HOW DARE YOU SAY SUCH THINGS?

12. April 2008 by Frank.

It’s one thing to hint around at something.

It’s quite another to come right out and say it.

I’ve done that before and brought down righteous indignation and condemnation on myself. I’ve had people who were my friends and supporters turn on me so viciously you would think I raped their wives and daughters and pissed on their mother’s graves. I’ve been thrown out of church because of it.

No, not what I said yesterday. I announced I was more pentecostal than baptist. Up until I said that these good people were 100% behind me. But I got backed into a corner and had to stand up for my belief in the actually “spiritual” spiritual gifts, not the watered down, non-supernatural spiritual gifts the baptists approve of. One deacon shunned me and never spoke to me again, he was a very good friend. Unfortunately, he’s only a very good friend to those who share his beliefs. The pastor had told me a couple of weeks earlier that he approved of my teaching 100% and he wanted me to continue full force. After I declared my completely biblical beliefs in spiritual gifts he told me I would never be allowed to speak in his church again and that I should leave and never come back.

I still believed in the same god, the same bible, the same basic doctrines but I was no longer acceptable.

It was devastating and pathetic. Later on I got condemned by another pastor who was initially 100% behind me. This time it wasn’t my beliefs, it was because I didn’t use the correct translation of the bible. Somehow he had convinced himself to become a “King James Only” fanatic. I used the New International Version. Somehow that became akin to blasphemy in his mind. He got up and preached a tirade against me that made it clear I was going to hell and that no one should listen to anything I said ever again. He later wound up in a mental institute but that’s beside the point.

I’ve been condemned for believing the bible literally means exactly what it says by people who call themselves christians.

Now I get condemned if I say I don’t believe it anymore by people who call themselves christians.

So no matter what I say I am condemned for saying it. WOW. This isn’t just a personal thing. Did you catch the news this week where a very bigoted politician told an atheist he had no right to speak to his government? That his lack of religious belief was harmful for children to even know that viewpoint existed?

You don’t believe in my god? Well, screw you.

Did I know I was going to get myself condemned again if I came right out and said what’s on my mind? Of course I did. And I have no intention of shutting up. I’m tired of pretending. I’m tired of people refusing to allow me to believe what I believe if it doesn’t suit them. I was talking to my SDA friend last night relating my experiences with the stroke that led me to being unafraid of anything. I never once mentioned god as helping me through any of it. But all he heard was god is great for working so much in my life. I don’t know if you realize how bizarre this is.

This is more like it. I like controversy. I like discussing different ideas. Not too many are willing to discuss major religious differences, however, but I’m still going to try.

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