robbie Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 After sleeping in til 4 in the afternoon (I ought to see a doctor about my worrying ability to sleep for half the day) I've ended up not starting my spring clean til about 9 at night. I was thinking as I started at the drawer where I shoved all my religious pariphenalia when I stopped calling myself Catholic that, even if Southern Baptism is worse than Catholicism, there's one thing I doubt they'd ever beat us on: vast amounts of crap. Crucifixes, statues, pictures, even a couple of posters, several sets of Rosary beads, a tree's worth of prayer cards, booklets, holy water, palm crosses.... I'm keeping a lot of it, like First Holy Communion stuff, Confirmation stuff, pilgrimage stuff etc. as mementos that will no doubt spend the rest of my life in storage. I'm also keeping some religious books out of interest...yes, I'm still a theology geek, and yes I'm still doing it at uni. Probably most importantly, I'm keeping my various well-worn 'examinations of conscience' and the list of sins I wrote out before my last confession about a year ago. If I ever come across them again, they'll no doubt serve as reminders not to go back to the place I was in a couple of years ago. But I'm wondering what to do with the rest. My family have more religious crap than they need, given that they see the inside of a church once a year at most. As far as I know charity shops don't tend to sell very religious stuff. I'm going to try eBay for most of it, and all the unsellable stuff will have to go in a box to left in the church or given to the priest. Maybe it's just me...I'm an appalingly bad hoarder anyway. As I type this, I'm sitting in a room with the floor literally covered in piles of books, papers, clothes and random memorabilia. I've already had to go through the guilt of throwing away years of unused presents and Christmas/birthday cards. And I've just eaten a 2 year old mint from the bottom of a storage box...perhaps I should call an ambulance. So...how much stuff did you have to get rid of when you left? What did you do with it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 All jebus cult stuff I still have is safely stowed away in a cardboard box in my living room with the clearly readable title "enemy propaganda" on it... it shares its space in there with the koran and mein kampf. More (possibly) to follow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
fallenleaf Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Bibles... piles and piles of bibles... and tracts. I had learned to enjoy recreational Christianity once I deconverted and was still in the closet about it. So I would get dragged some place (like Promise Keepers) and my mission was to get as much crap as I could from it. A sort-of mental checklist... full Bibles were the most valuable (not those NT only things)... anything in another language was worth double. Tracts, usually from street missionaries who I talked to, and trinkets from where-ever I could snag them. We're talking a big plastic tub worth of this stuff. And that doesn't include the things I had bought or my family had bought for me. When I was young (and Catholic), I got a very nice set of rosary beads for my first communion from a relative. When my mother went protestant she threw them away. That bugged me a little. I was able to get a free set at one point but they are cheap plastic things. I like to keep them around, either hanging from my car mirror or somewhere else. Why? Because, they remind me of the time in my life before I really believed. I just went through the motions when I was a Catholic... and didn't understand that people were serious about it. When I see the rosary, it reminds me that I had to work to convince myself that there was a thing called God... that it wasn't something natural. Basically, it makes me remember that children are being indoctrinated somewhere but there is hope because they didn't start that way. All the bibles went to the Goodwill. Most of the other stuff was thrown out or remains in a box somewhere. The plastic rosary... I think it's on the floor of my car. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trashy Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I've kept just one or two bibles. The notes I scribbled here and there are reminders of the lunacy. The actual content is for reference. Other than that almost all xtian shtuff is long-gone. I am slowly building a library of reason. Sagan, Dawkins, Ehrman - so many I should have read so long ago. But I'm keeping the poster from a 70's xtian singing group I was in. Hell, I *really* ought to scan that one in and post it. Think flowery dresses and matching wide-lapel polyester suits. We so rocked. LOL Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antlerman Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 It's funny you bring this up. I had to pull everything out of the attic space to have an AC installed in the house. Sitting in my bedroom right now is a full boxed up set of the Pulpit Commentary Series. It was worth 600 bucks when I got it for graduation from Bible College. I really hate to get rid of it in a way, but honestly I haven't cracked any of it open in years. I was thinking of selling it, since I should be able to get some cash of out it from some Bible student somewhere. I still have a lot of my other crap from College, but that's pretty much stuff I could probably just pitch. Really what's the point of hanging onto it for any sort of nostalgic reasons? I could just go visit them in person if I need a reminder of how icky they are. Addendum: I just had an idea. Maybe I could advertize to sell it at the local Bible College and when they come to buy it, I could explain why I'm selling it. Sort of an anti-witnessing opportunity. (But I should probably get the cash first). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Robbobrob Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I had learned to enjoy recreational Christianity Christianity is a gateway drug. Just say NO! to Christ. "Hey man, I'm looking to get high, whay do you got?" "I got a dimebag of Jesus." "No, I'm cool with that. You got any Mohammad, I wanta get totally fucked up." "Got some right here." "Oh, yeah, that's the prophet." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbie Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 I'm still keeping my year's subscription worth of the Tablet, a UK Catholic news magazine. And all the books and stuff, cos I'm still interested in it. The Catechism of the Catholic Church now sits next to Dawkins' The God Delusion. Lest I get taken in again... Probably the most interesting thing I've kept is an ashtray with a picture of the Sacred Heart of Jesus on the bottom. I picked it up at a charity shop after I deconverted because I thought it was so hilarious. But I've not yet been able to bring myself to use it. I still have too much respect. Although I couldn't actually be bothered to burn and bury my palm crosses, so I put them in the compost bin. Surely that's close enough? I'll have to give the holy water away...after being an altar server and devout lunatic I think I still might have a heart attack if I poured it down the drain. Apparently you can take the Catholic out of the rigid set of superstituous nonsense, but you can't take the superstitious nonsense out of the Catholic. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbie Posted May 21, 2007 Author Share Posted May 21, 2007 I had learned to enjoy recreational Christianity Christianity is a gateway drug. Just say NO! to Christ. "Hey man, I'm looking to get high, whay do you got?" "I got a dimebag of Jesus." "No, I'm cool with that. You got any Mohammad, I wanta get totally fucked up." "Got some right here." "Oh, yeah, that's the prophet." So true. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
starelda Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I've thrown out a few bibles and Christian books...some went on ebay, some just went in the bin, one bible got shredded. My CD's of Christian music have been ebayed as well. So far I've hung onto my rosaries as I've got some quite old ones. Though there's still several books and bibles I need to sort out. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Purple Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 I'll have to give the holy water away...after being an altar server and devout lunatic I think I still might have a heart attack if I poured it down the drain. Could you put it in a squirt gun and make sure all your friends and family have not become members of the undead? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
truth Posted May 21, 2007 Share Posted May 21, 2007 Isn't it fun! I got rid of a lot of my xian stuff... I kept the bibles and prayer journals and diaries that I had. I threw away most of the cds and tapes.I kept the odd book they are sitting in a bag in my closet. I had a lent a few books to my friend which she gave back to me.. kind of would like to keep as a rememinder to how hard I had to work to keep up with the faith. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest fjell_strom Posted May 22, 2007 Share Posted May 22, 2007 I had learned to enjoy recreational Christianity Christianity is a gateway drug. Just say NO! to Christ. "Hey man, I'm looking to get high, whay do you got?" "I got a dimebag of Jesus." "No, I'm cool with that. You got any Mohammad, I wanta get totally fucked up." "Got some right here." "Oh, yeah, that's the prophet." Thank you for this brilliant laugh... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
robbie Posted May 22, 2007 Author Share Posted May 22, 2007 Could you put it in a squirt gun and make sure all your friends and family have not become members of the undead? I'll have to look that one up in the 1983 Code of Canon Law. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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