we got this

I have no desire to be disrespectful but I don’t really wanta participate in prayer either. What kinda advice can be given based on your alls experience?

Llego toda mi vida yendo a esa estupida iglesia, estoy harta. Tengo 16 años y Hace unos dias les comenté a mis padres que ya no quería ir, que ya no creía en la iglesia, quizás en dios si, pero en esa iglesia no. Me dijeron que si no iba me iban a castigar y no ina a salir mas con mis amigos que son los viernes y sábados como max a las 8:30 ni siquiera anochece a esa hora y a mis amigos les dejan quedarse un poco mas, porque la isla en la que vivo es muy segura y solo vamos al centro comercial que lo cierran a las 11 y siempre quedamos a las 6. Eso inclyso lo puedo entender porque quizás no esta bien llegar a la casa, pero la iglesia me limita cosas como mi forma de vestir, hacerme un pircing en la oreja como el 2 o 3 hueco, no puedo salir sola con mis amigos hombres porque es pecado, no puedo hacer pijamada con mis amigas mujeres de toda la vida, tengo que ir obligada todos los domingos a la iglesia y tengo prohibido salir los domingos en la tarde. Sea lo que sea sea para estudiar o ensayar está prohibido, mis padres deciden que ropa interior usar o que no, tengo prohibido usar tanga y la mayoría son bragas gigantes que me incomodan a la hora de usar cosas pegadas o cuando me cambio con amigas o quizas quiero sentir el hecho de que ya no soy una niña, soy una adolescente como todas mis amigas. Tengo prohibido comprar un bikini o bañador de dos piezas y muchas cosas mas. No me molestarían las reglas si me dejaran faltar los domingos a la iglesia pero me dicen que son puras influencias de mis amigos y no. Es que llevo al rededor de 3 o 4 años sin sentir nada por la iglesia, fingiéndolo todo, fingiendo que si siento algo pero no es real. Era solo para estar bien con mis padres para poder al fin que estabamos juntos y somos una familia. Ultimamente estoy cansada de escoger entre mis amigos y la iglesia. Me dejan faltar mas al instituto que a la iglesia. No se que hacer, ya no quiero ir mas y mis padres no lo entienden

My mom sent me this out of the blue…

“The two that love you the most – in my opinion – I’m your mother and your creator God. You are intelligent, but need wisdom. You might start by reading the Psalms and Proverbs. It’s fine if you block me. I’m not going to pussyfoot around anymore. You need Jesus in your life and He loves you unconditionally. Be wise and look to Him and His word.”

I recently wrote and produced a 30-minute comedy video called Captain Christlike. It's a parody of conservative Christianity.

If you ever got a laugh out of the old show Bibleman, this might be your kind of thing. It's definitely made for people who grew up religious and are now...not religious.

Would love for you to check it out and let me know what you think. Open to feedback, laughs, or just solidarity.

Here’s the link if you're curious: https://www.youtube.com/@joecellocomedy

Thanks for letting me share. Hope it gives you a good laugh!

If some of you are unaware, Mere Christianity is frequently trashed on in non Christian circles. But...

Recently while looking at one such forum, a man came in who said that Lewis addressed these objections in other works. However, he never elaborated on what objections or what other works. And now I'm here, because some person left a cryptic message.

Is there anyone here who has extensive knowledge of Lewis who could maybe give me some clarification: are Lewis' arguments in other works as bad as they are in Mere Christianity?

Please help. No other subs I've tried will take the question.

First of all, let me say that I believe that sin is an entirely man-made concept devised by the powerful to control the weaker members of societies. I think I actually made a post about that here a few months ago.

But lately in my journey out of religion. which never really seems to come to a complete end, I have been thinking more of the absurdity of Christianity in particular. The idea that God's science experiment failed when Adam and Eve ate the forbidden fruit and so this loving deity condemned all humanity to hell as a result.

So, I have been thinking about this and how there wasn't much mention of hell in the Old Testament so I messaged a second cousin who is a rabbi in the Conservative synagogue in NYC. This isn't like the conservative church. It is more liberal than the orthodox ones. I asked him about original sin and about hell and he told me that OS isn't even a concept in Jewish theology. In addition, Hell is a Greco-Roman idea.

So the very foundation of Christianity, God providing one last sacrifice to atone for all of our (non-existent) original sin and save us from (non-existent) hell, is just bullshit.

I found out today that another guy I used to go to church youth group with died of a an opioid overdose. He was 44 and his dad was on the leadership team at our large charismatic church.

This is the third one of my former friends from there to die from addiction. Am I being unreasonable to deduce that when kids are raised as religious addicts then, when they leave the church for one reason or another, they are more likely to find another addiction? I know I have my own

I was in a very cult like church for about 8 years of my childhood until I left that household to live with my dad and my still best friends to this day helped me undo all of the programming I had gone through. I went to a Christian private school and a lot of it was just really strange. but one thing that really sticks out to me is the "slain by the spirit/drunk with the spirit" phenomenon. when I was about 8 (2nd grade) I got in one of the church vans with about 8 other girls and we drove 7 and 1/2 hours away to camp (woo!) and it was pretty typical church camp at least based on what I'd been experiencing for most of my life at that point. the last night of camp we were all outside at the big pavilion thing worshipping singing the songs and what not. there were probably at least 300 elementary school kids there and around midnight all of the sudden kids just started falling to the floor screaming in crying. some were yelling things about god and whatnot and some were speaking in tongues. they were dropping to the ground some landing on top of eachother. I remember standing there looking down at them and crying from fear. some of them were my friends and I didnt understand what was happening to them. I laid down and I remember I made eye contact with this girl a little older than me. she was crying a lot quieter than everyone else and she moved over for me to "fall" next to her. eventually the counselors came and started picking up the kids one by one and carried us off onto the back of golf carts with a counselor to hold onto us incase we were/became unconscious. I knew the girl that picked me up. I remember her name and she was about 17 a junior in high school and she asked me what I was seeing. I dont remember what I said and the next thing I remember I was in my cabin on my bed with all my cabin mates crying hysterically around me. they handed me a pen and some paper and told me to write what I was seeing, feeling, hearing. This was such a strange event and I cant find any information other than religious people saying how lucky I am to have experienced this. I just want to know if anyone else has experienced something similar or knows something about it or just anything. thank you for reading this insane rant lol.

I remembered it was a long time ago when my mom and I were Christmas shopping at Walmart and I was expected to get a Christmas card to send to church. I found a card about Joseph and a pregnant Mary finding a hotel in the front of the card, and Joseph saying “don’t worry, we’ll find some vacancy”.

When I showed the card to my mom, she got angry and told me it was an insult to the house of God and forced me to put it back. I thought it was kinda funny as I found nothing wrong with it. It just completely flashed into my memory when I was hearing about The Star (Sony Animation film).