Life After Christian Fundamentalism

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Comment by Rachel on February 14, 2011 at 5:07am

I heard Nate Phelps on a podcast. I felt very sorry for him and even more so for his poor mother.  He is doing a lot of good now, much more than his freakish dad.

Comment by L.Hunter on February 10, 2011 at 9:46am

Some interesting reads....

This is your brain...this is your brain on god

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=110997741

 

Scientology

http://www.npr.org/2011/02/08/133561256/the-church-of-scientology-f...

Comment by L.Hunter on January 19, 2011 at 6:24am

Whats up with Alabama's new governor?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/us_alabama_governor_christians

 

This governor has made his position known!!!!

Comment by joeyess on December 24, 2010 at 12:28am

Life after Christian Fundamentalism is extremely freeing. Period.

Comment by Drregaleagle on October 24, 2010 at 2:25pm

Also, it is really weird that this church calls itself a primitive Baptist church because primitive Baptists don't follow John Calvin on lots of his points. Primitive Baptists only believe in keeping the Old Testament laws that are mentioned in the New Testament and they often oppose capital punishment. They certainly oppose capital punishment for crimes other than murder. To us, they seem similar to Calvinists because their theologies resemble each other, but to themselves they're completely different. The Puritans(Calvinists) forced the Primitive Baptists led by Roger Williams to leave Massachusetts just to put it in perspective.

So I think this Fred Phelps guy just made this church up to get lots of attention. If he believes his message now, I doubt he believed it when he founded his church. Maybe he believes it now because he's convinced himself of his own lies.

Comment by Nick Carpenter on October 24, 2010 at 1:06am

Lol. As a native Georgian living in the metro-Atlanta area all my life, I can say that the Varsity is pretty much where you go when you're constipated. Though the orange slushes are great after a Braves win.

Comment by Drregaleagle on October 21, 2010 at 5:35pm

I loved The Varsity when I went to see Georgia Tech. That's the place with the really really good service right? I think it's like the fastest fast food restaurant in the US. It's Georgia's In&Out burger.

If you want to read a good Old School Primitive Baptist, read John Leland who fought the "hierarchical structure for everything" that Clifford Gliddon pointed out.

Comment by Clifford Gliddon on October 12, 2010 at 10:39am

Adelita, another form of pressure inherent in the xian religious world-view is the notion of a hierarchical structure for everything, and judgement coming from a perceived failure of people to stay in their place. This a false perception, and one which people use only to validate and maintain whatever power they think they have. It helps me to remember that no one is better or worse than I am in any real sense. Many people have greater or lesser skill than I do at whatever task you might choose. Many people are kinder or less kind than I am. Many are more forgiving or less. Many exhibit more or less fidelity, or are more or less faithful. (You get the idea.) The error is in insisting that these measures represent qualitative judgments about the value of the person, when, in fact, they are measures only of the proficiency of a person regarding these things.

The threat of damnation they hold over your head is also apparently false. They (and other religions) having been making these claims for millennia, and to date there has been exactly ZERO evidence for this happening. The same is true of the paradise thing, so the only option left for the reality-based crowd, of which you are a new and welcome member, is to ignore the whole construct because it is unsupported by evidence, and therefore untenable. Remember, THEY are the ones making the claims, so you are not required to do anything to validate your non-theist view. The burden is on them, and as the saying goes, "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence."to what you

It's just like Susan C says: You do not have to feel any guilt. I am adding the idea that there is no guilt whatsoever attached to being a reasonable and sensible human. Any one who tries to lay their own fear-based guilt complex on you is full of shit, so please try not to take it their nonsense to heart. I know it's difficult sometimes, but know that there are 30 million (that 30+six zeros!) of us in the US who identify as non-theist. And from experience I can tell you that most of the religious people I know are non-theist in their actions, which is to say they do not seem to follow any of the dogma of their professed faith -- they just do what they think they have to do.

I hope things work out for you, and I am happy to converse with you and the others in this group. There is a lot of support out there. Stay groovy.

Comment by Susan C on October 11, 2010 at 2:52pm

Hi Adelita D I read your story with empathy. You don't have to feel guilty to enjoy your life outside of religion...
Here is a link to my story, although not by my parents, I was still a young teenager when I got "Brainwashed" by a group of fundamentalist christians... http://exchristianfundamentalist.blogspot.com/2010/03/my-story.html

Comment by Adelita D on October 6, 2010 at 1:23pm

Thank you for commenting and posting Clifford! I have been going through a rough period in the past couple weeks trying to figure out why I sabotage myself in certain efforts. Why I feel so inferior, unworthy, or stupid--knowing full well I am none of these things, but unable to fight what was indoctrinated... :( I belonged to a religion that didn't believe the normal "all people are born sinners" in fact they won't baptize till 8 or older....because that is when we can tell the difference between right and wrong. How many of us did that just to make our parents happy or proud (I know I did). Granted, I have only been away from a church setting for 18 months, only gotten my family to leave me alone for almost a year--but I guess I thought I would snap out of it faster. Sort of like losing weight--we pick it up over 10 years and want it off in 6 months. It is painful (physical weight AND emotional weight).....and I just can't seem to get past the darkness and the overwhelming sense of loss which is also odd as I was always an outcast within the church (Heaven Forbid a church member actually follow the teachings of Christ! You can't really love everyone and treat your children with kindness and respect they will grow up being bratty and irresponsible, etc...roll eyes here)...and an outcast to my mother and sister. I was always wrong and they could do no wrong. Mom was seen as a saint you couldn't do anything about that she was so selfless and giving to others--but destroyed her family at home with neglect, physical abuse, verbal abuse and fear. The evil feeling in our home was palpable to those who lived there, but anyone from the outside coming in thought we were "close" and "so spiritual". By age 15 I couldn't wait to graduate and be out of that house. At age 17 I moved out but started feeling guilt and thinking I should give them another chance, maybe I was too harsh or maybe I just didn't understand. I have been fighting myself ever since, mostly because I found out they would never change and partly because I wanted a good relationship with a parent that would never happen. To be good or to not go to church because you can't have one without the other and "those Atheists and Agnostics" (said in *that* tone) who are just trying to ruin the world and THE TRUTH! :( *sigh* I never felt I had a place I could go or people I could turn to. I have been reading so many stories similar to mine and wondering how loving parents could do that to their children....I am not sure mine knew how to love...and when they found religion they changed as much as they could about themselves -- obviously they missed the most important things like not beating your children almost to death or ignoring them completely and leaving the 8 year old eldest to stay home and watch over the 4, 3 and 2 year old...and blaming all things the younger ones did on the eldest not "controlling" the younger ones. Dumping on their children responsibilities they are not ready for and punishing them for not succeeding in control they couldn't even accomplish then wondering why that child wants nothing to do with them....sorry, venting now....lol It is just so frustrating and right under the surface right now....Thanks all for listening and for writing in comments, they really do help!

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