. I have forsaken a Biblical, Monotheistic view, to my eyes, the Divine has no one form, it is everywhere, in everything, but 'tis my view alone, and I force it on no one.
When it comes to the church, what can I say, it's bad news, and none so pious as it seems, the Bible and Christ do not fill the church's coffers. The church has thrived on the misfortunes of the people, and have not ceased this injustice, not for a second. Christ? a mystery? Divine intervention? Nay, my brothers, twas nothing more than a man, flesh and blood, not God incarnate.
As for the Bible, a book of malicious lies and falsehoods, written in pen and ink, hardly the tools of the Divine. Books are missing within it, the ones present have been twisted and changed as to exert control over the masses.
Their version is so mutated from its original form that it is a wonder that they practice it to begin with, once I became familiar with the New Age and Neo-Pagan movement, I was in love, and I now live in harmony with the natural world, as I have said, I have never returned to the church.
i cannot tell anyone what to believe, living strictly by a code of "to each his own", but believe this, i have seen the inner workings of Christianity, they are false and most destructive, they govern the thoughts of their "flocks" through fear-mongering, 'tis through fear, not faith, that Christianity lives.
I hope you find the right faith for you as an individual, as was my struggle, blessed be.
COMMENTS