What made the pope declare crusade on the Muslim and slaughter them (including women and children) without remorse ? Is it the Bible ? No, it is because his love of power and human stupidity.
What made every Christians go to church every Sunday and be the devil every other day , yet they think they deserve to go to heaven more then others ? Human stupidity.
Christians commit rape, murder, crime just like ordinary people. Actually there are more Christian than Buddhist in prison.
Where is the love ? where is the compassion ? why their mind full of evil ?
Because their church leader are all hypocrips and full of human stupidity.
During world war 2, Hitler said we must kill all the Jews because they killed Jesus.
Say no to human stupidity, leave your church. Just like what John wrote in the Revelation : "Get out of her ! get out of her ! the whore of Babylon!"
Monday, 9 July 2012
The real God
Most Christian believed in the bullshit that God is a human, he got
jealous fast. He send you to hell if you are not a Christian. He send
you to hell for not giving money to the church.
All those teaching are from people who is going to hell.
If a person think he knew everything, he knew nothing.
If a person like to show off how good he is, he is the worst person.
God is not a person. God represent every wonderful thing.
You don't have to be a Christian or going to church to find God, he is
so close to you.
jealous fast. He send you to hell if you are not a Christian. He send
you to hell for not giving money to the church.
All those teaching are from people who is going to hell.
If a person think he knew everything, he knew nothing.
If a person like to show off how good he is, he is the worst person.
God is not a person. God represent every wonderful thing.
You don't have to be a Christian or going to church to find God, he is
so close to you.
Tuesday, 3 July 2012
wasted years on religion
By Megizzle ~
My parents divorced when I was 5 and my brother was 1, and we moved from the country to the city with our mother while our father stayed behind. Our mother would tell you she was a Christian if you asked her, but we never went to church or talked about Jesus much. She worked two jobs and went to night school to learn to use computers, helped with homework, read us bedtime stories, patiently answered our endless questions, and encouraged us to read often and think independently.
Our dad, on the other hand, was a complete religious fanatic, control freak, and hypocrite. Every other weekend, he would make the 175-mile drive to the city to pick us up, and we'd be subjected to a 2 1/2-hour drive in his cramped little pickup truck with Christian rock music blasting at full volume while he blared his horn at slower-moving vehicles (saving his middle finger and his F*** YOUs for those who honked back), tailgated and swerved maniacally through traffic at top speed, and, on one unforgettable occasion, rolled down his window and pointed his handgun at a man who was committing the cardinal sin of doing 65 in the fast lane (this ultimately resulted in us telling our mother, and our dad spending a week in jail). During our drives, Dad would also frequently startle/scare us with sudden, random, painfully loud screams and war-whoops, which he attributed, wild-eyed, to his being "ON FIRE FOR THE LORD!" (My brother and I privately imitated and giggled helplessly over these ridiculous displays of religious fervor.)
Once we reached his little place in the country, we generally spent most of Saturday doing intensive Bible study (I knew who St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and Martin Luther were before I hit third grade) followed by a rousing game of Bible Trivia (groan); the next day, we'd get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for church (which was *only* 40 miles away). We participated in Sunday school and Children's Bible Study, and went on church outings to "share the Gospel" with people in poor neighborhoods. We were always anxious about going to Dad's house, not only because of the long, traumatizing drive to and from, but also because he would frequently say frightening and/or inappropriate things for young children to hear, such as "Your mother is a wh***. She only lets you come with me so you won't see her having sex with all her boyfriends."; "You know that clicking sound you hear when you first pick up the phone? That's the FBI listening to our conversations."; and "Your mother worships Satan. I'll kill both of you if it means I keep her from dragging your souls to hell with her." Our mother unintentionally alarmed us further by (sensibly) requiring us to memorize her phone number and every address we moved to, so that if our father ever abducted us and we were able to get away, we could call her and/or provide the police with her contact
information so we could get home again.
After a few years of this, my father moved to the city (he returned to the country a couple of years later) and, unfortunately, played an even more actively religious role in our daily lives since we were physically closer to him. My mother encouraged me to join Girl Scouts when I was 7 or 8, even scraping together enough money (we lived well below the poverty line) to buy me a brand-new Brownie uniform, and I happily complied only to have my father use Christianity to ruin that for me. He was furious that our Brownie Troop met on Wednesday evenings (which were also our "extra" church nights), and forced me to leave the group by accusing the Girl Scouts of being a Satanic organization which was making me choose between God and The World by having their meetings on the same nights we were supposed to be in church.
When he moved back to the country, we were once again forced to endure the white-knuckle journey to and from his house. Bible studies intensified, and we bounced from church to church as he endlessly alienated entire congregations. Our dad was a loud, aggressive, burly, tattooed man with a ninth-grade education who had done hard drugs for most of his teenage years and hard manual labor for most of his life, so he intimidated and flat-out scared a lot of people. Once, my brother and I each invited a friend up for our weekend with Dad (naively assuming that he would be nicer in front of company and perhaps allow us to skip Bible study and/or church); on the contrary, he required EXTRA Bible study and insisted that our now-captive and reluctant audience join in, whereupon he expressed shock at their ignorance of the Bible and the great theologians, ordered them to give their lives to Jesus before they died and went to Hell, and pressured them to decide whether or not they believed in predestination and the post-tribulation rapture. On the way to church the next day, he further alarmed them (and humiliated us) by cautioning them to watch out for black helicopters because they were using infrared technology to spy on us, and detailing how Bill Clinton was having people murdered in the White House. Obviously, that was the first and last time our friends accompanied us to visit our dad.
As I grew older, I began to pick fights with Dad (over the phone) so I'd have justification for refusing to go with him on his court-appointed weekends. My quieter and more easygoing brother was still obligated to go, and on one occasion this resulted in a phone call from him to tell me that Dad had captured a rat on a glue board in his kitchen and spent fifteen minutes shooting it with blowdarts before taking it outside, shooting it, and taking pictures of it. My mother and I were both horrified and furious, and it was several months before my brother made the trip up there again.
Despite my Dad's best efforts to show us that Christians were scary, paranoid people who should be confined to rubber rooms, I genuinely believed in the Bible and often read it in my spare time. One night when I was 16, I was sitting alone at my little desk in my room and reading the book of John. Suddenly my independent, reasoning mind started waking up. I had a QUESTION. Uneasily, I called Dad. He might be nuts, but he knew the Bible like the back of his hand. "Dad, Jesus said 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.' But He also said the Jews were His chosen people, and Jews don't believe in Jesus. So do Jews go to Heaven or Hell?" Dad hemmed and hawwed, he mumbled various vaguely-pertinent Bible verses, he hesitated and false-started a few times, and then launched into some story from the Bible that had nothing to do with my question. I chalked it up to "He doesn't know." After I got off the phone, I went back to my Bible and realized I had ANOTHER question! I called Dad back. "Dad, if belief in Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what happens to people in remote parts of the world who have lived for generations without even knowing that an 'outside world' existed, and have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel? Do they die and go to Hell just because they were born into the wrong place?" Dad did some more hemming and hawwing, and then had an epiphany. He answered, "Well, they can still look around at the sun and moon and stars and trees and animals and think 'Some power greater than myself must have put all this here', and then choose to honor and respect the Creator of nature. Then God can work on their hearts so that they will be true Christians in His eyes." You know how, when you hear the truth, it just rings true in your ears and you recognize it for what it is? That's how I felt when he said the first sentence (not the second one). I was delighted/surprised but also puzzled, and asked "Well, couldn't everyone just do that?" He responded that Christians are instructed by Jesus to spread the Gospel. I said that didn't make any sense; why should we bend over backwards to tell everyone something they can all figure out for themselves? He said it was because we needed to tell them the Truth before they were led astray by false religions like Islam. I thought for a minute, then hesitatingly observed that everyone thinks their religion is the correct one, and asked how we could be sure that ours was right and theirs was wrong? He explained that we know ours is right because we have God's Word right there in our Bible; I rebutted by saying that they think they have Allah's Word in their Quran too. Dad started getting agitated in that way that religious people do when you start asking questions, and asked if I was turning into an atheist. I quickly reassured him that I was not, and the conversation ended there on an awkward note.
I spent the next few years telling myself that my questions were the result of inadequate faith on my part, and tried to squelch and ignore my growing doubts. When I was 19, I met a remarkably intelligent and articulate 20-year-old fellow college student with whom I shared a love of reading, learning, integrity, and intellectual debate...and excellent sexual chemistry. We began dating, but the relationship was kept secret from my father's side of the family because he was black. I had never dated outside my race before (I had barely dated even within my race because I simply wasn't particularly attracted to anyone and was a bit of an intellectual elitist), but I didn't think it was strange or unusual, although I was aware that my father hated black people (and Hispanics, and Asians, and women, and Muslims, and Buddhists, and Catholics, and foreigners, and democrats, and the elderly, and everyone else who wasn't a middle-aged conservative white Protestant male from the southern United States). We each recognized a kindred spirit in the other and spent every waking moment together when we weren't at work or school, arguing race relations, politics, religion, and foreign policy (and doing other things, of course!), and ultimately fell very much in love. Six months after we began dating, we moved into an apartment together (as far as my father knew, I was just getting my own place).
In an attempt to appease my Christian-upbringing-induced guilt over my very active sex life outside of marriage, I joined a church and began semi-regularly attending services there. The pastor and his wife invited me to their house for dinner, as was their custom with all new attendees, and both were impressed with my Biblical knowledge and theological awareness; I was repeatedly invited back for dinner and Bible-based discussion, and became something of a family friend. I was flattered by the attention and conveniently failed to mention my ongoing sexual indiscretion, although I felt increasingly like a hypocritical, lying fraud for the year or so that this went on. Then I got pregnant.
When I admitted the pregnancy to the pastor and his wife, they were upset. When they met my boyfriend, they were horrified (the whole interracial thing). They privately urged me to give the baby up for adoption and abandon the relationship, which I refused to do. Neither they nor my other church "friends" ever spoke to me again, and I stopped attending church altogether. I knew I was wrong for having lied to them, but I felt angry, hurt, and betrayed that *Christians* would drop me like a hot potato for not living the perfect Christian life. How unChristian of them. I finally began allowing my religious questions and doubts to rise to the surface, and discussed them with my boyfriend, who understood the difficulty I was facing in beginning to work against my brainwashing; he patiently encouraged me to use logic and reason to determine the truth for myself. (He was two steps ahead of me in the religion department, although I wasn't aware of this at the time; he let me figure out what I thought for myself before telling me about his own journey to similar conclusions.)
Ironically and completely unexpectedly, my dad was elated to find out he was going to be a grandfather. He wasn't even fazed when I told him who the father was (they had met once, but I had introduced my boyfriend as "my friend", and they had gotten along surprisingly well) and was utterly shocked that I thought he was a racist, which he adamantly denied being. I later figured out that, with my dad, it's nothing personal; he's just one of those people who hates everyone equally.
Shortly after our the birth of our daughter, I found out I was pregnant again, despite my faithful use of birth control. When our first child was 13 months old, our son was born. We moved into a larger apartment and I halfheartedly attended another church with a friend a couple of times, but finally had to admit to myself that I wasn't buying it anymore. I went home, looked myself in the eye in the mirror, took a deep breath, and thought (I was too nervous to say it aloud, as though I might be struck by lightning for my insolence) "I'm not a Christian anymore. I don't believe that everything the Bible says is true. I don't know if Jesus ever existed or not. Religion is a tool used to control people. I'm not a Christian anymore." If you were brainwashed from birth to believe that Christianity is the only right way to live and that to deviate is to die spiritually, then you know how hard it was to overcome that programming and dare to think what I thought. I never went back to church again, and I've never missed it.
We went on to have two more daughters, and sometimes (particularly after I get off the phone with my dad) I look at my beautiful, intelligent, happy (when they're not fighting over some stupid toy) children and am silently grateful that I "woke up" before I inflicted another senseless religious brainwashing on a new generation. They will never have to suppress their natural curiosity or shut their perfectly functioning minds down in order to accept ancient Middle-Eastern fairy tales as their basis for how to order their lives. No one will dangle the threat of hellfire and eternal damnation over them in order to frighten them into compliance with an outdated mythology. Their parents are both back in college (after several years' hiatus spent trying to cope with the sudden influx of children); their mother is working on a Bachelor's in Biotechnology (despite their grandfather's advice to "Be careful about gettin' too educated; it'll turn you into a damn lib'ral atheist."); their father is preparing to enter the Master's program as an MIS major. They're growing up in a household full of books about science and business and technology, and developing a healthy thirst for knowledge and understanding instead of an irrational fear of a vengeful, bloodthirsty god who hates women, gay people, and questions. I don't mind them learning about various religions, including Christianity, as long as they understand that different people believe different things, that it's up to them to decide what they believe, if anything, and that no one will ever force them to accept any belief system against their will. I'm so glad I "got out." Also, to my everlasting delight, I discovered just last year that my brother (who spent three years in the Navy and now lives in Hawaii) has also been questioning religion and is now at the phase where he clearly doesn't believe in Christianity anymore but is reluctant to say it aloud for the same reasons most of us are afraid to. So I'm not the only one breaking free!
The only problem is that I still can't bring myself to admit to my family that I don't believe what they want/expect me to believe. My father has mellowed considerably in recent years; our relationship has greatly improved and I've forgiven most of the insanity with which he generously peppered my childhood, so you'd think he'd seem more approachable to me than he once did, and you'd be right.
However, he still has the soul of the religious fanatic and the black-and-white worldview that will tolerate no shades of gray, making his stability questionable. In spite of everything, I do love my Dad, and I'm especially close to my grandparents (his parents). What if I tell them that I'm not a Christian anymore and they sever ties with me? (Or, perhaps worse, engage in endless and fruitless efforts to convert me back?) In my family, it could easily be THAT big of a deal. My brother hasn't told them yet either, but he's never been very family-oriented and is not nearly as close to our relatives as I am, so I think the lack of emotional investment on his part would make any excommunication by our family ineffective. For me, it would be very upsetting, even devastating.
I've been postponing telling them for years now, but I'm afraid I'm about to reach the point where I'll have to. They (my dad in particular) are bringing up the kids' religious education more and more, especially around religious holidays. For instance, my mother (who has gotten slightly more religious over the years) called on Easter morning a few months back to wish me a Happy Easter. "Have you told the kids about the true meaning of Easter? Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again from the dead to ascend to heaven. Today is a holy day. It's not all about colorful eggs and chocolate and candy, you know." (Me, rolling my eyes and thinking "To me it is!") Later, my father called and demanded to know whether the kids have a Children's Bible. I answered yes, although I didn't tell him it's in a box in the back of my closet and that I have no intention of unpacking it. He told me I needed to give it to my oldest daughter to read, and mentioned that he's "going to start really working with them to teach them about Jesus." I thought, "The hell you are!" but compromised aloud by promising him that the kids would certainly know about the Creator (and they will, as soon as they can look around at the sun and moon and stars and trees and animals and know...). Thankfully, my dad has a short attention span, so I can just - Hey look, a squirrel! - and he forgets what he was talking about, but I can't change the subject forever and I don't want to keep being such a coward. I'm a grown woman for heaven's sake; I shouldn't be so scared to tell my family. Not sure what to do at this point.
Anyway, in the unlikely event that someone is still reading after all this time, I sincerely apologize for the length and detail, but it feels better to get everything off my chest, even if no one ever reads it. I love reading the other stories on this site; although I'm not an atheist like many people on here (I consider myself a Deist), I definitely sympathize with the atheist perspective and can certainly relate to the Christian brainwashing, de-conversion experience, and familial troubles I see being shared, and it's encouraging to be reminded that I'm not the only one struggling away from lies and toward the truth.
Our dad, on the other hand, was a complete religious fanatic, control freak, and hypocrite. Every other weekend, he would make the 175-mile drive to the city to pick us up, and we'd be subjected to a 2 1/2-hour drive in his cramped little pickup truck with Christian rock music blasting at full volume while he blared his horn at slower-moving vehicles (saving his middle finger and his F*** YOUs for those who honked back), tailgated and swerved maniacally through traffic at top speed, and, on one unforgettable occasion, rolled down his window and pointed his handgun at a man who was committing the cardinal sin of doing 65 in the fast lane (this ultimately resulted in us telling our mother, and our dad spending a week in jail). During our drives, Dad would also frequently startle/scare us with sudden, random, painfully loud screams and war-whoops, which he attributed, wild-eyed, to his being "ON FIRE FOR THE LORD!" (My brother and I privately imitated and giggled helplessly over these ridiculous displays of religious fervor.)
Once we reached his little place in the country, we generally spent most of Saturday doing intensive Bible study (I knew who St. Augustine, Thomas Aquinas, John Calvin, and Martin Luther were before I hit third grade) followed by a rousing game of Bible Trivia (groan); the next day, we'd get up at the crack of dawn to get ready for church (which was *only* 40 miles away). We participated in Sunday school and Children's Bible Study, and went on church outings to "share the Gospel" with people in poor neighborhoods. We were always anxious about going to Dad's house, not only because of the long, traumatizing drive to and from, but also because he would frequently say frightening and/or inappropriate things for young children to hear, such as "Your mother is a wh***. She only lets you come with me so you won't see her having sex with all her boyfriends."; "You know that clicking sound you hear when you first pick up the phone? That's the FBI listening to our conversations."; and "Your mother worships Satan. I'll kill both of you if it means I keep her from dragging your souls to hell with her." Our mother unintentionally alarmed us further by (sensibly) requiring us to memorize her phone number and every address we moved to, so that if our father ever abducted us and we were able to get away, we could call her and/or provide the police with her contact
information so we could get home again.
After a few years of this, my father moved to the city (he returned to the country a couple of years later) and, unfortunately, played an even more actively religious role in our daily lives since we were physically closer to him. My mother encouraged me to join Girl Scouts when I was 7 or 8, even scraping together enough money (we lived well below the poverty line) to buy me a brand-new Brownie uniform, and I happily complied only to have my father use Christianity to ruin that for me. He was furious that our Brownie Troop met on Wednesday evenings (which were also our "extra" church nights), and forced me to leave the group by accusing the Girl Scouts of being a Satanic organization which was making me choose between God and The World by having their meetings on the same nights we were supposed to be in church.
When he moved back to the country, we were once again forced to endure the white-knuckle journey to and from his house. Bible studies intensified, and we bounced from church to church as he endlessly alienated entire congregations. Our dad was a loud, aggressive, burly, tattooed man with a ninth-grade education who had done hard drugs for most of his teenage years and hard manual labor for most of his life, so he intimidated and flat-out scared a lot of people. Once, my brother and I each invited a friend up for our weekend with Dad (naively assuming that he would be nicer in front of company and perhaps allow us to skip Bible study and/or church); on the contrary, he required EXTRA Bible study and insisted that our now-captive and reluctant audience join in, whereupon he expressed shock at their ignorance of the Bible and the great theologians, ordered them to give their lives to Jesus before they died and went to Hell, and pressured them to decide whether or not they believed in predestination and the post-tribulation rapture. On the way to church the next day, he further alarmed them (and humiliated us) by cautioning them to watch out for black helicopters because they were using infrared technology to spy on us, and detailing how Bill Clinton was having people murdered in the White House. Obviously, that was the first and last time our friends accompanied us to visit our dad.
As I grew older, I began to pick fights with Dad (over the phone) so I'd have justification for refusing to go with him on his court-appointed weekends. My quieter and more easygoing brother was still obligated to go, and on one occasion this resulted in a phone call from him to tell me that Dad had captured a rat on a glue board in his kitchen and spent fifteen minutes shooting it with blowdarts before taking it outside, shooting it, and taking pictures of it. My mother and I were both horrified and furious, and it was several months before my brother made the trip up there again.
Despite my Dad's best efforts to show us that Christians were scary, paranoid people who should be confined to rubber rooms, I genuinely believed in the Bible and often read it in my spare time. One night when I was 16, I was sitting alone at my little desk in my room and reading the book of John. Suddenly my independent, reasoning mind started waking up. I had a QUESTION. Uneasily, I called Dad. He might be nuts, but he knew the Bible like the back of his hand. "Dad, Jesus said 'I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life. No man comes to the Father but by Me.' But He also said the Jews were His chosen people, and Jews don't believe in Jesus. So do Jews go to Heaven or Hell?" Dad hemmed and hawwed, he mumbled various vaguely-pertinent Bible verses, he hesitated and false-started a few times, and then launched into some story from the Bible that had nothing to do with my question. I chalked it up to "He doesn't know." After I got off the phone, I went back to my Bible and realized I had ANOTHER question! I called Dad back. "Dad, if belief in Jesus is the only way to Heaven, what happens to people in remote parts of the world who have lived for generations without even knowing that an 'outside world' existed, and have never had the opportunity to hear the Gospel? Do they die and go to Hell just because they were born into the wrong place?" Dad did some more hemming and hawwing, and then had an epiphany. He answered, "Well, they can still look around at the sun and moon and stars and trees and animals and think 'Some power greater than myself must have put all this here', and then choose to honor and respect the Creator of nature. Then God can work on their hearts so that they will be true Christians in His eyes." You know how, when you hear the truth, it just rings true in your ears and you recognize it for what it is? That's how I felt when he said the first sentence (not the second one). I was delighted/surprised but also puzzled, and asked "Well, couldn't everyone just do that?" He responded that Christians are instructed by Jesus to spread the Gospel. I said that didn't make any sense; why should we bend over backwards to tell everyone something they can all figure out for themselves? He said it was because we needed to tell them the Truth before they were led astray by false religions like Islam. I thought for a minute, then hesitatingly observed that everyone thinks their religion is the correct one, and asked how we could be sure that ours was right and theirs was wrong? He explained that we know ours is right because we have God's Word right there in our Bible; I rebutted by saying that they think they have Allah's Word in their Quran too. Dad started getting agitated in that way that religious people do when you start asking questions, and asked if I was turning into an atheist. I quickly reassured him that I was not, and the conversation ended there on an awkward note.
I spent the next few years telling myself that my questions were the result of inadequate faith on my part, and tried to squelch and ignore my growing doubts. When I was 19, I met a remarkably intelligent and articulate 20-year-old fellow college student with whom I shared a love of reading, learning, integrity, and intellectual debate...and excellent sexual chemistry. We began dating, but the relationship was kept secret from my father's side of the family because he was black. I had never dated outside my race before (I had barely dated even within my race because I simply wasn't particularly attracted to anyone and was a bit of an intellectual elitist), but I didn't think it was strange or unusual, although I was aware that my father hated black people (and Hispanics, and Asians, and women, and Muslims, and Buddhists, and Catholics, and foreigners, and democrats, and the elderly, and everyone else who wasn't a middle-aged conservative white Protestant male from the southern United States). We each recognized a kindred spirit in the other and spent every waking moment together when we weren't at work or school, arguing race relations, politics, religion, and foreign policy (and doing other things, of course!), and ultimately fell very much in love. Six months after we began dating, we moved into an apartment together (as far as my father knew, I was just getting my own place).
In an attempt to appease my Christian-upbringing-induced guilt over my very active sex life outside of marriage, I joined a church and began semi-regularly attending services there. The pastor and his wife invited me to their house for dinner, as was their custom with all new attendees, and both were impressed with my Biblical knowledge and theological awareness; I was repeatedly invited back for dinner and Bible-based discussion, and became something of a family friend. I was flattered by the attention and conveniently failed to mention my ongoing sexual indiscretion, although I felt increasingly like a hypocritical, lying fraud for the year or so that this went on. Then I got pregnant.
When I admitted the pregnancy to the pastor and his wife, they were upset. When they met my boyfriend, they were horrified (the whole interracial thing). They privately urged me to give the baby up for adoption and abandon the relationship, which I refused to do. Neither they nor my other church "friends" ever spoke to me again, and I stopped attending church altogether. I knew I was wrong for having lied to them, but I felt angry, hurt, and betrayed that *Christians* would drop me like a hot potato for not living the perfect Christian life. How unChristian of them. I finally began allowing my religious questions and doubts to rise to the surface, and discussed them with my boyfriend, who understood the difficulty I was facing in beginning to work against my brainwashing; he patiently encouraged me to use logic and reason to determine the truth for myself. (He was two steps ahead of me in the religion department, although I wasn't aware of this at the time; he let me figure out what I thought for myself before telling me about his own journey to similar conclusions.)
Ironically and completely unexpectedly, my dad was elated to find out he was going to be a grandfather. He wasn't even fazed when I told him who the father was (they had met once, but I had introduced my boyfriend as "my friend", and they had gotten along surprisingly well) and was utterly shocked that I thought he was a racist, which he adamantly denied being. I later figured out that, with my dad, it's nothing personal; he's just one of those people who hates everyone equally.
Shortly after our the birth of our daughter, I found out I was pregnant again, despite my faithful use of birth control. When our first child was 13 months old, our son was born. We moved into a larger apartment and I halfheartedly attended another church with a friend a couple of times, but finally had to admit to myself that I wasn't buying it anymore. I went home, looked myself in the eye in the mirror, took a deep breath, and thought (I was too nervous to say it aloud, as though I might be struck by lightning for my insolence) "I'm not a Christian anymore. I don't believe that everything the Bible says is true. I don't know if Jesus ever existed or not. Religion is a tool used to control people. I'm not a Christian anymore." If you were brainwashed from birth to believe that Christianity is the only right way to live and that to deviate is to die spiritually, then you know how hard it was to overcome that programming and dare to think what I thought. I never went back to church again, and I've never missed it.
We went on to have two more daughters, and sometimes (particularly after I get off the phone with my dad) I look at my beautiful, intelligent, happy (when they're not fighting over some stupid toy) children and am silently grateful that I "woke up" before I inflicted another senseless religious brainwashing on a new generation. They will never have to suppress their natural curiosity or shut their perfectly functioning minds down in order to accept ancient Middle-Eastern fairy tales as their basis for how to order their lives. No one will dangle the threat of hellfire and eternal damnation over them in order to frighten them into compliance with an outdated mythology. Their parents are both back in college (after several years' hiatus spent trying to cope with the sudden influx of children); their mother is working on a Bachelor's in Biotechnology (despite their grandfather's advice to "Be careful about gettin' too educated; it'll turn you into a damn lib'ral atheist."); their father is preparing to enter the Master's program as an MIS major. They're growing up in a household full of books about science and business and technology, and developing a healthy thirst for knowledge and understanding instead of an irrational fear of a vengeful, bloodthirsty god who hates women, gay people, and questions. I don't mind them learning about various religions, including Christianity, as long as they understand that different people believe different things, that it's up to them to decide what they believe, if anything, and that no one will ever force them to accept any belief system against their will. I'm so glad I "got out." Also, to my everlasting delight, I discovered just last year that my brother (who spent three years in the Navy and now lives in Hawaii) has also been questioning religion and is now at the phase where he clearly doesn't believe in Christianity anymore but is reluctant to say it aloud for the same reasons most of us are afraid to. So I'm not the only one breaking free!
The only problem is that I still can't bring myself to admit to my family that I don't believe what they want/expect me to believe. My father has mellowed considerably in recent years; our relationship has greatly improved and I've forgiven most of the insanity with which he generously peppered my childhood, so you'd think he'd seem more approachable to me than he once did, and you'd be right.
However, he still has the soul of the religious fanatic and the black-and-white worldview that will tolerate no shades of gray, making his stability questionable. In spite of everything, I do love my Dad, and I'm especially close to my grandparents (his parents). What if I tell them that I'm not a Christian anymore and they sever ties with me? (Or, perhaps worse, engage in endless and fruitless efforts to convert me back?) In my family, it could easily be THAT big of a deal. My brother hasn't told them yet either, but he's never been very family-oriented and is not nearly as close to our relatives as I am, so I think the lack of emotional investment on his part would make any excommunication by our family ineffective. For me, it would be very upsetting, even devastating.
I've been postponing telling them for years now, but I'm afraid I'm about to reach the point where I'll have to. They (my dad in particular) are bringing up the kids' religious education more and more, especially around religious holidays. For instance, my mother (who has gotten slightly more religious over the years) called on Easter morning a few months back to wish me a Happy Easter. "Have you told the kids about the true meaning of Easter? Jesus died for us on the cross and rose again from the dead to ascend to heaven. Today is a holy day. It's not all about colorful eggs and chocolate and candy, you know." (Me, rolling my eyes and thinking "To me it is!") Later, my father called and demanded to know whether the kids have a Children's Bible. I answered yes, although I didn't tell him it's in a box in the back of my closet and that I have no intention of unpacking it. He told me I needed to give it to my oldest daughter to read, and mentioned that he's "going to start really working with them to teach them about Jesus." I thought, "The hell you are!" but compromised aloud by promising him that the kids would certainly know about the Creator (and they will, as soon as they can look around at the sun and moon and stars and trees and animals and know...). Thankfully, my dad has a short attention span, so I can just - Hey look, a squirrel! - and he forgets what he was talking about, but I can't change the subject forever and I don't want to keep being such a coward. I'm a grown woman for heaven's sake; I shouldn't be so scared to tell my family. Not sure what to do at this point.
Anyway, in the unlikely event that someone is still reading after all this time, I sincerely apologize for the length and detail, but it feels better to get everything off my chest, even if no one ever reads it. I love reading the other stories on this site; although I'm not an atheist like many people on here (I consider myself a Deist), I definitely sympathize with the atheist perspective and can certainly relate to the Christian brainwashing, de-conversion experience, and familial troubles I see being shared, and it's encouraging to be reminded that I'm not the only one struggling away from lies and toward the truth.
Monday, 2 July 2012
A journey in religion
by Andrew A ~
Since I was a kid religion has played a very prominent role in my life
and has ever since. When I was about 10 years old my mother and father
had me go to Sunday School in a Baptist Church. I went till I was in
high school then I sort of dropped it, my attendance waned and I
stopped going. In high school I adopted my dad's religion, he is from
the Church of God group, a break off from Armstrongism. I went there
until I was around 30 then I dropped that as well. The only reason I
went there, looking back at it, was because of my dad, and I wanted
somewhere to belong. I liked the idea of the one true Church and the
idea I thought I could prove it.
In my early 30s I became Catholic because I wanted to be part of the
one "true Church", the historical Church. I was there for essentially
less than 2 years. I wanted to go back but so many problems for me
occurred, the rigorous standards as well, not to mention I had
difficulties in overcoming certain "sins". I vacillated back and forth
for a few years but I couldn't stay with the doubts I had in my mind
and heart. I started seeing as well that many of the truth claims of
the church seemed to be able to be successfully challenged by other
Christians like the Reformed or the Orthodox. I never knew enough
history to know exactly if the historical counter claims were true. If
something is "so clear" then why can it be challenged with such ease?
The debates on these issues still rage on between different
communions, but we are told by all three major communions that the
evidence is so "clear" for their side.
In these recent years I also started critically thinking of science vs
faith issues. Why for example did the Bible seem to indicate that the
earth is less than 10,000 years old? Science has long since proved
that the earth is billions of years old, they know this through the
many different dating methods that they have today. I know Christians
will object with various scripture verses and other claims that
science is wrongly interpreting the evidence. This however seems to me
to just be arrogance of the foolish sort, how can a person who is not
a scientist even comment on science and the examination of the
material world? The only way to rightly challenge science is to
present your data in a peer review journal and let the examination of
the counter evidence begin. Religious people do NOT do this, rather
they only know how to pick holes in the evidence science presents.
Their arguments are based on ignorance and "god of the gaps"
argumentation. The major religions of the world never come up with
counter scientific theories , like I said they ONLY pick holes and use
arguments from ignorance.
There are many examples of the above, here is another example: Noah's
ark in the bible. We are told that Noah gathered all the animals and
put them on the Ark. If many creationists knew how many species there
are and the biological diversity we see in the world, they would
wonder just how they could take the account in a literal fashion. Did
Noah use snake muzzles to protect himself from the many varieties of
poisonous spiders? How did he get the deadly spiders on the Ark that
we have in the world like the Sydney Funnel Web Spider? What about
bacteria and parasites? How did the animals get redistributed all
around the world once the flood was over? Things like this puzzle me
and I have a million questions and yet you can't get consistent
answers from Christians in any communion. They all seem to contradict
one another.
One thing I have learned from my examination of these issues is that,
if you have the audacity to question anything there will always be
believers ready to pronounce you "hell worthy". The thousands of
Christian sects have a nice niche in hell for the groups that
contradict their beliefs. Seems very distasteful to me and I hope so
as well for any thinking rational person.
Questions from all different angles started "jabbing" me and they have
kept piling up for example "Why are there so many different religions
in the world? Why are people being condemned to hell for being located
in a country opposite to where the "true" religion was established?".
Why for example are Chinese who for the most part are Buddhists, who
go about their daily lives, die and then go to Hell because they had a
different religion? Christians will come up with answers like "God
decreed they would go to Hell", "God will save all people in time",
"They never had their first chance, they will have an opportunity
later". They will give their bible verses as to why they believe A, B,
C and the next Christian will just contradict them and call them a
heretic. Some Christians like using other Christians as punching bags
as well "they were never saved to begin with". No one can seem to
prove their position is infallibly the true one.
The Catholic church claims infallibility in matters of faith, doctrine
and morals and I believed that as well. It sounded so wonderful to be
infallibly sure, to have the infallible fuzzies. However when examined
the doctrine of infallibility also falls down. In order to come to the
place where the convert "to be" actually believes the Catholic church
is the one true Church, the convert must use private judgement. This
is the very thing Catholics object to in Protestants, who are told
they can't use Scripture alone as the only infallible rule of faith.
The Protestants are charged with using their own "private judgement"
to interpret Scripture. Ironic that the very claims of the Catholic
church, they appeal to Scripture in the various Catechisms. Catholics
appeal to Matthew 16:18-20 to prove the authority to bind and loose.
Should the Protestant be blamed when he reads the verses and sees that
there are different views in Church history? Should the Protestant be
blamed when he comes to a different conclusion? He sees that the
church appeals to different verses and decides to examine them in
context and uses principles of hermeneutics and exegesis, and comes to
a different conclusion using private judgement?
When I realized certainty in religion is more or less impossible to
achieve, I admit to loosening my grip on Scripture and the belief in
God. Interesting that the various religions have apologetics against
other religions for example: Judaism now has apologetic websites
against Christians and Muslims and so do Muslims against Jews and
Christians. They all have claims that they can't support. If they had
a million years to do so. Someone will ALWAYS come around to challenge
their truth claims. The debates still rage on to this very day.
Where am I NOW concerning God and the Bible? I have to admit I am not
sure. I am not even sure if you can know if a God truly exists, at
least with the current knowledge we have at present. I have tried to
believe a God exists and cares about us but examination of the world
around us seems to be screaming at us a different story. I guess I
would have to say that I am in the "half way house" philosophically.
Perhaps I can say I am an Agnostic. I am glad though for this journey
in life and at times finding things to believe in. However the journey
however has not been without its "scars" I have lost things in life
because of religion.
I have lost much precious time debating religion and trying to find
which one is the true religion. I have spent lots of money buying
books and listening to MP3s. Religion has brought me much mental
stress in my life as well...there are times I have felt like I was
going insane because of all the questions I had and couldn't solve. To
this day the religions have not solved them as well. I can only say at
this point in my life I am going to live as a rational thinker and as
a humanist. I still believe in the ideals of treating our neighbors as
we would like to be treated. No religion is needed for that.
I conclude my letter with this from Clarence Darrow:
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be
called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men
are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those
who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. Everyone
is an agnostic as to the beliefs or creeds they do not accept.
Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds, and the Protestants
are agnostic to the Catholic creed. Any one who thinks is an agnostic
about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all
knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse
or the home for the feeble-minded. In a popular way, in the western
world, an agnostic is one who doubts or disbelieves the main tenets of
the Christian faith.
I am an agnostic as to the question of God. I think that it is
impossible for the human mind to believe in an object or thing unless
it can form a mental picture of such object or thing. Since man ceased
to worship openly an anthropomorphic God and talked vaguely and not
intelligently about some force in the universe, higher than man, that
is responsible for the existence of man and the universe, he cannot be
said to believe in God. One cannot believe in a force excepting as a
force that pervades matter and is not an individual entity. To believe
in a thing, an image of the thing must be stamped on the mind. If one
is asked if he believes in such an animal as a camel, there
immediately arises in his mind an image of the camel. This image has
come from experience or knowledge of the animal gathered in some way
or other. No such image comes, or can come, with the idea of a God who
is described as a force.
To say that God made the universe gives us no explanation of the
beginnings of things. If we are told that God made the universe, the
question immediately arises: Who made God? Did he always exist, or was
there some power back of that? Did he create matter out of nothing, or
is his existence coextensive with matter? The problem is still there.
What is the origin of it all? If, on the other hand, one says that the
universe was not made by God, that it always existed, he has the same
difficulty to confront. To say that the universe was here last year,
or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a
mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only
wonder and doubt and guess.
Since I was a kid religion has played a very prominent role in my life
and has ever since. When I was about 10 years old my mother and father
had me go to Sunday School in a Baptist Church. I went till I was in
high school then I sort of dropped it, my attendance waned and I
stopped going. In high school I adopted my dad's religion, he is from
the Church of God group, a break off from Armstrongism. I went there
until I was around 30 then I dropped that as well. The only reason I
went there, looking back at it, was because of my dad, and I wanted
somewhere to belong. I liked the idea of the one true Church and the
idea I thought I could prove it.
In my early 30s I became Catholic because I wanted to be part of the
one "true Church", the historical Church. I was there for essentially
less than 2 years. I wanted to go back but so many problems for me
occurred, the rigorous standards as well, not to mention I had
difficulties in overcoming certain "sins". I vacillated back and forth
for a few years but I couldn't stay with the doubts I had in my mind
and heart. I started seeing as well that many of the truth claims of
the church seemed to be able to be successfully challenged by other
Christians like the Reformed or the Orthodox. I never knew enough
history to know exactly if the historical counter claims were true. If
something is "so clear" then why can it be challenged with such ease?
The debates on these issues still rage on between different
communions, but we are told by all three major communions that the
evidence is so "clear" for their side.
In these recent years I also started critically thinking of science vs
faith issues. Why for example did the Bible seem to indicate that the
earth is less than 10,000 years old? Science has long since proved
that the earth is billions of years old, they know this through the
many different dating methods that they have today. I know Christians
will object with various scripture verses and other claims that
science is wrongly interpreting the evidence. This however seems to me
to just be arrogance of the foolish sort, how can a person who is not
a scientist even comment on science and the examination of the
material world? The only way to rightly challenge science is to
present your data in a peer review journal and let the examination of
the counter evidence begin. Religious people do NOT do this, rather
they only know how to pick holes in the evidence science presents.
Their arguments are based on ignorance and "god of the gaps"
argumentation. The major religions of the world never come up with
counter scientific theories , like I said they ONLY pick holes and use
arguments from ignorance.
There are many examples of the above, here is another example: Noah's
ark in the bible. We are told that Noah gathered all the animals and
put them on the Ark. If many creationists knew how many species there
are and the biological diversity we see in the world, they would
wonder just how they could take the account in a literal fashion. Did
Noah use snake muzzles to protect himself from the many varieties of
poisonous spiders? How did he get the deadly spiders on the Ark that
we have in the world like the Sydney Funnel Web Spider? What about
bacteria and parasites? How did the animals get redistributed all
around the world once the flood was over? Things like this puzzle me
and I have a million questions and yet you can't get consistent
answers from Christians in any communion. They all seem to contradict
one another.
One thing I have learned from my examination of these issues is that,
if you have the audacity to question anything there will always be
believers ready to pronounce you "hell worthy". The thousands of
Christian sects have a nice niche in hell for the groups that
contradict their beliefs. Seems very distasteful to me and I hope so
as well for any thinking rational person.
Questions from all different angles started "jabbing" me and they have
kept piling up for example "Why are there so many different religions
in the world? Why are people being condemned to hell for being located
in a country opposite to where the "true" religion was established?".
Why for example are Chinese who for the most part are Buddhists, who
go about their daily lives, die and then go to Hell because they had a
different religion? Christians will come up with answers like "God
decreed they would go to Hell", "God will save all people in time",
"They never had their first chance, they will have an opportunity
later". They will give their bible verses as to why they believe A, B,
C and the next Christian will just contradict them and call them a
heretic. Some Christians like using other Christians as punching bags
as well "they were never saved to begin with". No one can seem to
prove their position is infallibly the true one.
The Catholic church claims infallibility in matters of faith, doctrine
and morals and I believed that as well. It sounded so wonderful to be
infallibly sure, to have the infallible fuzzies. However when examined
the doctrine of infallibility also falls down. In order to come to the
place where the convert "to be" actually believes the Catholic church
is the one true Church, the convert must use private judgement. This
is the very thing Catholics object to in Protestants, who are told
they can't use Scripture alone as the only infallible rule of faith.
The Protestants are charged with using their own "private judgement"
to interpret Scripture. Ironic that the very claims of the Catholic
church, they appeal to Scripture in the various Catechisms. Catholics
appeal to Matthew 16:18-20 to prove the authority to bind and loose.
Should the Protestant be blamed when he reads the verses and sees that
there are different views in Church history? Should the Protestant be
blamed when he comes to a different conclusion? He sees that the
church appeals to different verses and decides to examine them in
context and uses principles of hermeneutics and exegesis, and comes to
a different conclusion using private judgement?
When I realized certainty in religion is more or less impossible to
achieve, I admit to loosening my grip on Scripture and the belief in
God. Interesting that the various religions have apologetics against
other religions for example: Judaism now has apologetic websites
against Christians and Muslims and so do Muslims against Jews and
Christians. They all have claims that they can't support. If they had
a million years to do so. Someone will ALWAYS come around to challenge
their truth claims. The debates still rage on to this very day.
Where am I NOW concerning God and the Bible? I have to admit I am not
sure. I am not even sure if you can know if a God truly exists, at
least with the current knowledge we have at present. I have tried to
believe a God exists and cares about us but examination of the world
around us seems to be screaming at us a different story. I guess I
would have to say that I am in the "half way house" philosophically.
Perhaps I can say I am an Agnostic. I am glad though for this journey
in life and at times finding things to believe in. However the journey
however has not been without its "scars" I have lost things in life
because of religion.
I have lost much precious time debating religion and trying to find
which one is the true religion. I have spent lots of money buying
books and listening to MP3s. Religion has brought me much mental
stress in my life as well...there are times I have felt like I was
going insane because of all the questions I had and couldn't solve. To
this day the religions have not solved them as well. I can only say at
this point in my life I am going to live as a rational thinker and as
a humanist. I still believe in the ideals of treating our neighbors as
we would like to be treated. No religion is needed for that.
I conclude my letter with this from Clarence Darrow:
I do not consider it an insult, but rather a compliment to be
called an agnostic. I do not pretend to know where many ignorant men
are sure — that is all that agnosticism means.
An agnostic is a doubter. The word is generally applied to those
who doubt the verity of accepted religious creeds of faiths. Everyone
is an agnostic as to the beliefs or creeds they do not accept.
Catholics are agnostic to the Protestant creeds, and the Protestants
are agnostic to the Catholic creed. Any one who thinks is an agnostic
about something, otherwise he must believe that he is possessed of all
knowledge. And the proper place for such a person is in the madhouse
or the home for the feeble-minded. In a popular way, in the western
world, an agnostic is one who doubts or disbelieves the main tenets of
the Christian faith.
I am an agnostic as to the question of God. I think that it is
impossible for the human mind to believe in an object or thing unless
it can form a mental picture of such object or thing. Since man ceased
to worship openly an anthropomorphic God and talked vaguely and not
intelligently about some force in the universe, higher than man, that
is responsible for the existence of man and the universe, he cannot be
said to believe in God. One cannot believe in a force excepting as a
force that pervades matter and is not an individual entity. To believe
in a thing, an image of the thing must be stamped on the mind. If one
is asked if he believes in such an animal as a camel, there
immediately arises in his mind an image of the camel. This image has
come from experience or knowledge of the animal gathered in some way
or other. No such image comes, or can come, with the idea of a God who
is described as a force.
To say that God made the universe gives us no explanation of the
beginnings of things. If we are told that God made the universe, the
question immediately arises: Who made God? Did he always exist, or was
there some power back of that? Did he create matter out of nothing, or
is his existence coextensive with matter? The problem is still there.
What is the origin of it all? If, on the other hand, one says that the
universe was not made by God, that it always existed, he has the same
difficulty to confront. To say that the universe was here last year,
or millions of years ago, does not explain its origin. This is still a
mystery. As to the question of the origin of things, man can only
wonder and doubt and guess.
how to get out of Christianity cult
By True Anathema ~
It has been one year now since I let go of my religious beliefs. I
realized that the God I worshipped since I was less than three was not
real, that he was a figment of my parents' imagination and that I had
believed that he was real, but was deceived. At first, I was elated
because of the new found freedom. Then came the grief and anger. Next
came the anxiety and depression, then an ever present despair.
Since I have attended many churches over the years, breaking with a
particular group was not really a problem, but now there is no social
construct for me in which to gain a sense of worth or purpose. I
continually have to remind myself that my worth comes from within, not
from without. The interaction I get now is from a group of
freethinkers that is more than one hour away. With a full time job,
family, and the price of gas, I obviously don't get to interact with
them very much.
My husband and I were joking the other day that we don't have any
friends. He has a large family and we interact with two of them. I
have yet to meet any one in my area that is not a fundamentalist
Christian and have no idea how to. And if I did, our town is so small,
there is no way I could be sure that being open with them would not
cause me harm with my family and my job.
I have always had problems with OCD and bi-polar disorder with
depression, but now have to take anxiety medicine at night and more
frequently during the day to function. I have just read an article on
Religious Trauma Syndrome and understand this somewhat, but still have
a hard time understanding how letting go of an unhealthy belief system
could have such negative effects.
My husband knows I have "doubts" and we just don't really talk about
it. Neither of us go to church and that's just fine. He has issues
with organized religion and we do have that in common.
I am learning to take it slow and read everything I can get my hands
on. I can read the bible again for the first time in a year and read
from a scholarly and not a devotional perspective. I can watch the
Family Guy and not be afraid that I will go to hell for laughing at
some extremely blasphemous, but hellishly funny story lines.
This is an anniversary that I am celebrating by myself and for myself.
There will be no cards and no cake. No congratulations. No hugs or
pats on the back. Just silence. But silence is good. There used to
voices in my head.
"You're deceived."
"You can run, but you can't hide from God, that hound of heaven."
"Worldly wisdom is foolishness, hence you're a fool."
"You were created for better things."
Now there's just silence, but silence really is golden. I hope to find
peace. Not the peace that passes understanding that the bible
promises, but a peace that comes from understanding. Understanding
that I'm human. Understanding that I don't have to be perfect.
Understanding that I don't need the approval of my family. I can just
love them for who they are and that I don't need to confess everything
about who I am to them.
I do have one person that knows what this anniversary means to me. He
keeps me in good books and mixed drinks. Three cheers for freedom, no
matter how slowly it comes.
It has been one year now since I let go of my religious beliefs. I
realized that the God I worshipped since I was less than three was not
real, that he was a figment of my parents' imagination and that I had
believed that he was real, but was deceived. At first, I was elated
because of the new found freedom. Then came the grief and anger. Next
came the anxiety and depression, then an ever present despair.
Since I have attended many churches over the years, breaking with a
particular group was not really a problem, but now there is no social
construct for me in which to gain a sense of worth or purpose. I
continually have to remind myself that my worth comes from within, not
from without. The interaction I get now is from a group of
freethinkers that is more than one hour away. With a full time job,
family, and the price of gas, I obviously don't get to interact with
them very much.
My husband and I were joking the other day that we don't have any
friends. He has a large family and we interact with two of them. I
have yet to meet any one in my area that is not a fundamentalist
Christian and have no idea how to. And if I did, our town is so small,
there is no way I could be sure that being open with them would not
cause me harm with my family and my job.
I have always had problems with OCD and bi-polar disorder with
depression, but now have to take anxiety medicine at night and more
frequently during the day to function. I have just read an article on
Religious Trauma Syndrome and understand this somewhat, but still have
a hard time understanding how letting go of an unhealthy belief system
could have such negative effects.
My husband knows I have "doubts" and we just don't really talk about
it. Neither of us go to church and that's just fine. He has issues
with organized religion and we do have that in common.
I am learning to take it slow and read everything I can get my hands
on. I can read the bible again for the first time in a year and read
from a scholarly and not a devotional perspective. I can watch the
Family Guy and not be afraid that I will go to hell for laughing at
some extremely blasphemous, but hellishly funny story lines.
This is an anniversary that I am celebrating by myself and for myself.
There will be no cards and no cake. No congratulations. No hugs or
pats on the back. Just silence. But silence is good. There used to
voices in my head.
"You're deceived."
"You can run, but you can't hide from God, that hound of heaven."
"Worldly wisdom is foolishness, hence you're a fool."
"You were created for better things."
Now there's just silence, but silence really is golden. I hope to find
peace. Not the peace that passes understanding that the bible
promises, but a peace that comes from understanding. Understanding
that I'm human. Understanding that I don't have to be perfect.
Understanding that I don't need the approval of my family. I can just
love them for who they are and that I don't need to confess everything
about who I am to them.
I do have one person that knows what this anniversary means to me. He
keeps me in good books and mixed drinks. Three cheers for freedom, no
matter how slowly it comes.
Thursday, 28 June 2012
A better world is a world without churches
As you have already knew, a pastor in Singapore was charged for
illegally using 24 millions of the church money.
Billions of dollars had been wasted every month all over the world to
support pastor/priest millionaire lifestyle. More goes to building
expensive building.
Imagine all this money was given to the poor and unfortunate, the
world will be a far far better place.
Instead, it was used to produce serial killer and rapist and criminal.
Doesn't believe me ? Check the status and you will be shocked. Most
serial rapist and murderer came from strong church members.
Even Adolf Hitler was a real Christian.
No Christian Church means no war, no suffering, no hatred.
See thru the hypocrisy. Prevent your love one from going to the
church. You will save a life.
illegally using 24 millions of the church money.
Billions of dollars had been wasted every month all over the world to
support pastor/priest millionaire lifestyle. More goes to building
expensive building.
Imagine all this money was given to the poor and unfortunate, the
world will be a far far better place.
Instead, it was used to produce serial killer and rapist and criminal.
Doesn't believe me ? Check the status and you will be shocked. Most
serial rapist and murderer came from strong church members.
Even Adolf Hitler was a real Christian.
No Christian Church means no war, no suffering, no hatred.
See thru the hypocrisy. Prevent your love one from going to the
church. You will save a life.
Singapore pastor charged in $19 million fraud case
from AFP news:
The founder of one of Singapore's richest churches was charged in
court Wednesday for allegedly syphoning off nearly $19 million of the
congregation's money to support his wife's singing career.
Pastor Kong Hee, 47, faced three charges of "criminal breach of trust"
relating to the misuse of the funds of the City Harvest Church, one of
Singapore's biggest with a membership of over 30,000.
Kong was accused of "dishonestly misappropriating monies" from the
church's building fund over several years to support the career of his
wife Ho Yeow Sun, who had tried to become a music star in the United
States.
The church, which has affiliates in neighbouring Malaysia and other
countries, is known for services that resemble pop concerts.
The pastor's wife, now in her early 40s, was hoping international
stardom would help spread the church's message, according to previous
reports in the Singapore media.
Four other church executives were charged Wednesday before a district
court for aiding Kong and faced other charges for allegedly attempting
to misappropriate millions of dollars from the church's funds.
Kong and the four others were arrested Tuesday by the Commercial
Affairs Department, a police unit set up to fight financial crime, and
could face life imprisonment as well as a fine if convicted.
They have been suspended from their church positions and are out on
bail of Sg$500,000 each, with their passports impounded.
On Tuesday, officials overseeing charities estimated that Kong was
involved in misappropriating Sg$23 million ($18 million) in church
funds but in the charge sheet filed on Wednesday, the total was raised
to Sg$24 million.
According to court documents, the church funds were channelled through
"purported bond investments" in two companies, which were in fact
"sham transactions".
"They were devised by the accused persons in order to conceal the
diversion of the Church's Building Fund to fund Sun Ho's music
career... As well as other unauthorised purposes," the documents said.
City Harvest is a Christian group listed as a charity. The arrests
came after a two-year police investigation.
Kong, who appeared in a courtroom filled with supporters as well as
local media, stood with a grave expression as charges were laid out
against him.
After the session, Kong walked out holding hands with his wife,
declining to speak to the media as members of his entourage shoved
journalists away and tried to prevent photographers from shooting
pictures.
The couple became minor celebrities in Singapore after launching the
church, which officials estimated had net assets of Sg$103 million in
2009.
Singapore authorities have cracked down on heads of charities found to
have been involved in irregularities.
In 2009, a prominent Buddhist monk was jailed for six months for
misappropriating hospital funds and lying about it to authorities.
The founder of one of Singapore's richest churches was charged in
court Wednesday for allegedly syphoning off nearly $19 million of the
congregation's money to support his wife's singing career.
Pastor Kong Hee, 47, faced three charges of "criminal breach of trust"
relating to the misuse of the funds of the City Harvest Church, one of
Singapore's biggest with a membership of over 30,000.
Kong was accused of "dishonestly misappropriating monies" from the
church's building fund over several years to support the career of his
wife Ho Yeow Sun, who had tried to become a music star in the United
States.
The church, which has affiliates in neighbouring Malaysia and other
countries, is known for services that resemble pop concerts.
The pastor's wife, now in her early 40s, was hoping international
stardom would help spread the church's message, according to previous
reports in the Singapore media.
Four other church executives were charged Wednesday before a district
court for aiding Kong and faced other charges for allegedly attempting
to misappropriate millions of dollars from the church's funds.
Kong and the four others were arrested Tuesday by the Commercial
Affairs Department, a police unit set up to fight financial crime, and
could face life imprisonment as well as a fine if convicted.
They have been suspended from their church positions and are out on
bail of Sg$500,000 each, with their passports impounded.
On Tuesday, officials overseeing charities estimated that Kong was
involved in misappropriating Sg$23 million ($18 million) in church
funds but in the charge sheet filed on Wednesday, the total was raised
to Sg$24 million.
According to court documents, the church funds were channelled through
"purported bond investments" in two companies, which were in fact
"sham transactions".
"They were devised by the accused persons in order to conceal the
diversion of the Church's Building Fund to fund Sun Ho's music
career... As well as other unauthorised purposes," the documents said.
City Harvest is a Christian group listed as a charity. The arrests
came after a two-year police investigation.
Kong, who appeared in a courtroom filled with supporters as well as
local media, stood with a grave expression as charges were laid out
against him.
After the session, Kong walked out holding hands with his wife,
declining to speak to the media as members of his entourage shoved
journalists away and tried to prevent photographers from shooting
pictures.
The couple became minor celebrities in Singapore after launching the
church, which officials estimated had net assets of Sg$103 million in
2009.
Singapore authorities have cracked down on heads of charities found to
have been involved in irregularities.
In 2009, a prominent Buddhist monk was jailed for six months for
misappropriating hospital funds and lying about it to authorities.
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