I'm Free!
Sent in by Andre
For years I was in bondage by Christianity — a slave to the church. For years I was pimped financially and otherwise. I was brainwashed into thinking that it is wrong to find women beautiful, that it is wrong to listen to music that didn't have the words "god" "Jesus" "lord" or "worship" in every other sentence.
Then one day in the summer of 1998 I woke up to realize that life is too short to have my life dictated by a book that repeatedly contradicts itself. There are better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon in than some boring church service being told that I'm going to hell because I get more excited by a football game than the so-called word of god.
And guess what? Contrary to popular Christian belief, I'm happier now than I was as a Christian.
For years I was in bondage by Christianity — a slave to the church. For years I was pimped financially and otherwise. I was brainwashed into thinking that it is wrong to find women beautiful, that it is wrong to listen to music that didn't have the words "god" "Jesus" "lord" or "worship" in every other sentence.
Then one day in the summer of 1998 I woke up to realize that life is too short to have my life dictated by a book that repeatedly contradicts itself. There are better ways to spend a Sunday afternoon in than some boring church service being told that I'm going to hell because I get more excited by a football game than the so-called word of god.
And guess what? Contrary to popular Christian belief, I'm happier now than I was as a Christian.
Comments
IN A WORLD POPULATION OF GETTING CLOSER TO 7,000,000,000 ONE WOULD THINK THAT SURELY THERE WILL BE SOME PERSON, WHO HAS GONE THROUGH THE SAME "WAKING-UP" EXPERIENCE AS YOU. WELL IT IS ME !!
BESIDES HAVING STUDIED FOR SOME 7 YEARS FOR THE ROMAN CATHOLIC PRIEST-HOOD, I FOUND THAT "FAITH" TO BE AN OUTRIGHT FAKE. AND I GOT OUT 100000%, I THOUGHT. YEARS LATER I GOT INTO A FUNDAMENTALIST CHRISTIAN CHURCH, THINKING THAT I HAD FOUND THE "REAL??" THING. WELL, TO CUT A LONG STORY VERY SHORT...THAT WAS FOUND ALSO TO BE FAKE AND MAYBE EVEN MORE FAKE THAN R.C., BECAUSE THEY USE AND ARE USING A BOOK THAT THEY "STOLE" FROM THE ROMAN CATHOLICS AND THEY ALTERED IT AND THEY ALSO THREW PARTS OF IT OUT. NEXT THEY APPLIED A SYSTEM OF FALSE INTERPRETATIONS TO IT TO SUIT THEIR WAY OF INTENTION TO CONTROL THEIR FOLLOWERS. OVER THE LAST 15 YEARS MY WIFE NAD I HAVE PRIVATELY STUDIED BIBLICAL POLEMICS AND COMPARATIVE RELIGIONS, AS WELL AS RELIGIOUS HISTORY AND GENERAL HISTORY. AND IF ANYTHING WILL OPEN ONES EYES, THAT STUDY WILL !!
EVER SINCE WE BOTH LEFT THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH (15 YEARS AGO) WE BOTH HAVE EXPERIENCED A MOST BEAUTIFULL SENCE OF FREEDOM.
OUR LIVES HAVE BEEN ENHANCED BY MEETING PERSONS LIKE OURSELVES, WHO FOUND THEIR FREEDOM LIKE WE DID, AND THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO WAY THAT WE AND ANY OF OUR FRIENDS EVER WILL GO BACK INTO THAT PACK OF LYING CHEATS.
ANDREW, DO NOT FEAR, DO NOT GET INFLUENCED BY THOSE WHO WOULD BOTHER YOU WITH WANTING YOU TO COME BACK INTO THE CHURCH, BECAUSE IF YOU WOULD GIVE INTO THEIR ADMONITIONS YOU WILL SURELY DIE A SPIRITUAL DEATH.
WITH KIND REGARDS
SIR JOHN ARCHIBALD H. MEYER
THANK YOU for a great testimony. We who have broken loose from the vice of religion need to appreciate how lucky we are. BILLIONS of people will live, suffer and die under the weight of superstition.
My hope is that our individual testimonies are evidence that humanity is going to survive.
Religion, Christianity especially, may be one of the biggest threats to our survival. It is powerful enough to unleash the worst immaginable tide of destruction that this world has ever seen.
Your story is proof that there is a resisting force gathering strength against the insanity that has held us hostage since history began.
Keep growing and moving ahead. The best is yet to come.
I am so sorry that your experience with the so-called church has left you disallusioned and has sent you into unbelief. I am a minister and it breaks my heart to hear that you are no longer a follower, but it hurts me even more to hear that the reason is because of people who claim to be the children of God. I am a Southern Baptist Minister. I was once an atheist mostly because of the people who were "Christians" made me believe that Jesus was not worth my time.
I would love to discuss with you any and all of these supposed contradictions in the Bible, as I have found none. But like I said, maybe you could teach me something. It is not a sin to listen to "secular" music. Whoever told you that was not getting their information from Scripture. I dont claim to be the best preacher on earth, but the sermons that I give tend to keep people enthralled, and tithes are only collected from the willing. There should be no pressure on anyone to tithe, unless that pressure comes from the Spirit. Once again I am so sorry that you were negatively affected by those who called themselves Christians. I am here for any discussion, or questions that you or anyone else reading this would like to have. My e-mail adress is consumedbyhim316@yahoo.com I look forward to hearing back from you, if that is what you choose to do.
A note to Neil Carter:
Pedal your delusions elsewhere please. Thanks.
Neil: You need MY brand of faith.
Andrew: Been there, done that.
Neil: I don't believe you.
Andrew: But I'm telling you the truth.
Neil: You need MY kind of belief!
Andrew: I gave it my very best shot and it failed miserably.
Neil: Blah, blah, blibadie Bloop.
Can't you read the sign, Neil? :NO FISHING!!!!
To Pastor Neil, I'm sorry, but Andre deconverted a long time ago. And most everyone here has found the "so-called" church to be the actual church and the "supposed" contradictions to be contradictions.
No hard feelings - you may have come here like we did at varying times...gotten shocked...or maybe not...just saddened, because you know that faith can be a very shaky thing - since it is directed at that which cannot be proven...
So who knows, maybe this is your first step toward leaving the fold yourself...maybe not... no such thing as mind-reading or prophecy, so I may never know...
Regardless, welcome - we're not mean...
"What will people say when they hear that I'm a Reason freak?"
I don't know - I'm hiding the truth.
OK - off to Wednesday Praise band rehearsal...
Liniasmax
Kinky. Sounds like more fun than it was, I am sure.
Even though there is definitely something BDSM'y about Christianity, with its emphasis on the sanctity of suffering.
In fact there are (at least in my country) people who seem to take an almost sensual pleasure in the notion of being dominated and/or punished by God.
And in the Middle Ages, you recall, there were those who would flog themselves as a means of self-denial... hmmm...
On the opposite side, one has to wonder about certain aspects of the tortures the Inquisition applied. Those pics have a lot of nudity in them and much of modern dungeon culture seems to take pages from the Malleus Maleficarum, hm hm...
- Leonard
"I am so sorry that your experience with the so-called church has left you disallusioned and has sent you into unbelief. I am a minister and it breaks my heart to hear that you are no longer a follower, but it hurts me even more to hear that the reason is because of people who claim to be the children of God."
You know Neil, this is the same old recycled crap that all of us have heard on here time and time again. I swear it looks like you bible beating fundies use the same script on here.
For Example:
1) I'm sorry that you had a bad experience with a so called church and other christians.
2) It breaks my heart that you are no longer a follower of Jesus.
You christians whine and cry about how we left your cult, well I am sorry to hear that people like you Neil are still worshiping a false mythical being. You are truly enslaved, and it's also a shame that you christians can't come up with something better to back up your claim besides some old out of date ancient text that was produced thousands of years ago, oh and btw.....the bible is only "Hear Say" not actual fact or evidence.
You christians are like a broken record. I have dealt with your kind many times. Your attempts to reconvert people back to your cult (faith) are futile.
Once again I am so sorry that you were negatively affected by those who called themselves Christians.
Once again, we are visited by a "True Christian," compared to whom all the others are fakes of some sort. Don't you get it, Padre? You have no right to claim exclusivity. If people you don't approve of claim to be Christians, you are stuck with them, even though they are busy pointing out that by their definition, YOU are not a "True Christian."
Quit trying to reconvert people. Put your own house in order.
Like there is some other way to acheive the label "Christian"?
Well, that would probably be short discussion. The contradictions in the bible are numerous and well documented. Christian apologetics and hermeneutics involve all types of mental gymnastics trying to get around them.
God has a serious communication problem if that is what it takes to "interpret" the bible. Of course, if the bible is just a compilation of bronze age mythology, that would be exactly what we would expect.