Reply #35: I'm sorry. [View All]

[bertha katzenengel]

"Are you telling me these are the kinds of Christians in power? On TV?" No! I don't think any follower of Christ on this board believes that anyone in the Bush Administration who claims the same mantle is honestly following him.

I used to be one of those who'd shove it down your throat. I'd be standing in a line in the grocery store and hear two people chatting behind me; one would say "oh, my God!" and I'd turn around and get in her face and say "IS He your God?!" I used to "witness" to any stranger standing with me at the bus stop or the people I played softball with or -- wherever. Witnessing is telling the "good news" of Christ's redemption, and he commanded his followers to do it (or so it's interpreted) at the end of Matthew's gospel. But I don't think most people do it primarily because of that command. I think they do it because they are co-dependent. I'm serious. I used to know exactly how to get you to heaven, and oh, I would weep at the thought of you spending eternity in the flaming torturous pit of hell, and pray, crying, on my knees, for you to accept Jesus. Why, you just HAD to accept his love & sacrifice!

I'm totally serious. This is how it is for FECs. It's how it was for me.

I never realized what was going through those peoples' minds: "this person thinks I'm an idiot because I don't believe in her extreme religion." I'm disgusted when I think of who I used to be.

In less than twenty years, I've gone from being a fundamentalist evangelical Christian to an atheist to an agnostic-leaning-atheist who still finds following Christ a worthy endeavor (much in the same league as following Gandhi).

So I apologize. You're too young to have been one of my victims, way back in my ignorant, "I-know-it-all" days. But on behalf of the mindless FEC salvation-wielding automatons, I apologize.

I'm not a pagan but I hope you don't mind if I say to you, blessed be. Good luck, lildreamer.