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Post by sargassosea on Nov 2, 2009 19:45:46 GMT -5
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Post by amulbunny on Nov 2, 2009 20:13:01 GMT -5
Thanks for that. The new covenant is about love and acceptance, not smiting thine enemy. Too many forget that. If Jesus was still in his grave, he'd be rolling over like a dryer for all the inequities made in his name.
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Post by journey on Nov 2, 2009 20:27:37 GMT -5
This is so good, kr. This is the Christianity that I, too, have found. What a radically different thing it is than the one I was presented with during my Biblical Patriarchy days.
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calulu
Junior Member
Posts: 76
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Post by calulu on Nov 2, 2009 21:52:50 GMT -5
Word! KR, that is one of the best posts I've read yet. Those are all things I learned the hard way leaving my fundie church. Never again will I allow mere mortals that much control over my interior life.
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Post by redheadedskeptic on Nov 2, 2009 23:04:11 GMT -5
For me, I found that I couldn't leave until I was pretty much agnostic. I was so incredibly frightened about how disappointed God would be in me if I left. I was worried about "grieving the Holy Spirit" so I stayed until I had a "biblical" reason to leave (ha!). Even then, I had NO support from my Christian family or friends. They all hung me out to dry! Not to give up on the Christian faith, however, I went to a liberal Episcopalian church for awhile. But the questioning process I started while still married to a Baptist minister didn't stop just because I had gotten a divorce. Once I started questioning, I didn't stop questioning until I finally decided liberal, conservative, none of it made any sense. That is why I ended up leaving it entirely.
I left fundamentalism because of questions and trauma. I left Christianity, though, for purely intellectual reasons. I think it's great if you can find some peace in it, though, because leaving Christianity made me feel is as if I had gotten three divorces: one from my husband, one from my family, and one from my god. It was a very difficult time in my life, and it's not entirely over yet.
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Hillary
Full Member
"Quivering Daughters ~ Hope and Healing for the Daughters of Patriarchy" Now Available!
Posts: 129
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Post by Hillary on Nov 2, 2009 23:52:54 GMT -5
YES YES YES. Beautiful post. Really resonates with me.
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Post by AnnieNonymous on Nov 3, 2009 10:08:48 GMT -5
I can relate, redheadedskeptic. Once I started really studying and finding the answers to the questions I'd had since childhood I couldn't go back. The good news is that I do finally have the freedom and peace I was always promised in church, but never did find. My husband and I didn't separate though, he is much like krwordgazer now, still a Christian, but he lets his common sense be his rudder now
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Post by krwordgazer on Nov 3, 2009 23:28:22 GMT -5
Thanks so much, everyone, for the lovely comments. Redheadedskeptic, my heart goes out to you-- that's such a lot of losses, it must be very hard. I personally didn't find it intellectually or emotionally necessary to leave Christianity-- my mother raised me with a simple, gentle faith that I returned to with a sigh of relief after leaving Maranatha Campus Ministries. (I remember when I was four or five years old, listening to my mother sing "Away in a Manger" with such pure love in her voice, and such sincerity in her eyes. It seems to me now that the essence of that song is all I've ever really needed.) I am amazed, looking back now, at how hard and complicated I made such a lovely thing-- and how much help I had to do it!
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jennie
Junior Member
Posts: 96
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Post by jennie on Nov 6, 2009 18:36:35 GMT -5
Your list of 12 things was great, KR! I could identify with many of them. I go back and forth between skepticism and belief. I think it was my parent's reasonable approach to faith that has kept me from abandoning my beliefs altogether as well. One thing that I have realized is that my faith in Christ cannot be in any way dependent upon how "christians" act.
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