Fundamentalist Christianity
I was raised Fundamentalist Christian but as I have become more educated through high school and college, I am starting to see through this religion. I am starting to see Fundamentalist Christianity as anything BUT true Christianity. Here are the huge issues I have with it.
1. They continually bash homosexuals and condemn them to hell yet they don't touch on other, more destructive sins such as coveting or marriage and divorce.
2. They try to make the case that George Bush was put in his position by God himself and if you don't support his policies, then you are not a Christian therefore will not go to heaven.
3. The preach that voting for the Democratic candidate will send one to hell because of the gay marriage issue, while Republicans support the big greedy corporations which is just as evil according to the Bible.
4. They make the case that the earth is only 6000 years old despite all the scientific evidence supporting otherwise. For some reason the six "days" of Creation MUST mean six literal days, while its okay for the word "day" to mean larger amounts of time in other places in the Bible.
5. Every story in the Bible is literal historical fact. The truth is, many stories in the Bible are in fact ancient Jewish literature. Believing Jonah and the Whale is literal fact is not much different than believing Homer's Odyssey is literal fact.
6. They say that ALL drinking of alcohol is sinful. How can this be when Jesus drank wine? The first think they will say is that the wine Jesus drank was really non-alcoholic grape juice. However, not until the Temperance movement and Reverend Charles Welch (Welch's Grape Juice) was making a non-fermented substitute possible. Fermentation was a natural process.
7. Continuing on alcohol, they preach that all positive mentions of wine is only grape juice, while any negative mention of it is the real, fermented stuff. If they are supposed to be taking the Bible as literal word for word fact, how can "wine" mean one thing in one place but something else in another? The idea that all drinking is a sin comes from the Temperance movement of the civil war era, NOT the Bible.
8. They say all gambling and games of chance are sinful, yet it says nothing about them in the Bible.
9. They require all men wear short hair and women cannot cut their hair. They say its sinful for a man to have long hair, but how can that be when Jesus himself had long hair?
10. They try to enforce their beliefs on others by acting self-righteous in public. My parents, who are fundamentalists, when offered wine at olive garden, they said "We don't drink that sinful drink, We are Christians" in a real stern voice.
I could go on and on with more stuff but I'm not going to. What experiences do others here have with Fundamentalist Christianity? I'm questioning my beliefs right now, but part of me feels like I'm going to go to hell for questioning it. I was taught growing up to accept it on faith and to question it was a path to hell.
How do I find out true religion? The faith of fundamentalism, while strong, does not have a strong foundation. Its not easy to accept another belief after giving that one up, but I am not ready to become an atheist or agnostic. Anybody have any comments?
|