Quick hello

[xm1]

Im just a middle age guy in west michigan that writes code during the day and games in the evening.  I used to read the ethical atheist board a few years ago and now looking around for new stuff to read.  I'm not one to post very much and usually just lurk around and read through old threads.  I was born and raised baptist, so i have quite a strong religious background.  Did Awana up until i was 14.  My father did his studies to become a preacher.  I prayed as a child with my mother to be saved and again as a teen with the pastor of my church.

Today I am atheist.  Not agnostic or somehow on the fence about anything.  Today I am certain. Due in small part to the life I lived in the beginning, and the mental, spiritual, and physical rewards it gave me and my family for our dedication to the baptist church.  Which amounted to exactly nothing.

Hello to you all, thanks for reading.  Ill be poking around in here for awhile

[Tank]

Hi xm1

Glad you took the time to sign up.

Welcome to HAF 

Regards
Chris

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How to tell your family you are an atheist.*

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[Whitney]

Welcome to HAF.

[Recusant]

Hello and welcome to HAF, xm1. Thanks for mentioning Awana. I hadn't heard of it before, but it seems to be a nice going concern, with uniforms and everything.  On reading up about it, though they say they're involved with "over 100 denominations" they sound like pretty straight-forward Baptists to me. That actually wouldn't be a contradiction, since as far as I know, there might be over 100 denominations of Baptists.

I hope you enjoy your time reading and posting here.

[Jojo77]

Hello xm1,
Welcome. I am new as well. I can relate with your experience and in reading see there are a good handful with simular backround and experience. I find it quite interesting.

[xm1]

Hello and welcome to HAF, xm1. Thanks for mentioning Awana. I hadn't heard of it before, but it seems to be a nice going concern, with uniforms and everything.  On reading up about it, though they say they're involved with "over 100 denominations" they sound like pretty straight-forward Baptists to me. That actually wouldn't be a contradiction, since as far as I know, there might be over 100 denominations of Baptists.

I hope you enjoy your time reading and posting here.

Just to scratch the surface of an old wound i can tell you my definition of a baptist.


If one of the members of your church is forced to make the decision to divorce an abusive and dangerous husband to save herself and her two children, and instead of comforting her or offering assitance, you confront her with the church committee and request an apology from her for seeking a divorce, before the congregation and christ, or be removed from church membership; then you might be a baptist.



This is what happened to my mother.  And it was just the start for us both on our journey away from religion.



The thing the bothers me the most is when christians hear about this and act all appalled and shocked.  "Oh our church would never do that its not the christian way".  Yeah today things might be different, but roll the clock back to the late 70s and you find this would be a typical response in most baptist churches.  At least in the mid west.  Roll the clock back 100 years ago and what do you think your church would do if a woman among them was seeking a divorce?  Today's easy going liberal minded churches are the product of tons of changes and restructuring and struggling in the face of failure, and people constantly bucking the system away from hard line biblical inspired points of view to an acceptance of modern lifestyles.  Most kids in their teens and twenties don't get this.  Many see their church as the way churches have just always been.

My memories of awana are fairly decent fortunately.  I was not well behaved and my crown only ever had the only sparkly in it because i always shredded and scribbled in my book instead of reading it.

[xSilverPhinx]

Welcome!

If one of the members of your church is forced to make the decision to divorce an abusive and dangerous husband to save herself and her two children, and instead of comforting her or offering assitance, you confront her with the church committee and request an apology from her for seeking a divorce, before the congregation and christ, or be removed from church membership; then you might be a baptist.

Wow, that sucks. It's really amazing to hear that such things still go on these days. How these churches and congregations want or feel entitled to respect is beyond me.