Unpacking some Religious Baggage
Aug. 3rd, 2009 12:24 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
valarltdI keep finding myself on odd sides of religious debates. For those who don't know, I was raised old-school Methodist, went through Lutheran confirmation classes, attended but was not baptised in a Southern Baptist church and went fundamentalist in college. I lapsed out of fundamentalism and embraced my paganism about 4 years ago.
So, I told you that to tell you this. Like I said, I keep bumping my nose on ideas, running into Christians who violate every aspect of Christianity I was raised with and yet still call themselves such and evince fruits of the spirit in their lives.
I got to thinking and decided to unpack what I believed of Christians and Christianity WHEN I WAS ONE. This is not Angel-the-Pagan slagging off. This is Angel-the-Fundamentalist going on about what God requires of His people. And believe me it's a lot more than Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
What I believe about Christians and Christianity now is another post.
So, a cut because this is going to get long.
1) If you're gay, you can't be Christian. If you are a Christian, you are no longer gay because God will fix that at conversion. You become a new creation. Fred Phelps is right: God hates gay people because they are not his people. Most Christians believe this as well but think Phelps is noisy and offensive. They prefer to couch it as "loving the sinner and hating the sin." If you are gay, it doesn't matter that you SAY you believe, that you've had a conversion experience or prayed "The Sinner's Prayer." If you're still gay, you are having an emotional experience instead of real salvation and you're still hellbound.
2) Anything can open you up to demon possession which will 1) cut you off from God 2) prove you're not saved or 3) take away your salvation or any chance you had at it.
ANYTHING.
Listening to a single rock song. (KISS is a one-way ticket to Hell.)
Attending a Renaissance festival.
Walking too near an occult shop (to say nothing of going in).
Touching or looking at a deck of Tarot cards.
Reading a horror novel.
Watching the wrong movie. (Jesus Christ Superstar or The Omen or The Exorcist are the big three)
Watching the wrong TV show, even something as innocuous as cartoons, including Star Trek
Playing Role-playing games is a guarantee
Playing with the wrong toys
Going to a Catholic church or even reading the Hail Mary, since that's worshipping Ishtar and Tammuz
Going to a Shrine circus or donating to the Shriners
Talking to someone who is a Freemason or donating to Job's Daughters or De-mi-lay
Reading your horoscope
Wearing too much black
Wearing jewelry with moons and stars, dragons or fairies. Unicorns and pegasi are right out too.
Celebrating Halloween, because it's Satan's birthday
Celebrating Christmas in any way but going to church, because all the rest is pagan
Celebrating Valentine's Day, because it's pagan
Celebrating Easter in any way but going to church, because all the rest is pagan
Reading books about other religions
Reading books about mythology
4) The sex drive is bad. Paul says it's better to marry than burn, but better not to marry at all because marrying is a weakness. Jesus said that those who could make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven should.
5) God doesn't hear the prayers of women if there is a man present to pray for them.
6) God is jealous. Anything you think about more than God is an idol. God destroys idols. This includes your husband, children and parents. He will kill them if you love them more than Him.
7) God kills kids because their parents are bad. Pharaoh's son. David's kid. Abel.
8) It is better for children to die while young and innocent and go straight to heaven than to be corrupted by the world, including their parents.
9) Caring at all about yourself is selfishness, which is wickedness.
10) Not going to church is a sin. Going to church grudgingly is worse. Church-hopping is worse. Being a cafeteria-Christian is worst of all.
11) If you don't believe it all, why bother calling yourself a believer? If this means swallowing mythology as scientific fact, you'd better get swallowing.
12) You should never set any other book on top of the Bible. It's disrespectful. Nor should Bibles be bound in hardcover or paperback, since that makes them just another book.
13) A real Christian doesn't have any books in his house except the Bible. Because there is no need to read anything else. Everything you need is in the Bible.
14) A real Christian doesn't shop on Sunday. The Sabbath is holy and different than other days.
15) You can't do anything. You're just a hand-puppet for God. Everything you do is God working through you...except your sins of course. That's all you.
16) God cares about everything you do, from the car you drive to the food you fix that particular meal. And if you do it wrong or badly, you're reflecting badly on him.
17) The Rapture is coming. And a lot of people who call themselves Christian are going to find out that they aren't.
18) Not everyone who has a conversion experience is saved. Jesus says as much. He says there are going to be people who did miracles in his name, who preached and healed and did more than any of the rest of us put together for His glory that aren't going to be His.
19) Imagination never appears in the Bible without being prefaced by "wicked."
20) The heart is deceitful above all things. Your feelings and emotions are not to be trusted.
21) Lean not on your own understanding. Your learning and intelligence are snares.
22) A beautiful woman is a snare. Better to be quiet and mousy and plain and a hard-worker, without gold jewelry or braided hair, without sly flashing eyes or tinkling anklets. Because then God will save you because you make babies.
23) Having nonChristian friends is a very bad idea. Remember the story of Dinah who got raped because she went out to visit the daughters of the land. If she had stayed home among believers, she'd have been safe.
24) Marrying nonChristians is not to be done. Period.
25) If you aren't witnessing to everyone all the time, you aren't doing it right. Most people are not Christian, have never heard about Jesus and we have a duty to inform them. The US needs to be saved.
26) Any woman who could even consider an abortion is not Christian. Birth-control is just Moloch's new way of devouring our children. Every Christian woman should have at least 6 kids and encourage each of them to have 6 of their own. In three generations, the US would be a Christian nation.
27) If you ever convert away from Christianity, you were never saved to begin with. Those who truly know God never WANT to leave. You just had an emotional experience that let you think you were.
So, I told you that to tell you this. Like I said, I keep bumping my nose on ideas, running into Christians who violate every aspect of Christianity I was raised with and yet still call themselves such and evince fruits of the spirit in their lives.
I got to thinking and decided to unpack what I believed of Christians and Christianity WHEN I WAS ONE. This is not Angel-the-Pagan slagging off. This is Angel-the-Fundamentalist going on about what God requires of His people. And believe me it's a lot more than Micah 6:8
He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does the LORD require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.
What I believe about Christians and Christianity now is another post.
So, a cut because this is going to get long.
1) If you're gay, you can't be Christian. If you are a Christian, you are no longer gay because God will fix that at conversion. You become a new creation. Fred Phelps is right: God hates gay people because they are not his people. Most Christians believe this as well but think Phelps is noisy and offensive. They prefer to couch it as "loving the sinner and hating the sin." If you are gay, it doesn't matter that you SAY you believe, that you've had a conversion experience or prayed "The Sinner's Prayer." If you're still gay, you are having an emotional experience instead of real salvation and you're still hellbound.
2) Anything can open you up to demon possession which will 1) cut you off from God 2) prove you're not saved or 3) take away your salvation or any chance you had at it.
ANYTHING.
Listening to a single rock song. (KISS is a one-way ticket to Hell.)
Attending a Renaissance festival.
Walking too near an occult shop (to say nothing of going in).
Touching or looking at a deck of Tarot cards.
Reading a horror novel.
Watching the wrong movie. (Jesus Christ Superstar or The Omen or The Exorcist are the big three)
Watching the wrong TV show, even something as innocuous as cartoons, including Star Trek
Playing Role-playing games is a guarantee
Playing with the wrong toys
Going to a Catholic church or even reading the Hail Mary, since that's worshipping Ishtar and Tammuz
Going to a Shrine circus or donating to the Shriners
Talking to someone who is a Freemason or donating to Job's Daughters or De-mi-lay
Reading your horoscope
Wearing too much black
Wearing jewelry with moons and stars, dragons or fairies. Unicorns and pegasi are right out too.
Celebrating Halloween, because it's Satan's birthday
Celebrating Christmas in any way but going to church, because all the rest is pagan
Celebrating Valentine's Day, because it's pagan
Celebrating Easter in any way but going to church, because all the rest is pagan
Reading books about other religions
Reading books about mythology
4) The sex drive is bad. Paul says it's better to marry than burn, but better not to marry at all because marrying is a weakness. Jesus said that those who could make themselves eunuchs for the Kingdom of Heaven should.
5) God doesn't hear the prayers of women if there is a man present to pray for them.
6) God is jealous. Anything you think about more than God is an idol. God destroys idols. This includes your husband, children and parents. He will kill them if you love them more than Him.
7) God kills kids because their parents are bad. Pharaoh's son. David's kid. Abel.
8) It is better for children to die while young and innocent and go straight to heaven than to be corrupted by the world, including their parents.
9) Caring at all about yourself is selfishness, which is wickedness.
10) Not going to church is a sin. Going to church grudgingly is worse. Church-hopping is worse. Being a cafeteria-Christian is worst of all.
11) If you don't believe it all, why bother calling yourself a believer? If this means swallowing mythology as scientific fact, you'd better get swallowing.
12) You should never set any other book on top of the Bible. It's disrespectful. Nor should Bibles be bound in hardcover or paperback, since that makes them just another book.
13) A real Christian doesn't have any books in his house except the Bible. Because there is no need to read anything else. Everything you need is in the Bible.
14) A real Christian doesn't shop on Sunday. The Sabbath is holy and different than other days.
15) You can't do anything. You're just a hand-puppet for God. Everything you do is God working through you...except your sins of course. That's all you.
16) God cares about everything you do, from the car you drive to the food you fix that particular meal. And if you do it wrong or badly, you're reflecting badly on him.
17) The Rapture is coming. And a lot of people who call themselves Christian are going to find out that they aren't.
18) Not everyone who has a conversion experience is saved. Jesus says as much. He says there are going to be people who did miracles in his name, who preached and healed and did more than any of the rest of us put together for His glory that aren't going to be His.
19) Imagination never appears in the Bible without being prefaced by "wicked."
20) The heart is deceitful above all things. Your feelings and emotions are not to be trusted.
21) Lean not on your own understanding. Your learning and intelligence are snares.
22) A beautiful woman is a snare. Better to be quiet and mousy and plain and a hard-worker, without gold jewelry or braided hair, without sly flashing eyes or tinkling anklets. Because then God will save you because you make babies.
23) Having nonChristian friends is a very bad idea. Remember the story of Dinah who got raped because she went out to visit the daughters of the land. If she had stayed home among believers, she'd have been safe.
24) Marrying nonChristians is not to be done. Period.
25) If you aren't witnessing to everyone all the time, you aren't doing it right. Most people are not Christian, have never heard about Jesus and we have a duty to inform them. The US needs to be saved.
26) Any woman who could even consider an abortion is not Christian. Birth-control is just Moloch's new way of devouring our children. Every Christian woman should have at least 6 kids and encourage each of them to have 6 of their own. In three generations, the US would be a Christian nation.
27) If you ever convert away from Christianity, you were never saved to begin with. Those who truly know God never WANT to leave. You just had an emotional experience that let you think you were.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
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Date: 2009-08-03 07:16 pm (UTC)My deepest, sincerest apologies that that is the faith you were raised on and my great joy that you managed to escape it.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 05:52 am (UTC)Reynard (Visiting Slacktivite)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 05:19 pm (UTC)(also visiting Slacktivite)
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 07:42 pm (UTC)Thanks for the rec, tho'.
no subject
Date: 2009-08-12 11:05 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-08-13 12:06 am (UTC)I was never a Christian and don't think I ever will be in any form. It's very hard for someone who's been an agnostic (or maybe atheist or loosely pagan, it swings a bit some days depending on what gods sound more attractive) and rationalist ever since he started thinking about these things to wrap his head around this way of thinking. Perhaps because I'm petty and narrow in a completely different direction.
Oh, another lurking Slacktivite passing through.