Most Abominable Acts Personally Witnessed In Church

[The Sage Nabooru]

The pastor at my old Lutheran church has taken it upon himself to become the new Billy Graham.

 

This whole process started years ago. My parents (my father against his will), were put on the church's board. Pastor Smith walked in one day and declared that the church wasn't making enough money (the place looked like a fuckin' cathedral), so they needed to discover new ways to get more funds, including this new idea floating around that we should require people to donate some of their salaries. But he wasn't going to settle for that piddly little 10%, he wanted more. After all, we were good Christians who gave to the Lord, right? At the end of this meeting he also mentioned that he was increasing his own salary.

 

My father voted this motion of increasing church funds down, which upset Pastor Smith greatly. They never got along after that. Pastor Smith grew to hate my father for refusing to fund his whims. This church eventually grew to the size of a small high school with its extensive add-ons and extensions. Then the church was moved out of (not sold, they had so much dough I guess they didn't need to sell) and they moved into, of all glorious and graceful worship places, a former Target store nearby. Pastor Smith is still raking in the dough. The LCMS seems to have gotten more fundamentalist over the years, not a little bit, I'm sure, under the influence of the good Pastor (who's undoubtedly letting them in on lots of funds).

[Takeikin]

This sounds really mild next to most of your stuff, but....

 

When I was 10-12 I went to Bethesda Community Church, a so-called "melting pot" church which was basically just a non-denominational fundy literalist church.

 

I attended the summer day camp there one year, and I kid you not: The teachers are nigh on insane.

They never shut up about how evil and Satanic Harry Potter is. I was wearing a Harry Potter shirt the day they fed us our first pile of dung about HP, and poor impressionable ol' me was driven to rip a large hole in the shirt with my pen to destroy the big bad evil Satanic Apparel (Serving the Hell-Bound since Darwinism).

The next time I wore a HP shirt, I was made to turn it inside out as it had a large silkscreen of a Quidditch game on the front.

 

Then there are the lies I was constantly fed about Wiccans and Neopagans in general. I sincerely believed until I was 16 that Wiccans, Witches, etc. are pure evil servants of Satan who sacrifice black cats and small children at Halloween, and put razor blades in the candy.

 

I also believed that Ouija boards were a gateway straight to hell and that if I tried to use one I'd be possessed.

Somehow, I didn't figure that Pure Evil + Sold At Toys 'R' Us doesn't add up.

 

AND when we made toy guns from Tinker Toys they made us disassemble them.

 

Toy guns, for goodness' sake.

 

Wow.

[WCrystal]

I recently (this morning) went back to a church I used to go to, to say "Hi" to some of the old members, see how they're doing, how life is going, blah blah blah.

 

Things were going fine till I walked out of the door and heard them start talking about how I was going to hell and the such.

 

Sorry, god and pastor, for trying to be kind to everyone, regardless of what they believe.

[Guest seekeroftruth]

This didn't happen in church, but I feel like it qualifies. Four years ago, I was in an alcohol-rehabilitation program: one where they give you an apartment and take you shopping and all that. I was studying Judaism at the time, and was on the verge of rejecting Christianity in favor of it. I usually spent my Saturdays having a beauty spa day at home and reading the Torah, on this Saturday I went next door to the apartment that my counselors hung out at. The one on duty was a genial older man, a minister in the church and a grandfather. We talked alot about god and all that jazz. So anyway, I go over to check on something, and we got to talking. He noticed that I was having my beauty spa day, and insisted that my treatment would not be complete without a massage (he claimed to be a professional). Long (painful) story short, he molested me. When I became to uncomfortable to let it continue, he claimed that there had been a misunderstanding, and he felt that god had told him that we were meant to be together. When I wasn't buying it, he made several more excuses, and extracted a promise from me that I would not tell on him. I lied, and the very next Monday went to his superiors. It came out that he had been molesting several other young women in his care. Needless to say, he was removed from his position.

[Former Follier]

... was too much for them to deal with and so it was just easier for them to ask us to leave than actually deal with it.

That's their modus operandi; to reject and expell anything that doesn't commensurately fit their little scheme of things. If you are a puzzle piece that they can't seem to work in at that moment, you are discarded. It's a bit ironic, but this sort of unacceptance mirrors that of their god's in an almost supernatural way.

[TheKreativeKat]

1. One time the bomb squad was called to our church when our horribly racist church secretary answered the phone and an "Indian sounding man" asked her what time services were on Sunday mornings. She was convinced he was casing the joint and was going to bomb our church.

 

2. I was sexually abused by our minister of music at the age of seventeen. When I went to our pastor, he told me I was a slut and must have given this man some indication that he could take liberties with me. He informed me that the music minister would continue staying on as planned and I would be asked to leave the church if I did not apologize to him for trying to "slander a man of God".

 

3. When I got divorced I was told I had brought shame upon our church and was informed that my ex-husband (who abused me, raped me and cheated on me) had let them know I had been unfaithful. I was asked to step down from my duties as AWANA leader and children's Sunday School teacher because many parents were "concerned" about "an unrepentent adulteress" being "qualified enough" to teach their children about the Bible.

 

4. After I left, a friend of mine had an affair with a man in the choir. In her defense, her husband abused her, looked at child porn and had forced her to have a threesome. He threatened to kill her if she divorced him. One Sunday, a member of the congregation got up during the benediction and "exposed" my friend for her "scandalous sin". Her husband left her, got custody of their two children and the man she had the affair with was commended for apologizing before the congregation to her ex-husband. The man who cheated on his wife with my friend was made head deacon while my friend was kicked out of the church and asked to never come back. Her husband stayed there and was, of course, the victim and people kept telling her two teenage kids that their mother was a "harlot" and that they should stay away from her, lest her "curse of adultery" allow the devil to take ahold of their lives.

 

5. The preacher who baptized me was wonderful. He was actually a pastor I respected. Then, one day when I was in junior high, the youth pastor and music minister (not the same one who molested me) formed a committee to try and "dig up dirt" on the pastor because they wanted to take over the church and make it more of a contemporary house of worship. When the pastor found out this was going on behind his back he felt so betrayed and hurt that he resigned.

 

6. The same youth pastor confronted me in a back room of the church one day to chide me for holding hands with my boyfriend in church. He said any physical affection between two unmarried people was sinful and lead to pre-marital sex. He informed me that everyone in the youth group thought I was "a slut" and that I had created for myself a bad reputation and many parents didn't want their kids hanging around me because of it. Nothing about my boyfriend being the one who took my hand during prayer time. It was all about how I had let "lust" creep into what should have been a "pure and chaste" relationship. I would later find out that this same man knocked up his wife in high school and that was why they got married.

[Guest seekeroftruth]

Holy crap, Kat! You've seen a lot of bs running through your churches. Good for you for questioning, and for not taking that kind of abuse anymore!

[Thurisaz]

2. I was sexually abused by our minister of music at the age of seventeen. When I went to our pastor, he told me I was a slut and must have given this man some indication that he could take liberties with me. He informed me that the music minister would continue staying on as planned and I would be asked to leave the church if I did not apologize to him for trying to "slander a man of God".

 

[rest of nauseating crap snipped]

 

And there some people still run around claiming that atheists (let's make that generic non-christians ) have no morals...

 

(((((kat)))))

 

Even in this place you don't find so much shit heaped up in one single posting very often...

[Takeikin]

Holy crap, Kat! You've seen a lot of bs running through your churches. Good for you for questioning, and for not taking that kind of abuse anymore!

 

QFMFT.

[TheKreativeKat]

I saw a lot of shit in one church. It was sad because when I was in my marriage, church was my one safe-haven. It was the only place I couldn't be beaten. When I was shunned for leaving my abusive husband and was subjected to his slander and lies about me cheating on him (which was laughable because he's now married to the woman he was cheating on me with) it hurt more than anything in my life. I received no support. No love from those whom I considered my extended family. All I received was condemnation. From what I understand, that church has continued to receive my ex and his wife with open arms. I oftentimes see my former "brethren" in stores around town and they look at me, look away and nearly run away. Their behavior is shameful, IMHO.

 

Of course, I'm not the only member of my family who experienced pain at the hands of our former church "friends". My mother's best friend (a deacon's wife in the church) abandoned my mother when my mother confided in her that she was Agoraphobic. This woman told everyone in the church that my mother had a demon inside her that was causing the sin of anxiety.

 

My father was a deacon in the church and was told that the children's minister was not "fitting in well" with other church administrators. The pastor wanted a committee formed by the deacons to investigate the children's minister and his wife to see if they had any grounds for dismissal. They didn't have any, so the pastor suggested to the deacons that they falsify financial statements trying to imply that the children's minister had gone substantially over budget against the church's permission. He told the deacons, "I need to know that you are all in this with me." Well, the pastor was an intimidating man, so most of the deacons said they would go along with it. My dad said he was not comfortable defaming this man and his family over a simple clash of personalities. At the same time my father was in a very popular Southern Gospel quartet and because of the fact that my dad was the only person who wouldn't go along with this unscrupulous plan, the pastor "punished" the entire quartet. He pulled the church's support for their ministry and would not allow them to perform at the church. When the lead singer of the group confronted the pastor, he eagerly pointed the finger at my dad, at which point the singing group ostracized my dad. All because he stood up for what was right.

[Azure Knight]

Id say that the most abominable thing I witnessed, is me and my other atheist friends using the Hymn book pages as ammo for our paper wars

[Azure Knight]

Id say that the most abominable thing I witnessed, is me and my other atheist friends using the Hymn book pages as ammo for our paper wars

After the preacher finished a sermon talking about atheists and nondenominationals are idiots that will burn in hell

[L.B.]

"a "Christian" woman who had known my uncle her whole life showed up and stated loudly, "I don't know why you all are bothering. You know he's burning in hell. You'd all better get right with God." Then she left."

 

Fucking cunt.

 

I was once diagnosed with a ruptured appendix. My wife and I had left a fundy church under some bad circumstances, but at the time of my life-threatening condition, we had no friends where we were living and were not at a church. My wife was 7 months pregnant, sleeping in an armchair in the hospital room where I was sick as hell for a solid fucking month, literally so poisoned from my infected appendix that I was listed in VERY serious (not QUITE critical) condition the whole time I was in hospital. She, in desperation, called the pastor's home to ask for prayer for us. You know, not ONE fucking person called, wrote or came by to see us? These people believed in miraculous healing and shit... not one fucking hand laid on me, no fucking tongues or any shit. Totally abandoned by those bastards.

 

I know a pastor whose wife cheated on HIM, then filed for divorce. Now HE has no ministry... he's not allowed to preach, teach or anything. His own brother is a pastor and knows the truth, that this guy did NOTHING wrong, yet he won't even let the man serve in ministry at his own church.

 

Xtians should be the only ones allowed to compete in Olympic marksmanship for the US. They are deadly when it comes to shooting their wounded, no matter the distance. Fucking snipers, I say. Dangerous as all hell.