By Carl S ~ T here are pains that don't go away. You know what I mean. All you have to do is watch survivors of clergy rape or any rape and read about or listen to their experiences. Some survivors are over 80 years old. And fundies like to say they're being persecuted! Anyhow, grievances aren't welcome nowadays (except on TV “reality” programs.) And we're expected to be forgiving (let's not forget forgiving). And we don't want to offend anyone, do we? How boring! I occasionally have feelings of what once felt like betrayal, at a picnic with my spouse's family. You know how you sit around small talking and confide with family members? An in-law mentioned “God” and asked if I believed in “him”, and I said “No.” Another in-law heard me, and came over. This was my first close encounter with fanaticism. Someone else joined in, so I was trapped between two fundies. Bystanders listened. This went on for some time. I left that room, and went to cry in another

By Lilith Lite ~ Ex-C hristians, you're so sensitive! Guests come on site, push the right buttons, and you grab the bait! (Are they also ex-Christians? I wonder.) How many of you are there, really? Ten? Fifteen at the most? You're more involved with Christianity than any Christians I know. They don't give a shit for thinking. You piss them off when you confuse them with “facts, truth, reasoning and evidence.” They wanna live forever and they're terrified of hell. Those guest objectors want to be left alone to enjoy their drug of choice and messing with the rights of others. They want their children to be just like them. Are you any different? Yes you are. Religions, like drug addictions, alcoholism, habitual gambling, and pedophilia, are addictions, and you're busy shaking yours. Many former believers are still in rehab. There are no rewards established for recoverers from religious addiction, but there ought to be. I imagine staying drug free in the midst of

By Matt ~ I have clambered so hard for Christianity to be true. I love the story. The idea that everything sad will come untrue inspires me. I want to believe Aslan returns and tears apart the White Witch . I want to believe the ring is being carried to Mordor to be plunged into a pit of fire. I want to see justice delivered from a man on a horse. I want there to be Lucy’s and Bilbo’s and Frodo’s , and even a Mr. Tumnus . I want to believe my futile efforts at work and art will ring forever throughout the ages and reach their culmination at the end of this present age. For that idea—to quote the triumphal hymn by Martin Luther—I would “ let goods and kindred go, this mortal life also .” And I would have been happy to do it. Except, when it’s the epitome of the cultural norm in my own circle, you never have to lose a single good or kindred. You gain a bunch. There’s a faintly noticeable addiction to that gain, muted no doubt by the beauty of the story, by Aslan’s deafe

By B ~ T here are innumerable and unforeseen ways in which growing up in the fundamentalist evangelical fold shaped who I am; for the most part I am horrified by the impact. I did not resist a lick of it, being a natural people-pleaser (is that natural? Or is that also part of the programming?). I was a ten-year-old prodigy preacher, considered by elders of my church and leaders of my close-minded Christian school to be “Lady Wisdom”, a manifestation of God’s efforts to guide his flock. I was good at it! I believed it in every crevice of my heart and mind. I vividly remember sobbing in my room at home, listening to worship music and begging God to deconstruct my life, take my world to pieces, and make me His disciple. I was maybe eleven. That is the start of the story. I am 34 now and I am here to find out if anyone has experienced anything like what I am currently experiencing. My Dad became a pastor when I was a kid, and I dutifully leapt into his mania. His Father (I generall

By Carl S ~ A ll our lives we've been told belief itself is a treasure worth hanging on to. By what stretch of the imagination? Just what does it mean, ”to believe?” To believe is to trust in some things and persons as being genuine, honest, truthful! Let's be honest. Trusting in any god means trusting in those who speak for that god, in their opinions! To believe also means to have firm convictions and opinions. It's funny though, that many people who believe their “personal” convictions and opinions originate from their own minds, are merely repeating those of others, without thinking. And their “personal relationship with God,” sounds like everyone else's. Absolute faith is absolute conviction. The faithful want no connection to evidence, preferring to be connected feels true. There seems to be an unspoken faith that spiritual feelings never lie. Religious belief prefers to worship opinions. These are hardly reasons to adore faith; they are reasons to fear it.