Sex. Copious amounts of sex. Lots and lots of sex. A whole lot of. . .well, you get the picture
Whee! Another Memphian and UCCer! Wouldn’t be First Congo would it? Such a lovely church! I’m not a member but my daughter is in the youth group. Whenever I need a boost I pay a visit though.
My family was Methodist, not really fundamentalist, but I was once spanked at the tender age of eight for suggesting that God was wrong when my grandfather claimed the Bible proved that women should always be submissive to men and to backtalk him was to go against God Himself.
My reaction was to distance myself from him and church, but I really never rejected the idea of a Christ. Instead I’ve always read everything I could on various religions and dabbled here and there, but I always came back to Christianity. If I’m wrong, oh well. I consider myself a Liberal Christian and I fully believe in universal salvation, based on that same Bible that got me whipped as a child. 
I am very interested in your program and would like to subscribe to your newsletter.
First Congo it is. Because Cheryl Cornish rocks.
“God is goodness, mercy, and love. To demonstrate that I shall now hit you with this stick.”
I’m not sure I believe in universal salvation, though, since it seems to deny free will. That is, a soul has to be able to say, “I’ve decided you suck, almighty one, and i have no interest in your program or your newsletter.”
But I don’t believe in the fire & brimstone hell, either.
And one born the same week as you, as well.
Wow, I had it easy. My dad was that rare bird, a Catholic fundie (that means that the Pope is absolutely correct on everything, except where he disagreed with my dad). But my mom, while also a Catholic, is of the far more sensible sort, who has no problem with admitting that humans (including the Pope and the writers of the Bible) can be fallible, and has no objection to fantasy literature or imagination (heck, it was my mom who introduced me to the Harry Potter books). Also fortunately, it was mom who raised us (my parents are separated, divorced, and annulled, which vexes my father no end), so I’m able to deal with Dad mostly by just ignoring him.
. . . wanna hear my story?
wants to hear your story, Jennshark.
I want to hear your story so much that if you do not post it before 1400, I shall murder this completely innocent hamster.
Okay, so I’m bluffing. But yeah, I wanna hear it.
Good to hear from like-minded Memphians. We’re going to have to have a Bluff City Dopefest!
I was raised Church of Christ in rural Middle/East Tennessee. I think I formally became an atheist around age 9 or 10. Do not confuse Church of Christ with the Universal Church of Christ. They’re quite different animals. CofC is the no instrumental music crowd. They also don’t celebrate Christmas or Easter. Well, the church doesn’t celebrate it–the church members do, with a vengence. But when you go to the Christmas church services, you don’t get the Christmas sermon, you get the why-Christmas-is-evil sermon. No, really. I was brought up to believe that the Southern Baptists were a bunch of sinner-coddling liberals.
The first thing that tipped me off that maybe my church was…how you say…full of shit was when I told my friend in first grade that she was going to hell because her family was Methodist and the preacher said only Church of Christers were going to heaven. So she said “Why would God create all these people just to send them to hell?” Perhaps God is a sadistic bastard, or perhaps Church of Christ is wrong about God.
How did I cope? I argued and argued and argued in Sunday school. I took nothing at face value. “Because the bible says so,” was not the right answer. Why did the Bible say that? Are you sure the Bible means what you say it means? And I never got baptized. When they asked why, I said “You’re supposed to get baptized when you believe beyond any doubt and recognize you’re a sinner. I’m still waiting to believe beyond any doubt.” I once heard two Sunday school teachers arguing over who should teach the class I was in. “I’m not going to do it! He’s in that class.”
For a long, long time I continued to be violently hostile to all religion based on my experiences with Church of Christ. I still dispise organized religion, but I decided I should be tolerant of other’s beliefs because it was that same intolerance that infuriated me so about Christianity. So my attitude now is, I don’t give a shit what you believe as long as you stay out of my face and don’t strap on a bomb and blow yourself up in my favorite restaurant.
That’s just about my background - conservative Italian Catholic, Conservative with a capital C. In short, most ofl the really fun or interesting shit seemed to be on the “don’t do that” list. The pope was Infallible. Nice thing was, if you don’t know what that means (as a kid after all), then you tend not to worry.
I knew it was a joke. Perhaps we need joke smileys or joke brackets…
Same here, except being Irish, so throw in loads of guilt. If you are having a good time, then it must be a sin or you will be punished.
YMMV.
Okay, I’m back. I hope no hamsters were murdered because I didn’t make the deadline.
My story:
I was born and raised in Utah and was/am a millionth-generation Mormon (as in: great-grandparents and great-greats were driven from upstate New York and the Midwest by angry mobs and toward Utah.) If you’re a Mormon, these kind of ancestral props are very, very important and give one “blueblood status” over those merely converted to the Church ;j . For those who have never spent time in Utah, Mormonism is a culture, not just a Sunday activity.
The mid-sized town we lived in was about 90% Mormon and everyone went to school, church, and community activities together. Sometimes a nice thing, but having a monoreligious community means that the usual small town stuff like gossip and your-neighbors-know-more-about-you-than-you-do is multiplied a hundredfold.
I realized I was gay quite early and came out at age 16, the same time my parents got divorced and my dad more or left deserted the family – all big no-no’s in Mormonville. These events made us insta-pariahs. We tried going to church but were shunned, with people literally turning their backs on us. A few neighbors and friends remained cautiously supportive, but it was clear that we had become evil. Mom turned to drink and loose men and the whole fabric of a family life that had looked idyllic, at least from the outside, was shredded. Within two years we had basically been driven from the town.
I haven’t set foot in a Mormon church for two and a half decades. While I don’t miss any of the fundy-conservative doctrine or the deeply boring services, I’ve never really come to terms with this sudden excommunication – it was not just from a church congregation, but from a whole life.
However, I also feel that being brought up Mormon imbued me with traits that have (after a young adult foray into drinking, drugging, and laziness) helped me become a grounded, goal-directed adult: a strong work and community service ethic, loyalty and love of family, strong literacy skills (yes!) and honesty.
So, I have a deep hurt and feeling of loss that I imagine I’ll carry the remainder of my life, but at the same time a recognizance of some of the valuable things that a strong religious upbringing can sometimes give.
Um…of course. No hamsters were harmed. This is definitely NOT hamster casserole I’m eating, and my nephew Ferdinand is NOT crying hysterically in the other room over lost Scooby and don’t believe anything my sister says to the contrary.
Lord, y’all make my very small rebellion look well, very small.
I didn’t even really do it.
I was christened Episcopalian, and still feel a pull towards that church (except the local one is conservative and snooty to the nth degree). I was raised non- churched, really, as was my husband (although when his mother got drunk, which was often, she alternated between her Catholic roots and her father’s sudden call to God during the Depression–he became lay preacher and essentially a con man, but that’s another thread).
We get married–and have kids and join a church (UCC, BTW). It is as liberal a church as you are likely to find in this well to do Republican suburb of Chicago.
Here’s the thing. My daughter was supposed to get confirmed last year. She really thought about this and decided she wasn’t ready to do so at this time.
The crap she got for this was surprising to me. I had been told that no matter what decision the kids made, that there would always be a place for them in Youth group etc (it has a very good Youth program). No go.
Not only that, she can no longer go to our church summer camp–they don’t want her “influence” on the younger kids. Bite me. All I can think of is all those kids who got confirmed just because their parents wanted them to–so much for true growth and self knowledge etc. Apparently, it’s appearances that count most in church.
This infuriates me on many levels, but mostly because I see it as intolerance. I did not get on a high horse and leave etc–I just no longer volunteer for committees etc. Our church attendance is spotty at best. I call myself Christian/Pagan for the most part–I no longer believe in Christ as savior, for example. Of course, this was all coming for a long time–the bit about my daughter was kind of the last straw.
I hope all here who have been damaged and hurt by “church” are well.
Not so different. A friend of mine said something once that made me laugh, maybe you’ll laugh too. Keep in mind this is in Noo Yawk OK? Our church was named after Robert Bellarmine - we Italians suspect he was Irish.
All the priests and nuns were Irish. The pope at the time was Italian , the latest in a long long long line of them. It was the Church of Rome (sort of). So why were all the people in charge (that we knew of) Irish? It must be some sort of sinister Irish plan to take over the world, one bingo night at a time. That’s it. :eek:
Not that it was really all that horrible, they were (in comparison) pretty easy going for the most part. Maybe they were cutting slack because we were ignorant little wops who don’t know any better? ROFL
Anyway, I still have trouble reconciling Good News! (think Buddy Christ) and Loving Mercy with Salvation, when it’s bounced against the “world is evil and is to test you and is the devil’s domain and no soup for you” or the “do it my way or go to hell” stuff.
Thanks, I’m glad to hear that you’ve found a place in the UCC as well.
By the way, I checked out that link to your old Pentecostal church. Interesting how they call themselves the Church of God in Christ, Inc. While it’s somewhat peculiar, I do admire their candor.
It occurs to me that, regarding any comments I make about COGIC hereabouts, I should add the same caveat I give in the 3-D world: I’m not objective about them. For a long time they cost me my faith in God, or I perceive them as having done so. They may not be as odious as I sometimes paint them.