buffettphan

You're allowed to rant. That's why Rants is here. That's why Ex-C is here. Generally we moderators would prefer to save the "reports" for the christians who come here acting like assholes, telling us we're going to hell, and other various and sundry problem children. Not for those coping with escaping the cult!

@FreeFromGuiltHere's a little of my story. My husband and I married in 1973 after 2+ years of dating. We were both raised Catholic, but neither of us attended church. I had stopped believing while in high school. He just kinda shrugged off religion because as he says "the only reason I was raised catholic was so my mom could attend their bingo parties." Anyhow we had our first child after being married for about 5 years and our next one a couple of years later. We always said we were going to wait to have kids to make sure our marriage "clicked". (In retrospect, how stupid was that!?!) About a dozen years into our marriage, someone he worked with managed to brainwash my otherwise very intelligent husband. To this day I really don't understand how or why he fell for that garbage. But he did and our lives changed forever. After his conversion, I decided to re-evaluate my position on christianity. Maybe I was young and dumb when I made that decision? So I went with him to all the various churches he tried as he searched for the perfect one. I read and studied the bible every day. Suddenly he started tithing and spending less time at home and more time with his christian fiends. He volunteered for everything the church wanted. He felt guilty about everything and still does. After a year or so, I realized I just could never go back to christinsanity. About the same time, on Easter Sunday, his church preached to the kids in children's church that if they got Easter Baskets, they were going to hell and so were their parents. DON"T MESS WITH MY KIDS! I told DFH that was it. Neither the kids nor I attended church with him again. So for 30 years, we've had the "agree-to-disagree" program going on in our marriage. It hasn't always been easy, but like I said above, we are both good, decent people with mostly similar values. But I wish he would remove those god-goggles and see reality. He would be so much happier and I bet his stress and blood pressure would go down too!

MOHO and I are in similar boats and I'll use MOHO's post as examples for me too. (Thanks MOHO!) Here at Ex-C, I have referred to Mr. Buffettphan as my DFH --DearFundyHubby. You are really fortunate that your husband stopped believing when he did. I'm sure life will be so much smoother, easier, and fun! Mr. Buffettphan says he still loves me, but I think he loves the idea of saving my soul more than anything. I only go to church for weddings and funerals. Oh, and my grandkids school functions. Yes one set of them is on the dark side too, although they aren't as fanatical. He spends more time with his jesus-freaks friends (or as I call them "fiends"), videos, and sermons. I was never a true believer either. Even worse I was raised Catholic and we know how they are! (He was raised Catholic too, but that's different.) I get super annoyed at his jesus-freak music. He thinks he can sing, so that makes it even worse. I don't talk about my Big Mistake of 1973. I try not to dwell on the past. (See below) And most days I guess I wouldn't change it because without him, I wouldn't have my kids and grandkids. But as they say, you can't miss what you never knew...... Edited to add one more thing. I HATE all the money that has been wasted through the years on his propaganda, brainwashing, and pastors' new cars. Mr. Buffettphan and I do have a lot of similar values because we are both good people. I am the evidence that you can be good without god. He on the other hand believes it takes His God to be a good person. So other than that, we're good too.... Jimmy Buffett > Quotes > Quotable Quote “Oh, yesterdays are over my shoulder, So I can't look back for too long. There's just too much to see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can't go wrong.” ― Jimmy Buffett https://www.goodreads.com/quotes/155113-oh-yesterdays-are-over-my-shoulder-so-i-can-t-look

Yeah, they've got to remove their god-goggles first in order to read and study the buybull objectively. Unfortunately sometimes it seems like those goggles are superglued to their faces!

It can be very hard and painful to get past that christian brainwashing. There are as many ways of dealing with it as there are people who are brainwashed. If someone's advice speaks to you, look into it. If it doesn't, move on to something else. Give it time and please don't be so hard on yourself. ((Hugs))

I live in the Richmond VA area. His wife tested positive also. I can hardly wait to find out how many people from his church get sick and spread it to who-knows-how many others. Just about when the curve was flattening here too. Almost all of the new cases in the past few days had stemmed from nursing/retirement homes. I guess that will be changing over the next couple of weeks.

@Geezer -- * I fixed it for ya!

Both. Neither. Either. Take your pick because gawd works in mysterious ways.

Not just the old testament., but the new testament also: https://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-interpretation/first-person-misogyny-in-the-bible/

They'll blame it on the evil government/s persecuting them and their right of assembly -- despite Romans 13:1-2 says: "Obey the government, for God is the One who has put it there. There is no government anywhere that God has not placed in power. So those who refuse to obey the law of the land are refusing to obey God, and punishment will follow."

^ This! I have a grandson who was born prematurely. He's 16 now and although he appears perfectly healthy to an outsider, for the rest of his life, he will ALWAYS be at a high risk for anything that affects the respiratory system. There are millions of people who are at risk. People need to stop being so goddamn selfish.

https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/virginia-becomes-20th-state-ban-conversion-therapy-minors-n1148421 My state, Virginia, is the first southern state to pass a ban on conversion therapy. Parents can't force it on their minor children. Well, at least not legally.

The movement is frightening. Following are excerpts from the movie Silhouette City which addresses numerous groups that are behind the movement and is well worth watching. It came out maybe a dozen years ago. Things have gotten worse.

It's so great to hear from you again! Glad you're doing well.

For many years I used to put a Grinch and an Oscar the Grouch from Sesame Street under the tree or on the mantle. They were leftover stuffed animals from my kids' childhood. Then I switched to tropical decorations.