Chapter 12 - Beginnings By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ Then Sings my Soul, my Savior God, to Thee... How Great Thou Art... How Great Thou Art! Then Sings my Soul... My Savior God, to Thee... HOW GREAT THOU ART.... HOW GREAT - THOU - ART!!! T he entire congregation was on its feet. Many with hands raised - most with tears streaming down their cheeks. Joyce and I stood with our backs to the thunderous choir behind us and lifted our voices in the final refrain, "HOW GREAT - THOU - ART!" I had instructed Brother Mac to have the entire congregation of wedding-goers join their voices with ours in singing one of my favorite hymns, and all 300 guests had enthusiastically agreed to serenade us with this slightly unusual (yet very moving and emotional) wedding song. My emphasis was this; God was and always would be at the very center of this marriage - Amen, Hallelujah! I don't recall much else about the ceremony. There was the typical vows that were admonished by Bro. Mac, and ...

By ex-Pastor Dan ~ I originally wrote this rant back in November, 2017, after the horrible massacre took place in a Texas Church ( http://www.foxnews.com/us/ 2017/11/05/mass-shooting- reported-at-texas-sutherland- springs-church.html ). I was unable to post it here at Ex-Christian.Net at that time due to technical difficulties, so I sent it to a few of my Atheist friends. Now that I am able to access Ex-Christian.Net once again, and since there has recently been a big shake-up at that church, involving the use (or misuse) of donated funds (  http://www.miamiherald.com/ article208913494.html ), I have decided to post it now. November 7th, 2017 - responding to the lunacy that I just read in the local paper! T his week's latest horror is a double edged tragedy. Not only have we seen another, senseless, mass shooting, but many of the victims were innocent, little children. And, where this insanity took place should give any thinking person pause. It happened in a ...

By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ S o, it’s happened again. In Paris, a group of religious fanatics tried to prove that their God is better than your god, or any other god for that matter. Not only better, but in their warped minds; bigger, stronger, more holy – indeed unique and exclusive! Exclusive of all other deities, because alas, only Allah exists - and Muhammad is His prophet. Therefore, permitting… nay! commanding His sold-out, mindless, martyr-bound zealots to proclaim their “gospel of peace” [sic] to the heathen masses of unsuspecting Parisian partiers. This message was delivered with literal explosive force, granting these Muslim evangelists instant passage to the waiting bosoms of 40 virgin maidens. Their ticket to paradise, bought and paid for (like another very familiar religion) with BLOOD! All day I have had an old TV advertisement jingle running through my head: “My dog’s better than your dog, my dog’s better than yours. My dog’s better cause he gets Kennel RationTM, my dog’...

By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ Let’s Back Up for just a Moment I had put in one year of college as soon as I graduated high school in 1969. After that freshman year, I decided to take the next year off and visit my brother, TM, in Brooklyn, New York . He had recently left our home church, where he had been Brother Mac’s Assistant Pastor, and answered God’s call to join David Wilkerson ’s street ministry - Teen Challenge . Wilkerson’s outreach to the “gangs” of New York had been spotlighted in his hugely popular book (later a movie) ‘The Cross and the Switchblade’. TM and I were raised in the Southern California beach city of Ventura. Ventura was founded as a Mission Outpost in 1782, by Padre Junipero Serra, and christened San Buenaventura (Saint of the Good Winds). Ventura became one of southern California’s “surf cities” in the 1960s, and is now known as part of the Gold Coast. Why in hell would my brother leave such a bucolic setting and drag his wife and baby daughter 3,000 mile...

Rainbow flag (LGBT movement) LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) Pride flag (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ T he issuance of Barack Obama’s Presidential Proclamation declaring June to be the - Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Pride Month, 2013 - has caused quite a stir where I work. I suppose it should not surprise me all that much, since I work for the Department of Defense with a lot of retired military types. Their time in the Navy spanned the years that preceded the “don’t ask, don’t tell” era that has only recently been forced upon the military leadership. It also came as no surprise when all of my “Christian” co-workers got up in arms and were ranting and raving about “the special treatment and recognition that those fags are receiving!” “Why don’t we protest and make them proclaim a Heterosexual Pride Month!?” was heard rising from some cubicles. Many expressed their feelings of outrage and how America is going down a slippery slope that l...

By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ Chapter 10 - The “Blessing” of a Lifetime S tanding on the front entry steps of the Oak View Full Gospel Lighthouse, in my polyester suit, lavender dress shirt, 4” wide paisley tie, platform shoes, wire-rimmed glasses, and hair just over my ears, I was the epitome of an early 1970s, well dressed youth leader. But, I would soon need a haircut because that extra ½” of “shag” flowing over my collar was pressing the limits with Brother Mac. Just a couple of months earlier had seen him finally relent on the issue of colored dress shirts being worn by anyone in ministry, and I was flirting with the “sin” of “long hair on a man.” The Deuteronomic covenants and MacManama’s laws were still hammered from his giant, wooden pulpit; except the parts that he wanted to ignore, e.g., eating pork - my how that ol’ Scotsman loved his bacon! As I stood there greeting the early-arrivers for Sunday Evening Worship, I spied a 1956 Pontiac Star Chief convertible pulling into t...

By Ex-Pastor Dan ~ J ust last night I was contacted through a very famous social network, by a Christian zealot that I had attended church with over 30 years ago. He was sure that he had me and my situation all figured out. Like my pastor cousin did a couple of years ago, this yay-hoo apologized for what other Christians had done to me. WTF?! He assured me that he and Jesus still loved me, and of course threw in the little hint (scare tactic) that I would meet Him someday….would I be ready? I am so sick of this sh*t! I decided to post my answer to him. Dear DJ, I'm not sure, but I think you are the DJ that I used to know when I was still in the delusion of Christianity and attending the Oak View Full Gospel Lighthouse?? If you are, then I would like to leave you with the TRUTH. I didn't leave Christianity because of what was done to me and my family by "men of God". Even though a couple of them should be in prison for the crimes that they committed against...

by Ex-Pastor Dan ~ Starting Over I am currently a senior at Columbia Southern University in their Environmental Science & Management program. Although most of my classes deal with science, I have to take two Management courses this semester to meet the requirements of my degree. In the course entitled Leadership, we have been studying great leaders and exploring the question – what makes a great leader? With my past in mind, I have been thinking a lot about what makes a truly great leader; had I ever known one? I know for sure that I was a terrible leader and sat under terrible leaders in the churches I went to and served in. For a recent essay, I was assigned the task of comparing two different styles of leadership: The leader who leads with Love and the leader who leads by inducing Fear. Wow, did that ever hit home! I not only sat under Fear Leaders, I knew that I had been one myself. I also was aware that I knew nothing about Love Leading until a very few years ago...

By ex-Pastor Dan ~ S everal weeks ago I posted a letter that I had written to my mother, a 95 year old, fundamentalist, pentecostal Christian . I won't re-print that whole letter here, perhaps webmdave will post the link: My mom waited quite some time in replying, but finally she sent this very short attempt at deflecting blame back upon me: My Dear Son Danny, I'm sorry YOU feel like you do - all I can say is you haven't walked in my foot steps. I love you & I always will. Lovingly, Mother This kind of took me aback. I really had poured my guts out in my letter, and I expected a little more than just one more lame attempt at making me feel sorry for saying anything. So after several weeks of ruminating upon it, I wrote her this reply: Dear Mom, As you can see, I have returned your card. As I stated, very clearly, in my last letter to you, I refuse to accept any more guilt, shame or fear from you. Your few words did not speak at all to the heart-...

By ex-Pastor Dan ~ D ear Mom, I am writing this letter as an explanation of where I am in my life now, and what place you may or may not have in it, from this point forward. Over the past 23 years (since leaving Salem and the ministry) I have been on a quest to figure out my life and to find TRUTH. I don’t think that you could argue with the fact that the search for truth is a noble and worthwhile goal. Because of my upbringing, I had never been allowed the freedom to question the things that were forced down my throat from the time I was born. My earliest memories are those of sitting on the prayer room bench at the old Foursquare Church in Ventura. I recall watching you weep and speak in an unknown gibberish. I didn’t know why you were so sad, but it upset me greatly! Perhaps it was then, at age 3-4 years, that I first began to equate prayer rooms and churches as places of torment and sadness……who knows? I am in process of writing a book. I am up to Chapter 10 in my li...