He thought everything he was taught growing up was true.
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I grew up in the Southern Baptist and Missionary Baptist traditions. I was raised in a very conservative religious environment. I thought my father’s musings about organized religion—and its shortcomings—were blasphemous. At the age of 18, I was licensed to preach the Gospel.
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I think it is likely that human error was introduced into some of the manuscript translations…
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As a young man growing up in church, I assimilated the beliefs of the church elders. It was important to gain their respect, their admiration, and to never disappoint them. Back then I would never dare question my beliefs. As I grew, I struggled with these beliefs until I felt like church was no longer appropriate for me. I was worried my new beliefs were unacceptable to God.
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Until recently, I was unable to appreciate this growth process, but today I am grateful. I am honored to share and talk about the ten reasons I am not the Christian I once was.
- I believe the Bible was inspired by God, but written by fallible human beings. Peter, Paul, John, John the Baptist, and Timothy were all humans. Humans make mistakes because we are fallible beings. I think it is likely that human error was introduced into some of the manuscript translations, and very likely that personal opinion was introduced. The Bible is one of my favorite books of all time and I believe God inspired its writing.
- I have no issues with woman pastoring churches. I grew up in a religious tradition that prohibited woman from serving as Pastors. My intent is not to judge those who prevent woman from serving in key leadership positions. I am simply sharing how I have grown, and where I am in my personal journey. Woman serve at the highest levels of our government, military, and civilian organizations. They have proven their ability to lead well.
- I no longer blindly tithe ten percent. In all honesty, I was not a consistent tither for very long. Too often I saw more money coming in and a disproportionate amount going to those in need. Sure, money went to building projects, church administration, foreign missions, and a host of other worthy causes, but not to those closest to us in need—like our members. Like the single mother or father whose home is falling apart because they work two or three jobs to survive. The sister or brother whose car breaks down, and church members “pray” they will get a ride. I choose to give my money to those closest to me, first.
- I am no longer trying to be holier than thou. For all too long, I used my relationship with God to be better than everyone else. If you were broke, on drugs, homeless, an adulterer, a fornicator, or just a really good sinner, I felt sorry for you. I also believed I was better than you, and I wore that attitude like a badge of honor.
- I believe it is the responsibility of each believer to work out his or her own relationship with God. Our relationship with God is intensely personal. I used to be very vocal about judging someone’s faith based upon his or her actions. It is not my responsibility to judge your relationship with God or exclude you based upon that relationship. Gay, lesbian, transgender, murderer, thief, fornicator, and adulterers are eligible for God’s love. If our mission is to win people to Christ—to get them to know God—why push them away with threats of hell, fire, and brimstone.
- I no longer think sinners are broken and need Jesus to fix them. I used to be so surprised when someone sinned. I thought they were broken. When I sinned, I thought I was broken and needed to be fixed. Aren’t God and Jesus Christ the only two perfect people? When I sin (or anyone else sins), there is no need to be surprised. In fact, you’re being perfectly normal.
- I think the hyper focus on sexual sin (Extra-marital affairs, sexual orientation, pre-marital sex) and gender identity is ridiculous. I was against gays, lesbians, and transgender individuals being anywhere near the church. My beliefs were founded upon my assumptions, conjecture, and blatant falsehoods.
- I believe our mistakes (Sins, screw-ups, failures) can help us grow. Instead of trying to be perfect (which is contrary to our nature), I have learned to embrace my imperfection and love myself regardless. After all, God loved me and sent Jesus Christ as a sacrifice for me even thought I was imperfect, and even though I was a sinner.
- I don’t try to live sin free. My focus on not sinning led me to feel crappy when I did sin. I was trying to drive myself into a sin free life style. Depriving myself of fun and isolating myself—to prevent from sinning and associating with sinners—had unintended consequences. My efforts drove me to an unhappy life. Today, I focus on loving others like God loved me.
- I am guilty as charged. Today I am comfortable with my imperfection or in church talk, my propensity to sin. It is part of my nature; I AM A SINNER SAVED BY GRACE.
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God gave me the ability to reason, and I plan to use it to love as many people as I can.
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Today my faith is stronger than ever! I love God and I am GRATEFUL for his many blessings. God forgives me and gives me many opportunities to learn and grow. My faith has not changed, but I have. I will no longer allow my faith to be used as a vessel for hate, fear mongering, or close mindedness. God gave me the ability to reason, and I plan to use it to love as many people as I can.
Flickr/ jill, jellidonut… whatever
Being gay isn’t a sin.
An important comment someone made when I posted this article.
“I’m glad your faith is growing and evolving. However, the fact that you lumped gays with murderers and thieves…leads me to believe you have a little more evolving to do. We are called to love, not judge. “Gay, lesbian, transgender, murderer, thief, fornicator, and adulterers are eligible for God’s love.”
Roger,
I agree I have a lot of growing to do. Thanks for sharing that comment!
So I will have to say TJ that I disagree with that comment. I mean of course you have some growing to do, we all do however, I don’t think the fact that you lumped gays with murderers and thieves a judgemental thing. God does not have a sin scale that says one sin is worse than the other. So in God’s eye a sin is a sin is a sin. Doesn’t matter what your sin of choice is they are all equal in his eyes. It is us humans that make one sin worse than the other. God loves… Read more »
Nikki,
Thanks for the feedback. I agree I was not being judgmental. The previous comments that Roger shared did, however, increase my awareness. They helped me understand that I did in fact consider homosexuality a sin. It was such an ingrained belief I did not realize it. It is something I always grew up with.
In general, I agree with much of what you wrote, as Christianity is indeed a “growing process” of a lifetimes “work,” and “revelations” are always forthcoming indeed. Yet it seems to me that you would be at odds with folks like Paul of Tarsus, James, brother of Jesus, and Jesus Himself, are you not? (re: homosexuality, et al____sins) Does “sin” even exist for you TJ, or is it just a misunderstood/misrepresented semantic scripture(s) w/in the bible itself? Do not misunderstand me, TJ. I get you “main drift” about love and tolerance, and I agree wholeheartedly with MERCIFUL GRACE yet, there… Read more »
I agree with most of what you said.. my question is this.. and maybe this is directed at the previous poster..
If mistakes are not sin, than what do you classify as sin?
I wrestle with this a lot, having grown up in a baptist church myself. We DO learn from our mistakes way more than we learn from being “perfect and sinless”… so… where does that leave us? holy and ignorant?
RK,
Where does that leave us? Well, the bottom line is we are fallable human beings…. Whether you call it sin, mistakes, or failures… the bottom line is it happens. When it does pick up and get back on track.
But that’s the thing though. Why “sin” at all? If you eventually equate it with “normal” then the whole religious bent is a banana peel for the very holier than thou stance you don’t encourage. As long as there is a sense of “evilness” in there people are going to look for it and “struggle” but imagine if we took the whole sin our of it and were just people. Then when we talk about what happened and solutions we can also strip away all the ways in which that holier than thou stance can creep in because as long… Read more »
Thank you for this, I think I’m seeing the real benefits of Christianity now. I was raised similar to you, almost fundamental however. This is much more clear than what I was told to believe. I just can’t understand why I was taught to take it all so seriously,l. I can still see faces in my mind of people teaching me “this is the truth, believe believe in this believe it, believe everything I tell you or you’ll die”
Dear Caleb:
A lot of us were taught to take religion seriously, so you will not be the first nor the last person to be taught to take religion seriously. I just wish I had saw the BS that was in religion as a kid and not have taken it so seriously since so many other people did not take religion seriously at all.
Great article TJ. From the very start of my ability to intellectually consider God, not religion, i have believed that as children of God, as we are to our human children, first and foremost want them to be happy. Mistakes are not sins. Experiences are not sins but a way ti discover happiness that God intended for us in the first place. And all of His children are loved as we live our children who’ve made mistakes.
Mark,
#BAM!!!!