#the christian cult

[exvangelicalrage]

You Will Be Free Indeed

5/22/23

There's thing thing christians sometimes do, called "testimonies." Most of my memories of testimonies involve dudes with tattoos getting up in front of the congregation and saying something like, "I spent the last ten years in prison, and while I was there, I found jesus!" And then all the people say, "praise be" or "amen" or some such nonsense. Then the dude expounds on his story about how he did all these terrible things, but when he was born again, he felt the chains of sin fall away from him and he became "free indeed." 

(Side note, "Free indeed" is evangelical rhetoric/gaslighting designed to counter the realization that religion actually binds you.)

These testimonies weren't always from dudes with tattoos. Technically, everybody had a testimony. The formula was this: 

All the bad stuff you did —> your encounter with jesus and/or being born again — > how it changed you — > freedom

For example, "I used to be selfish but then I became born again and gave all of my self to christ and now I am free!" 

Or, "I used to be bound by the shackles of lust! Then jesus cleansed me of my sins and I was born again. I no longer feel constrained by my sinful desires. It's like a weight has been lifted from my shoulders!" 

Literally anything that counts as a "sin" works. Even if you were young, like I was, and hadn't experienced much in the way of deliberate sinfulness, you could simply swap out a specific sin with "sinful nature" or "sinful desires." 

"I was born sinful but then learned about jesus, accepted him into my heart, and now I know I don't have to give in to sin and am free in christ."

BAM: Testimony!

The proclamation of freedom at the end of a testimony has stuck with me.

There were tons of ways people described it, always very visceral and visual. Shackles breaking. A weight lifted from their shoulders. As if everything had been in darkness and now they could see the light. As if they had been limited or bound or contained in some way, but now they were released. Imprisoned, trapped, captive. And then freed.

I had this vision in my head of atheists walking around with a ball and chain hooked to each leg. With metaphorical backpacks that weighed hundreds of pounds making it impossible to keep their spines up straight. With black, slimy tendrils of sin licking around their bodies, pulling them into a quicksand of sin.

I could hardly imagine how non-christians slept at night. How did they not see the black cloud that followed them everywhere they went? Did they not imagine life could be better? 

Honestly, this intense visual is one of the reasons I stayed christian as long as I did. I didn't want to become like that. I didn't want life to be heavy. I didn't want to bear the weight of my sins—not when jesus had offered to do it for me. 

But eventually, the weight of my doubt grew heavier than the weight of my sins. After all, I'd spent my entire life trying to be as perfect as possible. Not to mention, jesus had supposedly cleansed me. 

So why did everything feel so heavy?

When I finally had the courage to Exit christianity, officially and for real, something crazy happened. You'll never believe it. 

I felt free.

It was like a metaphorical weight had been lifted. Like I'd been walking around with a ball and chain hooked to each leg—but now they were gone! Like I shed that metaphorical backpack that made it impossible for me to keep my spine straight. Like the black, slimy tendrils of christianity licking around my body and dragging me into the quicksand of religion had been utterly, irrevocably banished. 

The black cloud—gone! Only a blue sky above. 

Never had I ever imagined that life, existence, self could feel so light.

christians imagine that that sense of freedom comes from jesus. That the lightness comes from having your sins "forgiven." From choosing to live your life for god and walk on that dusty road to heaven, instead of the glittery road to hell.

But the truth is, that sense of freedom and lightness comes only in making the choice.  And which choice doesn't really matter. It's just that you made the right one for you.

It's about looking your own darkness in the face and saying, "No. I reject you."

Sometimes that darkness takes the form of the "sins" we've committed or the harm we've caused. Sometimes it's our guilt. Sometimes it might be mental illness. Or the trauma of past experiences. 

And sometimes, it's christianity.

#exchristian #ex christian #free indeed #atheist #agnostic #exvangelica #exvangelical #ex evangelical #religious trauma #religion #indoctrination #cult ideologies #cults #the christian cult #ex protestant

[throesofincreasingwonder]

You know what? I want a whole post for this:

Sex Repulsion is not the same thing as, or an excuse for, Sex Negativity

non-negotiable!

I am a sex-repulsed asexual. This means that I am uncomfortable and repulsed by the idea of engaging in sexual acts. This does not mean that I have an excuse to be repulsed by other people's sexual attraction or the right to police how other people engage in or express sexual acts or attraction.

Young queer people need to learn the difference between sex repulsion and sex negativity, and actively work to unlearn sex-negative attitudes. Asexuality, even sex-repulsed asexuality, is and should be fully compatible with sex positivity.

If you are uncomfortable with the idea of other people feeling sexual attraction or engaging in sexual acts that do not involve you in any way, that is not sex repulsion it is the cultural Christianity and you need to seriously work on that.

#we as asexual people have got to have a talk about this because the shit i have been seeing is NOT okay #asexuality #sex positivity #this is largely intracommunity allo people can engage w/ it but don't be clowns #original post #500 #1k #PLEASE STOP TAGGING THIS AS 'CULTS' YOU CAN CRITIQUE A RELIGION W/O CALLING IT A CULT I AM BITING YOU #this barely even mentions Christianity like someone does not need to be in a cult to be sex negative. and also not all religions are cults #please be normal #other than that y'all have actually been very normal abt this one so far thank you #2k #5k

[the-rad1o-demon]

[Image ID (sorta, basically just the text from it):

GET KOSA TRENDING.

STOP SCROLLING NOW!

AS OF FEBRUARY 21ST, 2024, WE GOT FIVE DAYS UNTIL THE DAY OF DECISION OF THE KOSA BILL, WHICH WILL CAUSE MASS CENSORSHIP ROUND THE INTERNET IF PASSED. OR DOOMSDAY. WE NEED EVERYONE TO KNOW ABOUT THIS AND CONTRIBUTE. I'M NOT GIVING UP ON YOU ALL.

WE'RE DOWN TO THE WIRE BUT WE CAN'T GIVE UP YET. IF WE GIVE UP, EVERYTHING IS OVER. IF WE DON'T, AT LEAST WE HAVE A CHANCE.

I'M THE ONE WHO SOUNDED THE ALARM, AND I'M NOT GOING TO CURL UP AND DIE YET.

Reblog this post in every LEGAL way you can under the Tumblr guidelines with the appropriate tags. TELL AND TAG EVERYONE YOU KNOW, then add the tags to see below... and more if you can think of any complying.

Visit badinternetbills.com if you want to find a way to defeat KOSA. It WILL NOT take much of your time. Reblog with any other information or sources, too-- but make sure to reblog if you can.

Reblog if you support lgbtq+ content.

Reblog if you support questioning queer youth and/or abused youth getting the information they need.

Reblog if you support Ao3 and/or other sites that wholeheartedly preserve talentedly made media.

Reblog if you're going to repost this on other sites than Tumblr and spread the word across Twitter, Tik Tok, Pinterest, or elsewhere, alongside the link to badinternetbills.com.

END image ID]

Hey, everyone. So yeah, this is happening. We're still fighting this battle. And we can't give up now. We can't. We can't stand idly by while one of the most important resources that helped us all wake up, or at least start to question things, is being threatened by the government.

We can't stand idly by when kids, teens, and adults just like us still trapped inside might lose access to the resource that could help them wake up. We can't stand idly by when they might lose access to their non JW friends and family. We CAN'T stand idly by when we can do something to stop this bill from passing.

I am sick and tired of this same old song, where conservative fuckers higher up think they can oppress everyone. I am FUCKING SICK of it.

Please, reblog both this post and the original post linked above what I've written, and do what you can to stop KOSA, please. We are running out of time.

I suggest that if it is within your power to do so, that you do more than simply reblog and assume someone else will do something. DON'T assume that. Please do more than just reblogging if you are able to, because that's not really enough at this point.

Call/email representatives in the House and tell them to oppose KOSA (you may want to list different reasons depending on who you're calling, some House representatives are anti-LGBTQ+, so it may be best to tell them to oppose because it violates people's privacy, safety, and anonymity online). Print posters and put them up where legal if you can.

Sharing all this information to other social media sites (Instagram, Reddit, TikTok, the bird app) to reach more people can really help too. The wider the reach, the better.

Thank you. Now let's fucking rip that bill apart like we rip apart Watchtower magazines and eat it for fucking breakfast. (In a "we're eating it and the politicians who are sponsoring it are looking on in horror" kind of way)

#kids online safety act #internet censorship #stop kosa #exjw #ex jw #ex jehovah's witness #ex jehovah's witnesses #not necessarily ex jw related tags but still relevant bc this bill also affects these communities: #queer #lgbtqia #lgbt #lgbtqplus #lgbtq community #ex catholic #ex mormon #ex christian #ex evangelical #ex cult

[seraphimfall]

i’ve read so much tradcath bullshit the last two years. i can confidently say tradcath men fit into one of two categories:

“protestant-raised and converted to catholicism because of his crippling porn addiction and racist tendencies. reposts crusader and conquistador memes. is hated in his local parish.” tradcath

“catholic-raised band kid who ate his lunches with the religion teacher. smells like mildew. cut off all his friends that came out as gay after high school. now larps as an aquinian scholar and cries after jerking off.” tradcath

#|| the disciple || #ex catholic #ex christian #religious trauma #exvangelical #deconversion #apostate #apostasy #ex fundie #extian #deconstructing christianity #ex religious #ex cult #ex cath #religious deconstruction #deconstruction #catholic guilt #progressive politics #leaving the church #losing my religion

[angelx1992]

#new york #trump trials #pennsylvania #texas #maga morons #florida #protesters #meme #arizona #republican shit show #vote blue #dump trump #iowa #ohio #memes #evangelicals #qanon cult #alabama #christians #trump crime family #alaska #colorado

[xombigirl]

I was having the worst day and then this video appeared on the CR TikTok and honestly I feel so much better now.

Here are some screenshots highlights

#critical role #liam o'brien #liam thirst cult #sam riegel #laura bailey #ashley johnson #aabria iyengar #christian navarro #taliesin jaffe #marisha ray #matthew mercer #mister #pate de rolo

[imsoglitter]

I don't know what atheist needs to hear this but when someone tells you they're a cult survivor, telling them that all religions are cults is both untrue and unhelpful 😌💕

#cult survivor #honestly atheists are more exhausting to talk to than hardcore christians like 90% of the time #exmormon #exmo

[notaplaceofhonour]

I was raised in the People of Destiny cult (later renamed, and more well-known as, Sovereign Grace Ministries, now Sovereign Grace Churches).

The valorization of martyrdom and The End Times was so ubiquitous it was ambient noise. We stood in the church lobby theorizing about who the antichrist would be, we argued about whether Jesus would rapture us all before, after, or during the Tribulation Period where Satan would be given free reign over the earth. There was a strong Christian Zionist fixation on Israel as the final battleground and capital of the coming Messianic Age. But the one thing we were all certain of was is that we were in the End Times, that we were not of this world and couldn’t get too attached to our lives here.

We were raised to believe our sin nature made us undeserving of life, that we deserved death and eternal conscious torture.

My parents read us the Jesus Freaks books (a series by Christian Rap group DC Talk about martyrs). I spent “devotional time” reading Fox’s Book of Martyrs. We had guest speakers from Voice of the Martyrs, their pamphlets were often stocked in our church’s information center. We grew up with our dad listening to right wing talk radio and making us listen to songs about how the Godless atheists were outlawing Christianity in America, that we could all become martyrs soon.

The group’s theology was damaging & traumatic in a lot of other ways that contributed to the suicidality I have continued to struggle with for the rest of my life. For a long time I did not believe I would live past 20. There are times when the idea of giving my death meaning by using public suicide to make a political statement has appealed to me.

So now, seeing so many social media posts glorifying the suicide of a US Airman this week, I have been furious. Reading his social media posts, I recognize so much about the way I was raised in his all-or-nothing, black-or-white mindset, the valorization of death-seeking & martyrdom, and the apocalyptic fire-and-brimstone imagery of self-immolation. The moment I saw people I followed celebrating his self-immolation, I said to myself “this feels like a cult”

So when I learned he was raised in a cult too, nothing could have made more sense to me. His political orientation may have changed, but his mindset did not—it was no less extreme or cult-like.

I’ve talked about so many of the reasons this response from the broader left scares me, including how it’s laundering that airman’s antisemitic beliefs, but I cannot think of anything that would hit me in a more personal place than this specific response to this specific situation has.

When I see the images, I think: that could have been me. That scares me, and what scares me more is that so many prominent people are overwhelmingly sending the message to people like me that there is nothing else we can do that would have a more meaningful impact than killing ourselves for the cause.

I do not believe that. I will not even entertain it. And having to see his death over and over and over again, to argue against people who are treating this like an intellectual/moral exercise or a valid debate we all have to consider has been immensely triggering and fills me with a rage I rarely feel. It’s unconscionable that we are even putting self-harm on the table, and that pushing back against that is somehow controversial.

There is hope. Our lives do have meaning. There are far more effective means of fighting injustice. And the world is a better place for having you in it. Don’t fall into believing this is a way to give life purpose.

#he was raised in a different cult than me but there is significant overlap in the Community of Jesus & People of Destiny worldviews #EDIT: I originally said the Tribulations were ‘7 1/2’ years but this was me confusing the ‘a time times & half a time’ from Daniel #with the idea of a 7 year tribulation #it’s been forever and a lifetime since I lived in that world so the exact theological details can be hazy #death cult shit #extremely traumatic content #i/p #cw suicide #religious trauma #cw trauma #antisemitism #pdi international #people of destiny cult #sgm cult #sovereign grace cult #christian cult #cult survivor #death cult #evangelical ​apocalypticism #exvangelical

[atomic-chronoscaph]

Christian Slater and Winona Ryder - Heathers (1989)

#christian slater #winona ryder #heathers #80s movies #cult movies #michael lehmann #black comedy #J.D. Dean #veronica sawyer #1980s #1989

[apostatement]

#I couldn’t put gay cause that would hella skew the results #love the queer exmo presence on tumblr #exmo #exmormon #exlds #ex cult #apostake #apostate #ex christian #pimo #exmormon poll

[exvangelicalrage]

What Is Crooked Cannot Be Straightened

5/29/23

When I started going to therapy for religious trauma, my therapist directed me to Abraham Piper, a rather famous exvangelical and son of John Piper, a famous evangelical fundamentalist. Abraham Piper's TikTok account was interesting, philosophical, and entertaining all at the same time, and many of his ideas hit home with me, as someone who was floundering with the idea of religious trauma, despite it having been nearly 8 years after my Exit. 

One of the tags he used was #abusurdism which I'd never heard of before, and being a curious type of person, I googled it. 

"What is absurdism?"

Of course, as you might expect, I found dozens of articles and reddit threads discussing Albert Camus, existentialism, and meaninglessness.

I was hooked. 

Meaninglessness had been an appealing concept to me since the first time I read Ecclesiastes, the only book of the bible I ever really liked. 

Even now, if you asked me what my favorite book of the bible was, I'd still say Ecclesiastes. When I was young, my reason was that it was beautiful poetry written by a clearly intelligent person who understood the futility of life, and which ended by directing you to trust god. 

Now my reason is because Ecclesiastes breaks christianity. It's like a computer virus. As soon as you run ecclesiastes.exe, blue screen.

In Ecclesiastes, the writer concludes that everything is meaningless, therefore, your best bet is to fear god and follow his commandments (cough *philosophical suicide* cough). The ending offers an easy "skip" button. 

"Fear god!" christian you might think. "Great, that's all I need to know. I was gonna do that anyway."

This answer is good enough until you read that verse in Romans about how you're supposed to study the scriptures. And then you do study them.

As soon as you really begin to look deeply into Ecclesiastes, one key thing leaps out: if everything is meaningless... so is following god and his commandments. That solution the Teacher offers? Just as meaningless as any other solution.

All of christianity centers around one foundational element: the meaning of everything is god.

But if there is no meaning to everything, if god is not the meaning after all... what does that mean for the entirety of the christian religion? 

If you take Ecclesiastes literally, then making the choice to "obey god" is just as meaningless as making a different choice. Even if you choose to "follow god," the method for doing so is meaningless. You could choose to follow the old testament god or the new testament god, you could follow Thor or Allah, you could rename the universe "god" and call it a day—and you get to make up your own "rules" about what following god looks like, and at least philosophically speaking, you're good to go.

Most christians would argue that therefore you must follow the christian scripture, because obviously the bible doesn't contradict itself, because it says so. heh

But this doesn't work. Literally no one follows the scriptures literally. Not even literalists. Because it's impossible. Because the bible doesn't agree with itself about anything.

And even if you find ways to look past all the other contradictions, Ecclesiastes undermines everything else. It puts questions where They don't want questions. It adds flexibility where They don't want flexibility. It adds meaninglessness where They want meaning.

And They can't get rid of Ecclesiastes. Because if They do that, then they're picking and choosing what scripture to follow. And if you can cut and paste Ecclesiastes, then it follows you can cut and paste the rest of the bible, in which case you might as well just throw the whole thing in the trash and start over. 

As far as I can tell, the "best" argument against my interpretation of Ecclesiastes is "no, you're misinterpreting it" which... isn't an argument. The very fact that Ecclesiastes demands interpretation in order to "fit" with the rest of christianity, means that I can interpret it however the hell I want.

And I choose to interpret it as an exploration of the meaninglessness of everything that ultimately undermines the whole of christianity.

When faced with ultimate meaninglessness, some people choose to avail themselves of the pleasures of life. Some people choose to work. Some people choose to find meaning in the mundane. Some people create their own meaning. Some people (like Solomon) choose to follow god and obey the king. And some people simply... accept meaninglessness.

And this is the heart of absurdism: choosing to accept meaninglessness as a fact of life, rather than fighting against it, trying to fix it, or trying to solve it.

Everything is meaningless. Utterly meaningless.

Including Ecclesiastes.

Everything is meaningless and that’s okay. Not only is it okay, it's good. Because acceptance often brings peace, freedom, and joy where there was only cognitive dissonance before.

#ecclesiastes #bible #literalist #atheist #atheism #absurdism #absurdist #ex christian #exvangelical #exchristian #philosophy #christian philosophy #the bible is stupid #solomon #everything is meaningless #albert camus #absurdism offers freedom from christianity #cults #cult ideology #the christian cult

[the-rad1o-demon]

Please do what you can to stop this bill from being passed, and please share this message where you can. It's going to be very bad for pretty much everyone on the Internet if this bill is passed. If you're skeptical: There are resources online with more information about the KOSA bill, including articles written by lawmakers explaining why this bill is a terrible idea. There is even a TechDirt article written by Mike Masnick titled "Marsha Blackburn Makes It Clear: KOSA Is Designed To Silence Trans People" where they write of and post a video in which Senator Marsha Blackburn (who co-wrote the bill) explicitly stated that this bill would be used to target the trans community. So please share this in your stories, with your family and friends, and call your Senators to tell them not to sign this bill. And if you know anyone in Massachusetts, tell them to call Senator Warren to ask her to withdraw her support of the bill. Thank you for your time and consideration.

EDIT - UPDATE:

Please read the post I linked below, it pertains to the status of the KOSA bill. Things are not looking good right now.

UPDATE #2:

Please look at this post!

#lgbtq #lgbtq+ #lgbtqia #lgbtqplus #lgbtq community #lgbtqia2s+ #lgbt #critical race theory #blacklivesmatter #black lives matter #race #exjw #ex jw #ex jehovah's witness #ex mormon #ex catholic #ex christian #ex cult #apostate #religious trauma #religion #stop kosa #kosa bill #kosa act #kosa #kids online safety act #internet censorship #censorship #us politics #politics

[seraphimfall]

i’m sorry but even if your personal version of mormonism excludes all the “if you’re a good mormon your skin will turn white when you die, no matter your race” and “dark skin is a sign of the devil” bs, your religion is still racist.

the idea that israelites sailed across the atlantic ocean and formed a population in north america that could be attributed to native americans is racist.

the idea that jesus christ appeared to native americans and converted them to christianity pre-colonial times is racist.

the idea that the arrival of christianity to north america with european colonialism was a prophesied “reintroduction” of christianity is racist.

the foundations of your religion are racist.

the foundations of your religion are historical negationism.

the foundations of your religion justify american colonialism as the will of god.

try as hard as you want, it’s impossible to remove racism from mormonism. it’s racist by nature.

#|| the disciple || #ex mormon #exmo #ex lds #exvangelical #ex christian #ex catholic #lamanites #nephites #ex cult #apostate #ex fundie #deconversion #atheist #religious trauma #ex religious #apostasy #deconvert #leaving the church #losing my religion #ex fundamentalist #deconstruction

[deservedgrace]

i was thinking about the sleep deprivation thing that cults do and something i completely forgot about with regards to that conversation is that the sleep needs of children/teens are different to adults. it's a range as most things are, but when it comes to sleep you HAVE to go based off the biggest number to ensure everyone gets proper sleep because you cannot function properly without proper sleep

so, if you were a teenager who went to church camps and they allowed for less than 10 hours of sleep, or if you were a kid (6-12) and they allowed for less than 12 hours of sleep, you very well may have been sleep deprived, either intentionally or unintentionally

and as a little bonus: adults tend to respond to sleep deprivation with tiredness, but kids tend to respond with hyperactivity, and even one night of sleep deprivation can affect someone

#i don't think my places were intentional cuz most people don't know the amount of sleep kids/teens need #but i am so positive that we were not getting 12 hours to sleep when we did the middle school thing (11-14) #or the thing that had high school and middle school #i cannot remember the middle school thing but the high school ones were during summer #and i remember us always getting into bed when it was pitch black And that we had to wake up way earlier than anyone wanted to #yes it's possible we stayed up past curfew but i remember playing group games in the dark #insane that they did this to us #cult tactics #religious trauma #ex christian #personal

[jesusinstilettos]

Remember the concept of consent applies to religion too. Think of the acronym FRIES. Consent is: Freely given, Reversible, Informed, Enthusiastic, Specific.

It’s not consent if the threat of hell for leaving is looming over you, that’s not freely given or reversible. Thats coercion.

You can’t consent if you were born into it, because a child can’t fully understand all they are agreeing to when forced into a specific religious group. That’s not informed.

If you were converted into a cult later in life, odds are they didn’t tell you all you were agreeing to up front. They often masquerade as regular Christians Bible studies or other harmless things. And they don’t tell you the more extreme things until they’ve manipulated you and indoctrinated you enough. That’s not informed consent.

When you have to pledge loyalty to a group before fully understanding what all that entails (looking at you Mormon church and your Endowment ceremony), that’s not informed consent.

You can’t fully consent if you’re being manipulated, lied to, threatened, indoctrinated, abused, mislead, etc.

I was both born into an abusive religion and then converted into a cult as a teenager and consent was never able to be fully given for any of it. I could give a bunch of other reasons, but I think you get it. People don’t consent to joining abusive religions.

#deconstruction #ex christian #ex evangelical #agnosticatheist #deconstructing christianity #agnostic #ex religious #exevangelical #religious trauma #ex mormon #exmormon #JMS cult #Providence cult #Jung Myung Seok #consent

[sky-daddy-hates-me]

How delusional do you have to be to think that the religion that has forcibly invaded and converted multiple countries throughout the centuries has preserved languages and cultures.

Old norse was only converted to the Latin alphabet because of Christianity, almost destroying the runic alphabet.

Christians forced indigenous children in North America and Canada to attend schools that stripped them of their culture and abuse them into Christianity. There are still Christian organisations who are dedicated to preaching to the native tribes on the North American continent.

How many mythological/folklore/fairytale figures have been diluted down to make it more christian friendly? How many have been demonised because they went against christian values?

How many historical artifacts or culturally significant items have been stolen or destroyed because of Christianity?

It genuinely breaks my heart to think of all the pain and suffering and death Christianity has caused to numerous countries, and the historical knowledge we might have lost in the process.

#ex jw #ex jehovah's witness #jehovah's witnesses #religious trauma #exjw #cult survivor #ex christian #ex cult #apostate #possible tw #culture #culturalheritage #christianity #imperialism #conversion #languages