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Author Topic: Harmed by Christianity?  (Read 13713 times)

dreamcatcher

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Harmed by Christianity?
« on: March 29, 2015, 07:16:23 am »
Hello, I'm new here but have noticed a common theme from searching threads on this forum... It seems many people here were raised in Christian environments and have rebelled (exploring paganism which might as well be considered the "anit-christ" of belief systems..)

I'm in the same boat and I have to say I'm still pretty resentful about the havoc Christianity wreaked in my life, despite being able to see the bigger picture and appreciating the love and harmony that infinitely ties nature and mankind together and all of that....

So.. if you've "converted" from a previously Christian belief system or environment that you felt was harmful in any way, I'd love to hear your story.

Jabberwocky

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #1 on: March 29, 2015, 11:14:30 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173496


So.. if you've "converted" from a previously Christian belief system or environment that you felt was harmful in any way, I'd love to hear your story.

 
Nope.  I was raised in a liberal Quaker family.  Not sure there's much to rebel against.  Well, apart from the endless cups of tea.
Your heart is a muscle as big as your fist.

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #2 on: March 29, 2015, 11:25:53 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173496
Hello, I'm new here but have noticed a common theme from searching threads on this forum... It seems many people here were raised in Christian environments and have rebelled (exploring paganism which might as well be considered the "anit-christ" of belief systems..)


I get the impression here that you believe that the only way to leave Christianity or separate from a Christian upbringing is by some form of rebellion; is that correct?

You will find, I suspect, that while many people here did have some form of Christian upbringing, due to the fact that most of us come were as children part of a surrounding culture in which Christianity is default religion, rebellion and/or harmful experience are not at all required for another religious path to be a better fit.


(... in my actual experience I have encountered more pagans who cared about the concept of the anti-Christ than Christians, actually....  It's not a topic that ever came up in church, after all.  Humans, very confusing.)
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

dreamcatcher

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #3 on: March 29, 2015, 11:29:22 am »
Quote from: Jabberwocky;173506
Nope.  I was raised in a liberal Quaker family.  Not sure there's much to rebel against.  Well, apart from the endless cups of tea.

 
"Liberal Quaker"? is that not an oxymoron? And really endless cups of tea.... where is the justice??? :confused:

dreamcatcher

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #4 on: March 29, 2015, 11:34:55 am »
Quote from: Darkhawk;173507
I get the impression here that you believe that the only way to leave Christianity or separate from a Christian upbringing is by some form of rebellion; is that correct?

You will find, I suspect, that while many people here did have some form of Christian upbringing, due to the fact that most of us come were as children part of a surrounding culture in which Christianity is default religion, rebellion and/or harmful experience are not at all required for another religious path to be a better fit.


(... in my actual experience I have encountered more pagans who cared about the concept of the anti-Christ than Christians, actually....  It's not a topic that ever came up in church, after all.  Humans, very confusing.)

 
Meh, perhaps you've experienced some kind of Christianity where no rebellion is necessary... That's sweet.

Chabas

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #5 on: March 29, 2015, 11:54:29 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173510
Meh, perhaps you've experienced some kind of Christianity where no rebellion is necessary... That's sweet.

 
...and that comment comes off as pretty condescending. I for one had no need to rebel against Christianity either. It just made no sense to me in ways that I couldn't just dismiss, it didn't mistreat me in any way. In fact, I have at times wished I could return, and even attempted to do so. Just because something doesn't fit or isn't my style doesn't mean I have to rebel against it - unless you want to consider my buying size 8.5 shoes to be rebelling against size 9 or 10 shoes?

--Chabas

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #6 on: March 29, 2015, 11:56:47 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173510
Meh, perhaps you've experienced some kind of Christianity where no rebellion is necessary... That's sweet.

 
You speak as though that was unusual. Not where I come from - the denomination in which I was raised is the largest Protestant denomination in my country, and even though I was a teen when I shifted over to paganism, I felt no need at all to rebel in the process.

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Sarah

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #7 on: March 29, 2015, 11:57:48 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173496
Hello, I'm new here but have noticed a common theme from searching threads on this forum... It seems many people here were raised in Christian environments and have rebelled (exploring paganism which might as well be considered the "anit-christ" of belief systems..)

I'm in the same boat and I have to say I'm still pretty resentful about the havoc Christianity wreaked in my life, despite being able to see the bigger picture and appreciating the love and harmony that infinitely ties nature and mankind together and all of that....

So.. if you've "converted" from a previously Christian belief system or environment that you felt was harmful in any way, I'd love to hear your story.

 
I grew up in an incredibly traumatic christian environment but thats not why I became pagan. Actually when i decided that paganism was the thing for me i was actually a member of a very welcoming pretty liberal church. I'm not doing this because i'm rebelling against something, i'm doing this because it works for me
Knowing when to use a shovel is what being a witch is all about. Nanny Ogg, Witches Abroad

Sarah

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #8 on: March 29, 2015, 11:59:55 am »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173508
"Liberal Quaker"? is that not an oxymoron? And really endless cups of tea.... where is the justice??? :confused:

 
Actually in the UK Quakers range from mainstream liberal to radical left wing
Knowing when to use a shovel is what being a witch is all about. Nanny Ogg, Witches Abroad

dreamcatcher

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #9 on: March 29, 2015, 12:04:00 pm »
Quote from: Chabas;173511
...and that comment comes off as pretty condescending. I for one had no need to rebel against Christianity either. It just made no sense to me in ways that I couldn't just dismiss, it didn't mistreat me in any way. In fact, I have at times wished I could return, and even attempted to do so. Just because something doesn't fit or isn't my style doesn't mean I have to rebel against it - unless you want to consider my buying size 8.5 shoes to be rebelling against size 9 or 10 shoes?

--Chabas


I basically cannot relate to you then. No harm no foul, I was just asking specifically for responses from people who have been mistreated by Christianity.

If you wish to return, by all means do so!

Gaudior

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #10 on: March 29, 2015, 12:07:37 pm »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173516
I basically cannot relate to you then. No harm no foul, I was just asking specifically for responses from people who have been mistreated by Christianity.

If you wish to return, by all means do so!


Dreamcatcher, maybe you can tell us your story, if you feel comfortable?
I talk to plants.

Darkhawk

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #11 on: March 29, 2015, 12:08:12 pm »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173516
I basically cannot relate to you then. No harm no foul, I was just asking specifically for responses from people who have been mistreated by Christianity.

 
It was not clear from your initial post whether that was what you were looking for, or whether you were simply thoughtlessly assuming that people with early experiences with Christianity were necessarily mistreated.

Hence my request for clarification and comment about demographics.
as the water grinds the stone
we rise and fall
as our ashes turn to dust
we shine like stars    - Covenant, "Bullet"

Aranel

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #12 on: March 29, 2015, 12:12:18 pm »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173496


I'm in the same boat and I have to say I'm still pretty resentful about the havoc Christianity wreaked in my life, despite being able to see the bigger picture and appreciating the love and harmony that infinitely ties nature and mankind together and all of that....

So.. if you've "converted" from a previously Christian belief system or environment that you felt was harmful in any way, I'd love to hear your story.

 
Not really. (I was raised Church of England)
People in my life have used Christianity to cause harm to me but that was because those people are arseholes, not Christianity itself. (People will find an excuse to be an arsehole regardless of religion or lack of religion)

The only thing from Christianity itself that upset me when I was little was being told that I wouldn't see my pets in heaven. So then I believed that they were going to hell and that was horrible to think that because then I thought that I had to go to hell.
I found out when I was much older that it's actually that non-human animals don't have souls so heaven/hell doesn't apply to them. But yeah, that Sunday School teacher when I was 5 really didn't explain things well.

I started being agnostic when I was about 9 (and that was mainly because I refused to believe in a god that said my pets didn't have souls). It wasn't until I was about 15 that I discovered that pagan religions were a thing.

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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #13 on: March 29, 2015, 12:21:33 pm »
Quote from: dreamcatcher;173516
I basically cannot relate to you then. No harm no foul, I was just asking specifically for responses from people who have been mistreated by Christianity.

If you wish to return, by all means do so!
Christianity is not one thing. There are many Christianities. You seem to be describing a particular form of modern American Christianity that is dominant in some parts of the world today. Even where I have experienced that, I did so in an Anglicised form that means it was really a different thing from what you're describing.

I had negative experiences as a Christian, but I also had some very good ones. I could say that about a lot of other social settings, too. Not to mention no doubt about other religions, if I'd been raised in those. While I personally have difficulty imagining that Hare Krishna communities create difficult situations for people, that's only because I'm not from a part of the world where that's the dominant religion, so it's difficult for me to imagine some of the reasons why people abandon or rebel against such belief systems. But those reasons exist. Any religion can foster communities where people have oppressive or negative experiences.

My Christian background is very mixed. My most recent denomination was Anglo-Catholicism, which is a beautiful mix of liberal/left-wing beliefs and high ritual. But I've no doubt that some people would hate it and might have difficult experiences with it. I loved it so much that I'm not sure I ever converted. I just moved on to things that were a better fit. Everything I learnt in those churches, from meditation to spiritual journeying to connecting with spirits to forms of magic, is still with me. I just use different metaphors for those things now.

Even my negative experiences with other kinds of Christianity were not something that led me to 'rebel'. I don't do Paganism because the churches I grew up in didn't like it. I do it because it's a spiritual path that resonates with me. The churches I grew up in didn't like violent porn much, but I haven't become a big fan of that just to piss them off.
"We're all stories, in the end. Make it a good one, eh?"
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Re: Harmed by Christianity?
« Reply #14 on: March 29, 2015, 12:29:25 pm »
Quote from: Jake_;173514
Actually in the UK Quakers range from mainstream liberal to radical left wing

 
And my understanding of US Quakers, from my Quaker bestie who was one of my college roommates for 4 years, is that there's a sharp east-west divide: Eastern US Quakers are liberal, whereas Western US Quakers can be quite right wing (the Nixon branch)
The first song sets the wheel in motion / The second is a song of love / The third song tells of Her devotion / The fourth cries joy from the sky above
The fifth song binds our fate to silence / and bids us live each moment well / The sixth unleashes rage and violence / The seventh song has truth to tell
The last song echoes through the ages / to ask its question all night long / And close the circle on these pages / These, the metamythos songs

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