By Lorena When I was a Christian, I was in a permanent semi-paranoid state. The heathens, I’d been told, were always watching me, to see if I really was a faultless Christian. My fellow Christians were always watching me for signs of backsliding, so they could straighten me out with “wise” words of timely, “loving,” advice. God was always watching me; after all, that was his job: to keep me in a short leash, so he could protect me from danger and keep me accountable for my sins. The devil and his angels were always watching me, hoping that I would leave the straight and narrow and I could be mercilessly attacked, since once fallen, God couldn’t protect me anymore. Quite honestly I was going insane, because I had sincerely believed all that. When the psychologist told me that I was in an unhealthy, permanent state of stress, I didn’t believe him. He said that I had an on-going case of fight-or-flight response, in which my nervous system considered all outside stimuli an almost death thr...

This post is excerpted from The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth. ( www.lulu.com/content/220355 .) All scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness. —2 Timothy 3:16 One day the older daughter said to the younger, Our father is old, and there is no man around here to lie with us, as is the custom all over the earth. Let’s get our father to drink wine and then lie with him and preserve our family line through our father.” That night they got their father to drink wine, and the older daughter went in and lay with him. —Genesis 18:31–33 “THE B-I-B-L-E, YES, THAT’S THE BOOK FOR ME.” WE SANG LOUDLY, SCRUBFACED, girls in dresses and boys in tidy pants. The year was probably 1968 or ’69, and scores of us were attending Vacation Bible School, a week-long event like a day camp that is still held each summer by churches across America. One summer, not long ago, my nephews attended...

By Zack Pelta-Heller, AlterNet The Rapture is headed for New York City, and just in time for Christmas. In Left Behind: Eternal Forces , a Christian-themed videogame due out this October, the New York skyline smolders during the End of Days, the faithful have been called up to heaven, and the remaining New Yorkers are engaged in an epic clash between the Tribulation Forces and the Antichrist's army of Global Community Peacekeepers (aka UN Peacekeepers). Evangelical videogame makers are praying that Eternal Forces will finally enable them to tap into the $25 billion global videogame market. They hope their "Christian" values-themed game will capture the same audience that has made bestsellers out of violent standards like Grand Theft Auto and Halo 2 . The Left Behind: Eternal Forces videogame is based upon the wildly profitable "Left Behind" series, written by Rev. Timothy LaHaye and Jerry Jenkins. The "Left Behind" books have sold roughly 65 million c...

Here are some tough questions for the Christian that I posted on my other Blog, depending on his or her particular theology: Can God be surprised? Surprise is the basis of laughter. Can God laugh? Can God think? Thinking means weighing alternatives. But if God knows everything then can God think? Is God metaphysically free? Did God ever choose his character and his moral standards? Does God ever know what it is to make a choice? Is God Good? If God didn’t need anything, then why did he create us? To say God’s nature is love and he wanted to share his love with us doesn’t help for two reasons, 1) Most of us will end up in hell, which means he knowingly created heaven for the minority on the screams of billions of people who end up in hell; 2) If life was already perfect for God, then God did not need to share any more love with anyone else. Why break this purported perfect harmony for the pain of dealing with us and the pain of those who end up in hell? Once God decided to create us, if...

Michelle Goldberg says progressives need to wake up and pay attention to the enormous — and growing — influence of the radical Christian right. "I don't want to be alarmist, but this is actually quite alarming," Michelle Goldberg said. She was referring to the subject of her new book, "Kingdom Coming: The Rise of Christian Nationalism," which chronicles the steady rise of the neocons of Christianity. Whether she's attending a Ten Commandments conference or joining Tony Perkins' conference calls to listen in on what D.C. agenda will be passed on to congregations, Goldberg's reporting offers insight into a movement that has reshaped the nation's political and cultural landscape. Goldberg did not go undercover, nor wear any disguise. Rather, she simply showed up, listened and learned. And what she has learned is definitely alarming. Traveling around the country on her book tour, Goldberg notes that many people have approached her with stories that ...

by Wayne Adkins Each time an article appears somewhere that carries the words “intelligent design” and “ creationism ” in the same sentence the Discovery Institute feels compelled to respond. They desperately want to distance themselves from biblical creationists because they know it will hurt their chances of slipping intelligent design into classrooms in our public schools. The latest attempt by Bruce Gordon to disassociate intelligent design with creationism is over the top. He actually claims that “most current ID theorists of consequence not only are not creationists, some of them aren’t even theists”. Most are not creationists? Well let’s take a look at what the definition for a creationist is. Merriam-Webster’s says a creationist is a proponent of “a doctrine or theory holding that matter, the various forms of life, and the world were created by God out of nothing and usually in the way described in Genesis”. So a creationist is someone who believes everything was created b...

by John W. Loftus How many sermons have Christians heard about Joseph and Potipher’s wife where the preacher asked something like this: “How many men would've been able to overcome this temptation?” And they conclude with, “I fear not many men here could’ve overcome this.” What are preachers saying here?...That Joseph was a man of faith and had real strength of character, but most men, even Christian men, do not. And yet when a Christian (former one) like me actually does succumb to such a temptation, these same preachers are quick to condemn me. Isn't that odd? Which is it ? The story of my affair [which took place 15 years ago(!) ] that I tell in my book, Why I Rejected Christianity , is a story that shows the church is the only place that shoots its own wounded. Say it isn't so? If someone has a problem, the church is the first to condemn. Christians stress that the marriage vows are sacred. And what part of those vows is most important? Sexual faithfulness. Why...

Hello everybody, I'd like you to know about this workshop coming right up. Feel free to call me and discuss. 510-292-0509 Marlene Winell Now registering: "CONNECTIONS" A weekend intensive for moving beyond religious indoctrination and reclaiming a life of joy, creativity, and connection. Led by Marlene Winell, Ph.D. This workshop is for “recovering fundamentalists” or anyone who has left an authoritarian belief system and would like to accelerate their personal growth. I believe these belief systems foster separation – from the self, from others, and from the world. After leaving, a major task is to heal and strengthen these connections. Recovery requires developing a healthy relationship with yourself, which includes respect for your own worth, trust in your own intuitive wisdom, and expression of your own creativity. New frameworks and new skills are also needed for deep connections...

This post is excerpted from The Dark Side: How Evangelical Teachings Corrupt Love and Truth ( www.lulu.com/tarico ). The Bible Stands The Bible stands like a rock undaunted ‘Mid the raging storms of time; Its pages burn with the truth eternal, And they glow with a light sublime. The Bible stands like a mountain towering Far above the works of men; Its truth by none ever was refuted, And destroy it they never can. —Haldor Lillenas1 WHEN I WAS A CHILD, THE BIBLE WAS AS TIMELESS AS MY PARENTS. ALONG WITH the foundations of the earth and the valleys of the sea, it had always existed in its present, unchanging form. As a teenager, I spent hours weekly studying its passages under the guidance of others, wiser and more experienced than I. The contents of the Bible opened up to me. I learned the basics of “biblical exegesis,” the methods by which Evangelicals analyze scriptures phrase by phrase, word by word, even turning to the original Greek or Hebrew to better mine the depths of meaning la...