A while back I wrote about a friend of mine who was having a deep crisis of faith, and I mentioned that I felt like she was ready to break the chains of fundamentalist Christianity and begin to experience the freedom of a life without limits. While I never really thought of her as a fundy, she was certainly a Christian deceived by much of the fundy rhetoric and anti-science propaganda.
Amanda teetered on the brink for a few weeks, and was seemingly talked back into at least some of the things she had so recently left behind.
But I had faith in my dear girl, and knew that eventually she would be free of her shackles. I must admit however, I had no idea just how quickly that would occur.
If Paul’s writings are called into question, then everyone else’s must be too. And once the Bible falls, everything else about Christianity falls for me.
I’m not saying I don’t believe in God. I do. That’s just a matter of fact for me. God exists. I even think Jesus existed – 4 nearly identical accounts in the Bible, plus other historical sources are enough for me to believe he existed. But was he divine? I’m beginning to think… no.
Being somewhat personally familiar with her type of situation, I can tell you that it is not an easy accomplishment, to begin to think for yourself after so much intensive indoctrination by the religious extremists. It’s scary, it’s lonely, it’s painful. You lose a lot of friends, and a lot of community support from what is basically the only community you’ve had supporting you.
With that in mind, I would encourage all you heathren to stop by and give her a hug. Please don’t start any blog wars, or even respond in kind if you are attacked by an angry commenter or two (and sadly, I suspect you will be). Amanda needs support and comfort, not bile and rage all over her blog. Please, please, please bear that in mind.
(I’ve been sending my hugs via email to avoid just such a circumstance. My presence there is not conducive to civility.)
Today is Independence Day at Imago Dei.
From whence came the artwork:
That image is titled Independence Statue, by jackhynes.
Filed under: Blogs In Our MonkeySphere, Friends, Fundies, Religion
Everyone else can ignore this:
Sorry Legion. There’s no room at the inn here for your bile and hate, and unlike Kristine at Amused Muse, I can block you out.
You needn’t bother with your broken wing number, I’ve seen it from you before.
Buh bye, Fluff fluff.
giving up on christianity (which was pretty much my entire understanding of the world, growing up) was a seriously rough thing. as much as i loath organized religion (and fundamentalism even more) i am loathe to try to convince anyone that they shouldn’t believe, since i don’t really wish the process on anyone.
I understand, and Amanda isn’t giving up theism per se, nor would I suggest she do that.
I am obviously so thrilled I’m annoying myself, but her path is hers to find.
I’m just the cheerleader, wherever she goes and whatever she does.
Kisses Adam, nice to see you comment again.
Hi. I am finally following your link to here.
I find it sad that your friend in convinced by four simular accounts in the NT. Some should point out they they were written decades after the supposed events and edited centuries after the fact. Hardly a primary soarce. Plus, what other historical accounts are there? But the fact that she is questioning is good. She just needs the strenght to know she will not fall when she lets go.
And I am sorry, I have to comment about the dear troll’s quote.
They banned me at Amused muse;
Kristine is more then one person?
I come to you now for solace and guidance.
Just going by what Janiebelle has posted there, what makes dear troll think Janiebelle will confort him in her ample bosom.
You see, my faith IS weak.
Is that why dear troll annoys those who does not believe as it does? Does dear troll need to be validated?
Should I fight, or just give in?
Dear troll has bragged about what sites it has been banned from. While it would be nice if dear troll would just disappear, it actions are too entrenched. Somehow, I get the feeling dear troll is trying to get false sympathy with it’s fake tears.
Well it’s about time you showed up!
re: Amanda
Baby steps, Janine, baby steps. She and I have had conversations on this sort of thing before, and she’ll get there, she just needs time to test the water and make sure she’s not going to get zapped by a lightning bolt.
As for Legion, you have his number.
(You can get fancy here, and use a blockquote html tag to make your quotes fancy if you like. It’s very slick.)
Kisses Janine,
I’m glad you came by, and I hope you return.
I have already bookmarked this site. I will be around.
(You can get fancy here, and use a blockquote html tag to make your quotes fancy if you like. It’s very slick.)
I have no techno savvy. I would like to use that functiom but I need to be told how to use it.
As for being hit by a lightning bolt, would not that be Zeus?
Kisses Janiebelle
I’m so glad you’ll be ’round.
OK, blockquoting.
[blockquote]As for being hit by a lightning bolt, would not that be Zeus?[/blockquote]
Only instead of square brackets, use angly brackets (greater than and less than), and it will look like this:
And yeah, Zeus. Zeus, Yaweh, Odin, whatever. I guess Yaweh was more the brimstone and pillars of salt kinda guy.
Times like these I almost wish I had a rougher experience deconverting so I could sympathize with people more. In the end though, I can sum it up my split from Christianity with one short sentence: I grew out of it. No crisis, no chaos, just maturation.
On a side note, a little tip for you: If you want to get your tags to actually show up, there are a couple tricks you can use. The first of these is the <par> and </par> tags, which causes any html within them to be ignored. This doesn’t always work though, but there’s a more versatile method. Basically, you just replace the angle brackets with the character codes for them:
< is <
> is >
No tricks necessary to type those in, I used a second layer of coding (wrote them as &lt;, and yes, that one used a third layer) so they’ll show up right the first time.
Now I just hope all this will be parsed correctly or this could be very confusing.
Thanks Infophile. I always forget those codes, and the one for a space is also occasionally handy, though I have to look that one up every time as well.
I rebuke the lies spoken Amanda’s life in the divine name of Jesus.
Satan you have no power no authority, you have been beaten by the power of the blood.
I pray the covering of the precious blood of Jesus over the heart and spirit of Amanda, the that truth will once again flourish in her spirit.
Amen.
oh joy.