Just Another Cliche Testimony

[Guest th3 h077n355]

i was born and lived in the bible belt my whole life. I finally ended up in the buckle of the bible belt(good ol' South Carolina) at the age of 4. From birth until the age of 16 i was a die hard christian believing ideals that most christians share. From 17 until now ive experienced an "awakening" of sorts thats led me to free myself from the shackles of religion in general, and it feels great.

 

I was born and christened the same year to devout christians. My fathers side is filled with quakers and preachers and my mothers side is filled with Wesleyan(sp?) pastors and such. My parents were nazarene and practiced what they preaced(virgins til marriage etc etc). I was to be a man of god my whole life, if my parents had any say. My childhood indoctrination was pretty fun up till puberty. I was happy to be going to heaven when i died. Noahs ark and the creationist theory all made sense. Life was good

 

Around the age of 12-13 puberty set in. A normal occurance for everyone. I started noticing girls and really enjoyed thinking of them. Like most boys, this is when i started masturbating. I never questioned my actions, i just did what came natural(pun intended? maybe). However i was severely reprimanded by both my parents for the sins i've committed. For some reason, the actions i took were considered wrong. Even in my young age i would constantly question why what i was doing was wrong. It made no sense to me. God created me, and yet my natural thoughts and actions were sinful and i was subject to go to hell when i died unless i repented after every impure thought. I must have prayed everyday for 4 straight years. I understood the rhetoric (ie original sin and sexual immorality) but i still consciously commited the sins. I was a heathen and i was willingly ignoring gods plan for me

 

At the age of 16 i got heavily interested in science, history and anthropology(still am to these days). This is where i saw the fallicies in the bible. The creationist account of our origins started to make less and less sense. An entire population of species being started by 1 man and 1 woman? I was no scientist at the time(and still not one now) but that seems to be impossible, especially considering the only children the had where 2 boys. Did the procreate with their sisters? Some guy and his family jumped on a boat with every animal and insect and sailed for 40 days? Ridiculous considering that there are plenty of animals who live in excluded parts of the world and had no way of getting to and from the middle east. I could continue, but ive made my point of why i stopped taking the bible literally.

 

At 17 i began to consider other people rights and freedoms. My family and community were feverishly against gay marriage, drugs and alcohol, divorce and all the standard things christians fight against. However i felt differently. Who was I or anyone else to tell someone who the can marry. Jesus never talked about homosexuals(that i know of) so why does it matter what they do? Drugs and alcohol have a strong history even prior to the big 3(judaism, muslim and christian). Wouldnt that make drugs more natural than religion? I constantly battle with these thoughts, all while trying to maintain a relationship with a God who was mean and vindictive the first half of the bible, yet kind and forgiving the second half. At that age, an older couple in the church(whos daughter i had taken to the movies once) got a divorce. I then was a witness to all the members of the church(except my mother) talk badly about these people as if they were no different than common criminal(remember, with christianity all sins are the same). Was i crazy to think that divorce is actually a good thing for most people, or was the congregation a bunch of back stabbing assholes who couldnt mind their own business. I decided it definatly wasnt me.It was at this point in my barely 17 years on earth, i decided to stop attending church.

 

It started slowly. Lying to my parents and telling them i had to work to get out of church. After a few months of this they caught on and stopped asking. In their defense, they made the transition easy. They would ask every week for me to attend and i would say no, but they never condemned me. In fact i was getting as much support from them as i had ever gotten and i thank them for it, simply because i know that there are other parents out there who have disowned their children for coming to the same conclusions that i had.

 

Its now been 8 years since ive steered away from what i now see as a system used by another system with the sole purpose of mentally enslaving and distracting the masses and i hope hat maybe my words may inspire others to question the lies theyve been told. I could write a book with all my christian experiences and how the actually shook my faith instead of strengthening it, but most people have probably quit reading this by now. I look forward to communicating with other ex-christians on this forum with hopes that all parties involved will gain something useful. Thanx for reading

[ShallowByThyGame]

Thanks for your testimony. Why do you think you were unable to agree with your parents' morality i.e gay marriage? Is there anything you remember from your childhood that might have persuaded you that fairness and tolerance were more important than following divine law?

 

You seem to have a sharp mind, congrats on using it.