So our (Lutheran) church would bring all of the kids in the congregation up to the front to discuss a theme or passage during each service. We initially had a pretty cool female pastor (who—I later found out—was bullied into leaving because she was a woman 🙃); she at one point told us that to get into heaven, we only needed to ask God to let us in. It made sense to my naive little brain.
When I was 15, some asshole temp pastor called us up and asked if we know how to get in, and I replied with what I was told; he very condescendingly said “uh, no, you need to believe in God”.
I was irritated by his tone, yes, but I also hadn’t heard that before, strangely. His response really disturbed me. I thought, what about people across the world who have other faiths? Or children who die before they even have a chance to believe?? You mean my amazingly kind, Buddhist Vietnamese friend is going to HELL?? What the fuck???
So I began to research alternate viewpoints online, and discovered the ways in which Christianity doesn’t make sense and how it’s often used as an excuse to spread hate and suffering. I just couldn’t justify believing anymore.
So our (Lutheran) church would bring all of the kids in the congregation up to the front to discuss a theme or passage during each service. We initially had a pretty cool female pastor (who—I later found out—was bullied into leaving because she was a woman 🙃); she at one point told us that to get into heaven, we only needed to ask God to let us in. It made sense to my naive little brain.
When I was 15, some asshole temp pastor called us up and asked if we know how to get in, and I replied with what I was told; he very condescendingly said “uh, no, you need to believe in God”.
I was irritated by his tone, yes, but I also hadn’t heard that before, strangely. His response really disturbed me. I thought, what about people across the world who have other faiths? Or children who die before they even have a chance to believe?? You mean my amazingly kind, Buddhist Vietnamese friend is going to HELL?? What the fuck???
So I began to research alternate viewpoints online, and discovered the ways in which Christianity doesn’t make sense and how it’s often used as an excuse to spread hate and suffering. I just couldn’t justify believing anymore.