Annoyed by the stalled growth in maturity

sent in by Lena

It’s time I proclaim my atheism, as I once proclaimed my “salvation”.
Christianity came and went in my teens; I was greatly disappointed in
the church after receiving judgment from the elders and a pastor in the
church I attended.

The issue is far too sensitive for me to talk about (I made bad choices
because of previous abuse as a child. The judgment from those elders
was to not speak to me nor reply to my “hello”).

As I look back, if those people in this church had studied psychology
and human nature, there wouldn’t have been much room to judge. The more
we know about human nature and the psyche, the less prone we are to
judge. A child who never received love in a home will seek out love from
any adult, or any child their own age and “do the wrong thing to receive
that affection”. Psychology knows this, the Christian generally
doesn’t.

It’s all about reading the Bible only, and very little about “real
life”.

Now many years down the road after simply letting go of anything that
has to do with churches and Christianity, I moved from Sweden to the US.
My plan was to be here for a year or more for work-purposes, but life
happened and I am still here 10 years later.

During those years I have observed a society in which Christianity is
very common. They say some 80% of Americans are Christians, am I right?

I met wonderful Christians, and some not so wonderful. I am not sure
what came first, the chicken or the egg, but watching the society as a
whole and comparing it to my own home country have been very interesting.

I come from a place where children are raised to think for them selves,
it’s a cultural thing. There are only 4% Christians in Sweden. We are
raised to question things, we weigh things back and forth, and we love
to debate! If things don’t hold up to rhyme and reason, we put it under
the file map "unreasonable". Church and the bible have fallen within
that category.

In public schools we learned about all major religions and cultures
around the globe. Maybe this put things into perspective as we grew up,
learning about other countries, cultures and religions?

Anyways, Christianity soon got in my face big time. There were so many
Christians everywhere! I married into a family, which are Christians. I
continued to be an ex. Christian, nicely saying “thanks, but no thanks
to invitations to church. I am now divorced, but have a child with a
Christian Grammy.

I’ve told her that I think apostle Paul was a man chauvinist. Of course
that ticked her off, but hey, I was thinking like a “dumb Swede” again,
that discussion is enlightening, I actually expected an interesting
dialogue. Nope. Anger is what I got. I am amazed to see her serve her
husband like if he was a child! That would be unacceptable where I come
from. I look in amazement every time she does this, and I think she don’t
want to do this, but think this is what she’s “supposed” to do. That’s
not MY god, that kind of god would have to get kicked to the curb as
far as I am conserned.

Grammy want to “save” my children, she bring my older son to church. It
started nicely as I got married; she started teaching from the bible
without asking for permission. That really ticked me off! “Who the hell
do you think you are?” was my reaction! What if a Buddhist sat down and
taught my son about Buddhism? What would her reaction be? But there is
no respect the other way around. As it is now, he goes with her to
church on Sundays, I have told him to think for himself, and if things
don’t add up, pay attention! I let him have the experience for a while
since we (back home) let children make their own choices while encouraging
discussion and questioning. It would be as wrong for me to hold him
away from something I don’t believe in, as it would be for a Christian to
hold him away from other religions or non-beliefs.

I observe this Christianity my MIL displays, and there’s not much but
shining in front of the other members. Then there is church on Sundays,
and yeah, the house meeting on Wednesdays. I see no compassionate
dedication to the “least of us”, for example the homeless and poor and/or
abused people. If you are working with those people with a true
compassion, you will soon find a pattern in their lives. Sometimes bad luck,
temporary crisis, but most often people who have suffered for long from
PTSD (post traumatic stress disorder) most of them undiagnosed. Sometimes
mental illness, addiction, and very seldom- pure laziness (VERY
seldom). To be of true help to those people, you have to learn a bunch about
social services and psychology. None of these are in the bible, and
Christians dismiss often psychology, I’ve noticed. I am not in a position
to elaborate why right now, and I’m awfully tired,,LOL!

If one are truly a follower of Christ, helping those unfortunate and
poor would be a great priority, isn’t that how Jesus spoke and lived? I
don’t see it very often, I don’t see Christians sharing a meal with a
homeless instead of their friends. I don’t see Christians stopping you on
the street to ask if you have any urgent needs, but I do see Christians
stopping you on the street to ask if you’re saved. It doesn’t feed an
empty stomach, or pay an unpaid power bill. It doesn’t bring a wheel
chair to someone long-term sick that have no insurance to cover one. It is
a false “help me sleep good at night “and” look good in church thing, a
false sense of security that they are doing the right thing, is it fear
of going to hell? Is it a high? A wise old Native American said once to
me that a wise man speak few words. Peace in mind and heart is pretty
silent, and don’t push ideas upon another. True?

Someone smart once said, “If you name it, you lost it. If you found it,
you can’t name it”. This should be the essence of tapping into our
ability to use and direct energy flow.

I really need to cut short here, my brain is pooped. Thanks for taking
the


Walla Walla
WA
USA
Joined: 13
Left: 17

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