African-American & I Left
by a Lady
Like a lot of African-Americans, I was born into the Christian Game via a Missionary Baptist Church that was a part of the Southern and National Baptist State Conventions among other local conference groups and for 19 years of my life, I was "saved" (which in actuality is "slaved"). All of my life I have been forced to go to church (or "assimilation pointe" as I call it) with my mother up until recently when I revealed to her from college on the other side of the country that I was Non-Religious, a Humanist. Of course like most cultic people, she became hesterical and my confession broke her heart into pieces. I mean, what can I say? She wanted me to be cultic ("religious" in sugarcoating terms), and have an easy life but that was not meant for me, that is not nor has ever been me, and that is not where my beliefs lie. My mother had me involved in everything from "Junior Missions, Junior Usher Board, Choirs, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Church Committees, Productions (like Christmas Programs, Easter Programs, Pastor's Anniversaries, etc.), etc." My mother figured at some point in my life that I should be involved only in cultic organizations where cultic principles and terminologies, etc. were drilled into my psyche each and every moment of every freakin' day. Easy life, following the crowd, going along with the flow for the ride, not doubting nor thinking because everything was thought for me, no pursuit of mental and spiritual independence. That's what was wanted for me.
As a African-American Lady, I believe that it is the hardest thing to inform and educate people period about what Freethought is truly about let along what Non-Religion and Humanism is truly about because societies have had this status quo dronism and set of mentalities for thousands of years that being cultic is the "cool" thing to do, the "right" thing to do, the "best" thing to do, and so forth. I mean, in USA alone, the cultic music is dance worthy and has always been subliminal messaging worthy, the cultic products are consumer friendly through their assimilation into popular culture, the media is all for being cultic so it is easy to slip cultic terminologies onto the screen, in literature, in normal non-cultic settings like a meeting or community service project and as stated before, in your ears through radio. Heck, people walk all around having cultic conversations disregarding if an individual is a freethinker that does not want anything to do with such junk. Don't get me started on the cultic rituals at non-cultic sporting events, concerts, etc. It's crazy. Oh and when I say products, I mean mugs, t-shirts, liscense plates, pens, hats, books, tickets to cultic events. You name it, cults ("religions" in sugarcoating terms) have it. They are making life a set up.
When I began to doubt religion period, starting with my case of Christianity, like many N.R. folks ("N.R." is abbreviation for non-religious), I asked questions. I asked not only regular questions like "who and/or what is a deity/god or enemy/devil/foe and why did archaic come up with this crap" but I also asked the ultimate questions like "how did people come into being and why were they labeled the word 'hu-man' and why do people exist in the damn first place?" Ya'll know? The questions that matter to everyone at some point in their existence on this dreadful planet labeled "Earth." It's funny but with Christianity, their whole world is in a set number of pages of an ancient anthological novel. It bogles the mind as to how some of most book and street smartest people on the planet fall under the spell of a mythological anthological book let along what people say about this book, from this book on a one or more time weekly basis from a podium or through song. Anyway, back to my testimony or experience expression for those who believe that the word "testimony" is cultic.
In asking questions, you get answers. Some answers are meant to come when you want them and others, when you don't, but they do come. Some of the answers I came to on my own consisted of things that I've studied empirically while being in the "closet." When I say "closet," I don't mean "gay closet," I mean "non-religious closet." For those who don't know, there are many people in this world let along the so-called "free" USA who are afraid and do not have the courage to fully acknowledge and express to the world and everyone they know the fact that they are Non-Religious or Freethinker or Humanist or Agnostic or Atheist, etc. Earlier, I explained the status quo that we are still in, how cults ("religions" in sugarcoat terms) are and have always been collectively a social institution of societies worldwide. With cults being a social institution, things like gender inequality, war & violence, child abuse, mental abuse, poverty (how? look at the mega churches ("mega assimilation pointes"), etc. are condoned. Freedoms such as sexual preference, speech, individuality, skepticism, among other things are always debated against for alleviation, eventually annhilation.
What I have learned through being a Freethinker so far is that if your mind is screwed up, so is your spirit. In other words, if you are cultic in the mind, you are cultic in the spirit. Religions are cults with a lot of people in them. They think that they are "striving for perfection even though they are 'perfect' already" (which does not make sense) and that they know everything there is to know about life and how to live it. They want everyone to "be like them." In fact, their lives' mission is to hunt people down and assimilate them into being drones like they are, for the rest of their lives. They want to help people to not think for themselves nor be themselves. They put out falsehoods about themselves and freethought in order to promote themselves and bash freethought. I have also learned that I am an equal among equals, always learning, always questioning, always thinking, always exploring and discovering. For time and space has no beginning nor end, so learning is not only in life but in and beyond death. Of course, there is more for all of us including me to know and all of us including me to find out.
As an African-American Lady who is Non-Religious, Humanist, Freethinker, my rough but balanced journey continues but I am happy of the fact that I have made it this far with no intentions of allowing them to assimilate me ever again. I was a child when they did it barely getting to know the planet and the people in it and now that I am older and have learned through this life, I am happy to say NO TO RELIGION, I CHOOSE TO AVOID THE ADDICTION FOR THE REST OF MY NATURAL EXISTENCE.
City: Los Angeles
State: California
Country: USA
Became a Christian: I was BORN to the Game
Ceased being a Christian: 19 Years Old
Labels before: Baptist were the labels
Labels now: Humanist, Non-Religious, Freethinker
Why I joined: Everybody Else was doing it and it was all I knew being born into it.
Why I left: I found out the TRUTH.
Like a lot of African-Americans, I was born into the Christian Game via a Missionary Baptist Church that was a part of the Southern and National Baptist State Conventions among other local conference groups and for 19 years of my life, I was "saved" (which in actuality is "slaved"). All of my life I have been forced to go to church (or "assimilation pointe" as I call it) with my mother up until recently when I revealed to her from college on the other side of the country that I was Non-Religious, a Humanist. Of course like most cultic people, she became hesterical and my confession broke her heart into pieces. I mean, what can I say? She wanted me to be cultic ("religious" in sugarcoating terms), and have an easy life but that was not meant for me, that is not nor has ever been me, and that is not where my beliefs lie. My mother had me involved in everything from "Junior Missions, Junior Usher Board, Choirs, Sunday School, Vacation Bible School, Church Committees, Productions (like Christmas Programs, Easter Programs, Pastor's Anniversaries, etc.), etc." My mother figured at some point in my life that I should be involved only in cultic organizations where cultic principles and terminologies, etc. were drilled into my psyche each and every moment of every freakin' day. Easy life, following the crowd, going along with the flow for the ride, not doubting nor thinking because everything was thought for me, no pursuit of mental and spiritual independence. That's what was wanted for me.
As a African-American Lady, I believe that it is the hardest thing to inform and educate people period about what Freethought is truly about let along what Non-Religion and Humanism is truly about because societies have had this status quo dronism and set of mentalities for thousands of years that being cultic is the "cool" thing to do, the "right" thing to do, the "best" thing to do, and so forth. I mean, in USA alone, the cultic music is dance worthy and has always been subliminal messaging worthy, the cultic products are consumer friendly through their assimilation into popular culture, the media is all for being cultic so it is easy to slip cultic terminologies onto the screen, in literature, in normal non-cultic settings like a meeting or community service project and as stated before, in your ears through radio. Heck, people walk all around having cultic conversations disregarding if an individual is a freethinker that does not want anything to do with such junk. Don't get me started on the cultic rituals at non-cultic sporting events, concerts, etc. It's crazy. Oh and when I say products, I mean mugs, t-shirts, liscense plates, pens, hats, books, tickets to cultic events. You name it, cults ("religions" in sugarcoating terms) have it. They are making life a set up.
When I began to doubt religion period, starting with my case of Christianity, like many N.R. folks ("N.R." is abbreviation for non-religious), I asked questions. I asked not only regular questions like "who and/or what is a deity/god or enemy/devil/foe and why did archaic come up with this crap" but I also asked the ultimate questions like "how did people come into being and why were they labeled the word 'hu-man' and why do people exist in the damn first place?" Ya'll know? The questions that matter to everyone at some point in their existence on this dreadful planet labeled "Earth." It's funny but with Christianity, their whole world is in a set number of pages of an ancient anthological novel. It bogles the mind as to how some of most book and street smartest people on the planet fall under the spell of a mythological anthological book let along what people say about this book, from this book on a one or more time weekly basis from a podium or through song. Anyway, back to my testimony or experience expression for those who believe that the word "testimony" is cultic.
In asking questions, you get answers. Some answers are meant to come when you want them and others, when you don't, but they do come. Some of the answers I came to on my own consisted of things that I've studied empirically while being in the "closet." When I say "closet," I don't mean "gay closet," I mean "non-religious closet." For those who don't know, there are many people in this world let along the so-called "free" USA who are afraid and do not have the courage to fully acknowledge and express to the world and everyone they know the fact that they are Non-Religious or Freethinker or Humanist or Agnostic or Atheist, etc. Earlier, I explained the status quo that we are still in, how cults ("religions" in sugarcoat terms) are and have always been collectively a social institution of societies worldwide. With cults being a social institution, things like gender inequality, war & violence, child abuse, mental abuse, poverty (how? look at the mega churches ("mega assimilation pointes"), etc. are condoned. Freedoms such as sexual preference, speech, individuality, skepticism, among other things are always debated against for alleviation, eventually annhilation.
What I have learned through being a Freethinker so far is that if your mind is screwed up, so is your spirit. In other words, if you are cultic in the mind, you are cultic in the spirit. Religions are cults with a lot of people in them. They think that they are "striving for perfection even though they are 'perfect' already" (which does not make sense) and that they know everything there is to know about life and how to live it. They want everyone to "be like them." In fact, their lives' mission is to hunt people down and assimilate them into being drones like they are, for the rest of their lives. They want to help people to not think for themselves nor be themselves. They put out falsehoods about themselves and freethought in order to promote themselves and bash freethought. I have also learned that I am an equal among equals, always learning, always questioning, always thinking, always exploring and discovering. For time and space has no beginning nor end, so learning is not only in life but in and beyond death. Of course, there is more for all of us including me to know and all of us including me to find out.
As an African-American Lady who is Non-Religious, Humanist, Freethinker, my rough but balanced journey continues but I am happy of the fact that I have made it this far with no intentions of allowing them to assimilate me ever again. I was a child when they did it barely getting to know the planet and the people in it and now that I am older and have learned through this life, I am happy to say NO TO RELIGION, I CHOOSE TO AVOID THE ADDICTION FOR THE REST OF MY NATURAL EXISTENCE.
City: Los Angeles
State: California
Country: USA
Became a Christian: I was BORN to the Game
Ceased being a Christian: 19 Years Old
Labels before: Baptist were the labels
Labels now: Humanist, Non-Religious, Freethinker
Why I joined: Everybody Else was doing it and it was all I knew being born into it.
Why I left: I found out the TRUTH.
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