http://leavingreligion.com

So, I found my old NIV Bible (that cost around $100, by the way… ), and in it, I found some old pieces of paper that I had written various notes on.  One is a note that we were told to write in a Bible Study.  It was a ‘Commitment note’ that you were to write to your future spouse.  Well… this note is pretty funny, because I remember writing it and reading it aloud… and I remember adding a side note after I read it, that was for me.  Here it is in its entirety:

As a commitment to my future husband, I will always be there for you… to talk to, cry with, and I will always listen to what you have to say.  I will follow where you lead me and will always stay strong in my walk with God so that we may both grow in God and have God as the center of our marriage.  I promise to do what God leads us to do even if it is not exactly what I planned.  If we have children, I promise to let you be the leader of our family and will help in raising those children along with you in a Christian home filled with love and compassion.  I will work to make our family feel comfortable talking to one another.

This was what I read to the group… god I remember this like it was yesterday… and it was at least 14 years ago.  I was in college, and had started some questionning, but was still working so hard to fit in and make it happen.  So I read this letter, that I didn’t really believe, especially the part that is basically me saying I’d submit to my husband.

After I read the above, I wrote this side note to myself:

I will also have my own opinions because I feel that every person should have their own mind.

It makes me laugh now.  But that time of my life was excruciatingly painful.  I wanted so badly to really believe Christianity.  I wanted to be in that group… be a strong believer… be loved by Jesus/God.  So I wrote and said things that were expected, that got good responses.  But ultimately, I couldn’t keep this up, and I finally let go.  The more I opened my mind, studied, and even tried to believe, the more I realized I didn’t believe, and that I wasn’t going to change my mind about this.

When I find old notes like this, it’s always so strange… because I know I wrote it, but I don’t know that person anymore.  I can’t believe I ever felt that way, and even faked feeling that way.  I had to grieve the loss of this person and the faith that this person had… and I did.

As I find more of my old notes and writings, I’ll share them here.  I think I destroyed most of the evidence, but there are still a few pieces out there.

Any old notes/writings you’ve found from your past?

Latest ramblings from our friend Newt Gingrich are so far from right, they are laughable.  Although, they’re not laughable, becuase this is how many politicians and voters from the religious right feel.  Here is what he said:

“I think this is one of the most critical moments in American history,” Mr. Gingrich said in a speech broadcast live over God TV, an evangelical Web site. “We are living in a period where we are surrounded by paganism.”

As I laid out in detail, this country was NOT founded on Christianity.  It wasn’t, never has been.  Why people must insist on twisting the truth is beyond me.  The forefathers would turn in their grave today if they saw how much religion has infiltrated our Government and laws.  It would sicken them, because this is the very thing they were leaving behind and faught a war to gain freedom from.

Am I glad that I never let that viewpoint hold me back.  Even deep in my Christian faith, I didn’t think this could possibly be correct.  Perhaps this was the beginning of my questioning… as I got older, I couldn’t make it line up.  I wanted to go to college, have a career, maybe or maybe not get married, maybe (but probably not) have kids.  I didn’t want any of the things that the Bible said women were put here to do.

Some churches skirt past this topic, but it is all over the Bible, and it is very clear.  If one believes the Bible is perfect, and God’s actual words, then this same person, whether they like it or not, believes what I stated in the first paragraph.

“Wives, submit yourselves to your husbands, as is appropriate for those who belong to the Lord.” – Colossians 3:18

“Encourage the young women to love their husbands, to love their children, to be sensible, pure, workers at home, kind, being subject to their own husbands, so that the word of God will not be dishonored.” – Titus 2:4-5

“get married, bear children, keep house.”- 1 Timothy 5:14

I used to spend my Sundays getting up at 7AM and spending practically the entire day at church.  This was my schedule:

• 7AM, get up
• 8AM, leave the house
• 8:30AM, attend Sunday Service
• 9:30AM, break
• 10:00AM, Sunday School
• 11:00AM, break
• 11;30AM, leadership meeting
• 12:30PM, lunch with leadership group
• 2:00PM, head home for a break, or hang with church people some more, perhaps even an informal prayer request time
• 4:30PM, choir practice
• 5:30PM, night church
• 6:30PM, break
• 7:00PM, Sunday night activity with church

Holy crap that’s a lot of stuff to do on what is supposed to be the day of rest.  This schedule was years ago, and yet I can remember it like it was yesterday.  All of it to prove something.  That I was a good Christian, that I was active in the church, that I really had Jesus in my heart and active in my life.

Here is my new Sunday schedule:

• Get up when I want
• Enjoy coffee, breakfast and the paper with my husband
• Go for a walk with the dogs
• Do whatever the hell I want, all day

I like the new schedule better.  It’s more relaxing, and more real.  No more trying to be the best church goer I could be.  You know what?  I think I actually celebrate the Sabbath more now than I ever did back in my church going days.  Imagine that, it took leaving the church and Christianity to actually have a day of rest.

Photo:  (Mel Melcon / Los Angeles Times)

According to the LA times, even Jesus Christ and Darth Vader are seeing a slow down in revenues.  Down on Hollywood Blvd., people have stopped putting money in their hats.  Poor Jesus… guess he’ll need to bring back the old ‘miracle act’.

From the article:

Drake, a white man elected to the same office 10 years later, said June 2 on “The Alan Colmes Show” that unless Obama repents, he is praying that God will kill the president. Drake said he believes that is what happened to slain abortion provider George Tiller, who was shot to death while attending church in Wichita, Kan., on Sunday, May 31.

As a follow-up to the radio show, Drake had this to say:

“I’ve been a Baptist pastor for a long time, been in the pro-life fight, been face-to-face with Tiller, told him about Jesus, and I’ve seen many, many others tell him about Jesus over and over and over again,” Drake said. “And I’ve seen horrific things that go on in those death abortuaries — and that’s what they are — and so my initial response to those people, they said, ‘Well what was your response,’ and I said, ‘Well, in all honesty I have to just respond directly and say I am glad that he’s dead.’”

Thankfully, a pastor who is part of the Southern Baptist community is speaking out:

McKissic, who is asking the SBC this year to adopt a resolution celebrating the election of the nation’s first African-American president, said if Drake was identified in the interview as a Southern Baptist, then his remarks should not go unchallenged.

McKissic, a former president of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention pastors conference and speaker at the group’s evangelism conference, personally denounced Drake’s comments and said he would ask SBC president Johnny Hunt to do the same.

“They need to be repudiated by Southern Baptist leaders,” McKissic said.

Do you think the Secret Service should check this guy out, along with all of his followers who may actually take him seriously?  I personally think they should, and hope that they are.  Isn’t even mentioning something like this, especially in a public forum, enough to get investigated?

It is people like Drake, who are out there on large platforms, who only add to the hatred and violence created by such extreme views.  Who preach things like this, that turn into actions.  Just look at Dr. Tiller.