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Conservative Christianity? Yeah, it scares me.
It scares me how people shove aside their conscience to accomodate the teachings of a book written by and for societies centuries and centuries ago.
The Bible was used to defend slavery (Ham's lineage was cursed because of his shameful conduct toward his father, Noah). It was used to keep women from voting and having jobs (Paul's admonishment against allowing women to have positions of power in the church, various verses that tell women to serve their husbands faithfully), it was used to prevent biracial marriage (the Noah thing again), and today it's the single most influential reason why homosexuality is still taboo all over the country.
I used to be a Christian. I knew the Bible inside out; I led worship, I held prayer meetings. Over time I began to realize that I didn't actually LIKE God very much. Then I began to realize that there really weren't any empirical reasons to believe in Him.
Christians are very fond of separating God from the church: "The church is a flawed institution," they say. "The church is human, and humans are sinners." Well, yeah, that keeps God high and dry, but the flawed sinner humans are the ones who are running around making life tough for others. I'm afraid of Christianity because it makes Christians mean, closed-minded, and afraid to think for themselves.
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