Finding My Voice

I pulled out of the Independent Fundamental Baptist movement (and Christianity as a whole) in the fall of 2011 - that's roughly thirty one months ago. My beliefs have changed so much during that time frame. Who I am has changed, and I'm very thankful for that fact. I'm happier. I'm healthier. I'm more confident. My spirituality is more fulfilling. I've found my voice and am no longer afraid to use it. Life is better.

Christian fundamentalism greatly stunted my personal growth. I've only recently realized how greatly it stunted my ability to use my voice. For starters, fundamentalism did its best to prevent me from developing my individuality. Self-aware individuals don't conform to rigid rules and certainly don't do well with one-size-fits-all doctrine. Individuals realize the world doesn't fit into a box. Individuals use their voice to ask questions. Questions are dangerous if they remain unchecked. A child may except pat answers, but when that child grows up, his questions will not so easily be set aside. Fundamentalism prides itself in having the answer to everything, even if that answer is "God's ways are not man's ways" or "God knows best." Receiving an answer like that was very unsatisfying, but it usually was enough to shut me up because I didn't want to appear to be questioning God or the authority of the person whom I'd asked. Asking too many questions got you in trouble or, at the least, caused people to find you annoying and troublesome. I asked too many questions anyway, though, and didn't get enough answers.

I can recall puzzling through matters of theology as a college student. Homework assignments designed to help me better understand my faith only made it more puzzling. One particular event stands out in my mind. I had been studying the arguments for and against predestination and free will and thought I'd had a breakthrough moment of understanding. I wanted to share my discovery with other people so I did my best to put it into words (which was long and complicated to do) and then put in Facebook. Immediately I got backlash from fundamentalist friends who disagreed; ultimately I chose to take down what I'd written. I satw then and there that a hole-proof, Biblical argument that reconciled predestination and free will didn't exist. That was one of many things that I realized were not as hole-proof as fundamentalism declared/needed them to be. My faith was crumbling,

Help Bring Accountability and Change

Samantha over at Defeating the Dragons is working on a piece about sexual abuse and Pensacola Christian College (PCC) - read it here. In light of what has happened at BJU, I am not surprised to see more and more stories popping up from all over the fundamentalist education world. If you have any relevant information or stories to share with Samantha, please do! These institutions cannot be held accountable - and nothing will change - without the honest truth coming out.

New Life

At the end of December my partner and I confirmed that we were expecting a baby; we were both overjoyed! Now, 11 weeks into the pregnancy, I'm finally emerging from the awful symptoms of the first trimester. I don't feel like I'm in survival mode all the time now, which is wonderful. I've been able to enjoy reading and thinking during the past week or so, so hopefully my creativity is returning and I'll be able to write more. The reading and the thinking has certainly taken a new direction due to the fact that I'm pregnant.

I'm assuming that my parents as well as my partner's parents are hoping that this new addition will magically transform our hearts and we'll come running back to the fold. The thought of getting involved at a local progressive Christian church has briefly crossed my mind, actually. Not because I want to be involved in Christianity, but because of the community and support such a church would bring. We're far away from all family and friends of the past, and our lack of community is scary to me as I imagine life with a new baby. There's a great UU church we've attended a few times... but we haven't been able to attend very frequentlye. We keep missing services due to sickness, morning sickness, weather, my partner's work schedule, etc. I sincerely hope that things will improve as we draw closer to Spring. Speaking of Spring, it's fun to think about how the baby will be growing inside me right along with the growth of Spring, and then be delivered towards the end of the growing season in August.

So yeah... a new baby definitely has me thinking about my community, my home, my family, our spirituality, what the future looks like... so many things. I know this pregnancy will be life changing. One way it is already changing me is by reshaping my spirituality and refueling my desire to learn more and grow. I think I know where I'm headed - to a point - but my IFB background is holding me back. It's so hard to let go, let loose, and simply feel and do things... because of fear. The IFB instilled within me many fears, one of the chiefest being to fear what other people think. My interactions with other Baptist kids (school, camp, and college) taught me to fear how I look and whether or not what I'm doing will seem stupid or silly. Now I still battle with fearing what others think, how they'll see me. I also battle with a fear of not being in control, which is heavily tied in with my fears about how other see me. Early on I did my best to hide all tears, possibly even all emotion, in public because it opened me up to ridicule and pain. I never liked being asked to do things out of my comfort zone because I feared failure, feared how I would look. I missed out on a lot of opportunities thanks to all this; it's only been since I left Christianity that I began finding the freedom to loosen up and have fun. I look forward to being further changed by the experiences of this pregnancy, giving birth, and holding my baby.

Looking Back & Moving Forward

If you read the earliest posts on this blog, you'll quickly realize there was a time when I practically hated all things religious and many things spiritual. I was angry and bitter after spending the first 20 or so years of my life in fundamental Christianity. The day the blindfold came off, I began realizing the many things I had learned, seen, been part of, and had done to me that were wrong. The lies, the imposed guilt, the many options I should have had but didn’t because of my upbringing. The many evils done in the name of my former religion that had been swept under the rug by fellow Christians. So very many things crossed my mind and fueled my anger.

As I look back, I realize my anger was one of the five steps of loss and grief. The five stages are denial and isolation, anger, bargaining, depression, and acceptance (I pulled my list and quote from this site). They don’t necessarily occur in a specific order and you can move through them several times. I’m going to list the stages in the order that I experienced them.

Before I officially renounced my faith, I went through the first stage of denial and isolation.