Christianity does not care for people -- it wants only to grow itself

[webmdave]

Sent in by Shaida

 

I grew up in a rural area, and everyone went to church. How you felt about god was never discussed, you just went. My family is large, and we care about one another deeply, and the preacher always said that love was a sign of god, so I thought god was wonderful, loving, kind, welcoming, just like family. It was a nice dream.

 

But adulthood brings challenges, and I saw firsthand, many times, that Christian lives may be no better than "heathen" lives, and that Christians may hurt others WITH and BECAUSE OF Christianity, yet still claim that Christianity is all about love.

 

I began to think that Christianity was all about itself. It was about replication, not really people, but it hides behind it's so-called brotherly love to propagate itself. My fears were confirmed when my Grandmother died.

 

She was the most gentle woman, and had 55 descendants - some religious, some not, yet everyone loved her deeply. She was religious, but she never spoke about god to anyone, never pushed it out there. She was human, but a fine human.

 

My brother insisted that he would organize the funeral, as he was a preacher by that stage. No-one could challenge him, nor did we want to make a scene, we were all very sad. We thought he would know what best to do.

 

So he organized for a preacher friend of his, who had never met Gran, to do the service. No family spoke. There was no eulogy to speak of. The service was two religious songs and an hour long sermon on how wonderful Jesus was. Gran was only mentioned twice, in passing, and only then to say that she was a faithful Christian. No mention of her love for her children, of her years of craft and her sweet love for her cat, or anything else of the sort. The man ended with a 10-minute prayer and an altar call.

 

For me, it was the ultimate insult - she was a Christian, and yet her life, which was rich and full, was reduced to nothing but an opportunity to preach this man's own agenda.

 

My brother was so pleased with himself, and thought he had done a great job in trying to convert the unsaved in our family. Instead, he compounded their grief, including mine.

 

I realized then that Christianity does not care for people. It wants only to grow itself, because it thinks itself is more important than REAL relationships - like ones with family and friends, LIVING people. Jesus is not living, and he cannot love you.

 

For me, this is the freedom to have a deep, rich life, not one built on a fairytale and relationship with the imaginary. Real relationships are worth much much more.

 

http://exchristian.net/testimonies/2008/01...for-people.html

[hereticzero]

A friend of mine spent three tours in Vietnam in the Iron Triangle, got air medal, purple heart, all sorts of medals. He belonged to the Mormon church. When he got back from Vietnam, the Mormon church billed him for past tithing he could not pay being in combat and his wife could not because they could not afford to and the Army kept screwing up his pay. So, the Mormons billed him for about four years worth of tithes. When he could not pay it, the church excommunicated his family. it didn't upset them too much. Then a few years ago the Mormons offered to 'forgive' his debt to the church and allow them to rejoin. he told them to fuck off. The church, any church claiming to be christian teaching, is only interested in your money or what they can brag about doing to you and your family. When I was a member of a different ministry, I confronted the founder over a doctrinal issue and he pretty much said he did not have time to listen to my arguments because i had not brought in any money to the ministry for about a year.

[Amethyst]

Christianity is like a virus in many respects. In order to survive, it needs to replicate. In order to replicate effectively, it needs a strong base of believers who brainwash their children every generation with it. In order to protect itself, it needs its believers to believe that everyone who is not like them is evil and will be punished greatly for not being like them. Also like a virus, it doesn't care whether or not people are loved and accepted -- only that they provide a basis for it to survive and replicate. Hence the shunning aspects of fundamentalist religion when someone leaves the group.

 

 

Reminds me of a Stargate ep where there was a computer virus from another planet. Replication and self-preservation was all it cared about, and it nearly killed one of the characters.

[Naughtyhamster]

A friend of mine spent three tours in Vietnam in the Iron Triangle, got air medal, purple heart, all sorts of medals. He belonged to the Mormon church. When he got back from Vietnam, the Mormon church billed him for past tithing he could not pay being in combat and his wife could not because they could not afford to and the Army kept screwing up his pay. So, the Mormons billed him for about four years worth of tithes. When he could not pay it, the church excommunicated his family. it didn't upset them too much. Then a few years ago the Mormons offered to 'forgive' his debt to the church and allow them to rejoin. he told them to fuck off. The church, any church claiming to be christian teaching, is only interested in your money or what they can brag about doing to you and your family. When I was a member of a different ministry, I confronted the founder over a doctrinal issue and he pretty much said he did not have time to listen to my arguments because i had not brought in any money to the ministry for about a year.

 

 

 

I remember two years ago when my mother was going to a Pentecostal church I was coughing up about $10- $20 out of my measly financial aid because on my mother's S.S. she couldn't afford the tithe. She was afraid of getting on the wrong side of Gawd I guess, though I think most of the tithe money was going to the head pastor who's a multi millionaire. One time the pastor even came to our apartment ( he lived in the same apartments as we did) and begged her for money! Luckily after a year my mother quit as the pastor was letting a guy, who was out of bail as he was accused of sexually and physically abusing his own kids, alone with kids in the church.

[GraphicsGuy]

He told us later how excited he was to see god's plan unfolding. Apparently, my baby had died at a convenient time that Rob's whole family would be there to hear the gospel preached. It left me feeling somewhat used when I thought about it in retrospect.

 

I think you could have successfully argued for "temporary insanity" on that one...the guy deserved to have a few limbs and other body parts removed.

[MathGeek]

This happened at my baby's funeral. Coincidentally, my husband's grandmother died the day after my baby and her funeral was the day before our baby's funeral. So his whole, very large family was in town and came to my baby's funeral- which was not expected. We only expected a few close friends and immediate family. The pastor took that opportunity to preach the gospel message of salvation. He told us later how excited he was to see god's plan unfolding. Apparently, my baby had died at a convenient time that Rob's whole family would be there to hear the gospel preached. It left me feeling somewhat used when I thought about it in retrospect.

 

My spouse miscarried in her second trimester, so we had a funeral for him and nothing like that occurred to us. The priest was accomadating every step of the way. My issue that arose out of this (as this only sank in after I started deconverting) was how hypocritical the Catholic Church was acting. It seems to me that if the Church is going to condemn somebody for using birth control and prophylactics but willingly bury a baby that never had a chance, it seems really deceitful. This priest officiated our wedding a couple of months later and since then, I have heard him say things in church that I would never hear him say in public. I know that priests are human, but if they can't act like Jesus, then why are they interceding on his behalf?

 

Now that I think about it more, maybe the priest wasn't be a hypocrite after all. To the church, every baby is sacred so the priest was likely acting in accordance with the doctrines set forth by Holy Mother Church.