By ooglyman ~ A fter leaving home I stayed away from church for several years. I had no pleasant memories of being raised by fundamentalists, and didn’t want to waste any more of my life inside church walls. After some time I married a lapsed Catholic who expressed less interest in religion than I did, and I thought I’d grow old with her. Within a few months she began attending mass at the local parish chapel and laying a head trip on me that I was in need of god. Image by Christolakis via Flickr It also annoyed her that I was writing poetry and short stories which were being accepted for publication by alternative and new age focused magazines. I was also smoking a great amount of weed and drinking beer with my friends. We were together for three years, and then we split immediately after our son was born. I followed my ex back to our home town so I could stay in my son’s life. I had him with me on most weekends. One day when my son was two he asked me to take him to church. I ha...

By ooglyman -- D ad was a preacher. Not one that was trained at a seminary, but he was a school teacher who had been a missionary, taught Sunday school, and occasionally was invited by different churches to speak against Communism. Both of my parents were raised Mennonite, and after they were married became Baptists. Every few years we moved to another church. Dad was never content. He didn’t like the least hint of liberalism in any church we attended. Finally, when I entered my teens, my parents discovered a church they liked. The denomination even had fundamentalist in its name. ( Independent Fundamentalist Churches of America .) The head pastor had been a minor league baseball player who never made it to the big leagues, so he started a church instead. One time I heard him say from the pulpit that it was against the will of god for men to wear polyester suits. They were too comfortable. No one was supposed to be comfortable in church. I remember not being comfortable in his. ...