yeah... I was raised southern baptist, and I went to camps that were like that, only thankfully a little less so. Most of the time it was all fun and some bible stories, but I remember the one kid who wasn't saved and refused to commit to being baptised on the spot. He was picked at, then tormented, and ultimately ostracized for the entire stay at the camp. I watched a lot of the really conservative kids from our high school come to blindly accept the word of the bible as complete and unquestionable truth. When I was little, and I actually believed all the shit that was being preached at me, I used to cry for those kids, because on the one hand they were crying in church when they were told jesus died for them, and they were swearing to be good christians and help their fellow man, but on the other almost every other day of the week they were determined to make my life a living hell, and I was even supposed to be one of them, I was just a little weird. They were even more cruel to people who weren't one of them. I don't think Ashley F. ever played on the playground in elementary school without some wiseass bugging her about being a "witch."
I was taught that everything in the bible was true, that anywhere it seemed to be contradicting itself I was really just interpreting wrong, that catholics and jews were evil, that anyone who refused to accept jesus into their hearts was evil, including those who had never heard the word jesus (he would come to them in their hearts, and they would accept him if they were righteous). I was taught that from heaven, I could look down to hell, and see the people I had loved in life in hell, and not be sad, because everything would be as god intended it. I was still going to church when they decided to boycott disney for encouraging the sick gays, I watched a woman who had chosen to abort her early term fetus, which would have been a severely mentally retarded and physically disabled child, sob in front of the congregation for committing such a horrible sin against god, preaching about the horrible guilt she felt, and urging all of us to never consider doing such a horrible thing...
I could go on and on... but this reply is quite long enough already. I've watched people be brainwashed by people like this. It's scary and disgusting that they feel the need to make people feel horribly depressed, guilty, and/or unclean in the name of god and their immortal souls.
I was taught that everything in the bible was true, that anywhere it seemed to be contradicting itself I was really just interpreting wrong, that catholics and jews were evil, that anyone who refused to accept jesus into their hearts was evil, including those who had never heard the word jesus (he would come to them in their hearts, and they would accept him if they were righteous). I was taught that from heaven, I could look down to hell, and see the people I had loved in life in hell, and not be sad, because everything would be as god intended it. I was still going to church when they decided to boycott disney for encouraging the sick gays, I watched a woman who had chosen to abort her early term fetus, which would have been a severely mentally retarded and physically disabled child, sob in front of the congregation for committing such a horrible sin against god, preaching about the horrible guilt she felt, and urging all of us to never consider doing such a horrible thing...
I could go on and on... but this reply is quite long enough already. I've watched people be brainwashed by people like this. It's scary and disgusting that they feel the need to make people feel horribly depressed, guilty, and/or unclean in the name of god and their immortal souls.
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