Spirit in the sky

[webmdave]

Sent in by Sharon

 

I remember a day in 2000 when my children were still living at home. My de-conversion had already begun, I think. I was getting into their contemporary music, both Christian and “secular,” as it was called. I was going to a church where I felt more free, dancing was part of the worship service, and now I was dancing at home to anything.

 

On this particular day, I was dancing to a song on a CD belonging to my 16-year-old daughter called “Spirit In The Sky.” I don’t know if it was a “secular” or a Christian artist.

 

That song made my heart soar, and I didn’t know why. Maybe it was just because I was feeling more and more like flying those days, as I was beginning to loose myself from the restraints of Christianity.

 

One of my two daughters saw me dancing and ran to get her sister, yelling, “Come look at Mommy! You’ve got to see this!” My other daughter came and saw and both yelled, “Go, Mommy!” and started dancing with me.

 

I still love that song and dance to it today.

 

Both of my daughters are out of my life now. One says she has disowned me permanently, and the other says she is just taking some time off from our relationship. They both are devoted Christians, just as I, regrettably, raised them to be. And they both seem to blame me for family traumas that resulted from the heavy negative influence of Christianity on my life and on my parenting style.

 

But the memory of dancing to “Spirit In The Sky” with them that day brings me great joy. That song unleashed a spirit of irreverence that is still alive and thriving in my heart today. As I dance, I sing ever-so-sarcastically, “I never been a sinner, never sinned, I got a friend in Jesus!”

 

Tongue-in-cheek humor has been such a therapeutic companion in this whole deconversion process of mine.http://exchristian.net/testimonies/2007/10...rit-in-sky.html

[Deva]

I always loved that song, "Spirit in the Sky" by Norman Greenbaum. It was released in 1969 (I just googled it). Probably topped the charts in 1970 and was played all the time through the early 70's on the radio. It had the effect of making me feel free from my oppressive fundamentalist upbringing, which I was just then beginning to question. I love the line you mention "never been a sinner, never sinned." It was in the early 1970s when I was in my teens that I was going through some very tough stuff at school with bullies. It made me have thoughts of suicide and I have never been that low since. As hard has that time was for me, the music was great back then and this was one of the songs that helped me survive that time.

 

My parents are great in many ways, but brainwashing me with Christianity did me no favors. It set me back in many ways. We still get along, but the elephant in the room is religion, which I refuse to discuss with them.

 

So sorry to hear about your daughters not being a part of your life now, and hope that will change.

[Wally]

Sharon,

I'm terribly sorry to hear about the difficulty you are having in your relationship with your daughters. I'm an currently having problems with my father, basically over religion and his sociopathy. Actually, everyone else in the family has been having problems with him since as long as I can remember. I don't know which fuels which- his crazy religious ideas or his sociopathy. BTW, after decades of various types of cruelty and abuse, my mother, brother and I have just recently determined that he is in fact a literal sociopath (meaning absolutely no conscience, even though he constantly preaches to people), which means you cannot have a healthy relationship with him.

BTW, regarding "Spirit in the Sky", it was written by a Jew named Norman Greenbaum who happened to like Gospel music. It's such a great song that he still lives off of the royalties from it as it is a really popular song in ads and movies. I've always enjoyed the song but only recently have been free from the "guilt" of enjoying in spite of its inaccurate theology.