Simply Rapturous

Hello all!

I am 35. (as I write this I have no reaction, good or bad, to this number)

But when I look back on my life, I can see certain milestones, while others are completely missing.

20 years ago, I was in high school and I'd just converted to fundamental christianity. It was hard walking through the halls with my "jesus" t-shirts and trying to convince everyone that what I believed was the right way even when I really had no clue (and couldn't admit it).

Needless to say, I was shy about witnessing even though our pastors encouraged us to make asses of ourselves due to the persecution fantasy - which further encourages fundies to act like they have to get us to hate them.

This is a critical time in life as people are trying to sort out what they want to do with their lives or what they don't want to do.

The problem for me was that I was caught up in the whole fundamental rapture doctrine and thought that jesus would return any day and that "it's all gonna burn" <---common fundie phrase in my day.

(side note: I find it sick that they celebrate the destruction of the earth)

So, naturally, I didn't really plan for the future. I didn't really look into what I like - or loved - doing because I thought it'd be a waste of time. Hey, I was young and impressionable. That is my only excuse.

And: I wasn't taught to think critically.

Am I to blame?

I like to think no. After all, I only know what I am exposed to, and having a fundie mom and a dad who didn't really care about my religious slanting didn't make it easy for me. I was surrounded by fundie friends who convinced me that we were right and everyone else was wrong and I stayed in my bubble.

Until I opened my mind a bit. Then it opened more and more. (the long story short)

See: I was convinced jesus would return in 1991. Then 1992. Then 2000. By '95, I'd been fed up with the (unbeknownst to me) illogical assertions of religion. I knew it was wrong but not why and couldn't articulate my thoughts. I didn't shed my beliefs totally until around 2000. As I tell my friends now who ask how I went "from that to this": "I put my brain back in my head".

Now, at 35, I have found what I truly love doing and I am going to go back to the university to pursue that passion. A bit late, but I don't want to surrender my life to the former, crazier way I was and say that I couldn't salvage it.

Someone SHOULD be offended by this....

A recent article in the Times by an undercover reporter at one of those Christian Camps (no pun intended by them) where they de-gay all the ungodly Sodomites and put then on the straight and narrow road to depression, repression and a lifetime of loneliness.

LINK

Next year's guest speaker is Ted Haggard. Maybe.

Apparently, according to the article, there's a Living Waters in Central London that does a bit of de-gaying too - I wonder how often Ray & Kirk make an appearance there? I'm sure Ray wouldn't mind being chased out of that theater by a 'tall man in his thirties', looking to surrender some sweet icing on the cake of Ray's night...