Religion, god, faith...walking away into something better.

I was raised in a conservative Christian home. My parents raised us to believe that the Bible is the literal Word of God and that it should be followed as such. We, my siblings and I, were raised to believe that God created the world in 6 24-hour days, that Jesus came to earth born of a virgin, was perfect and lived his life here on earth as God-man and then died for our sins. Acceptance of Christ was the ONLY way to go to heaven and I remember as a child of being terrified of hell. I accepted Christ because I didn't want to burn. There were no other options. We were raised that this was the only way to believe, it was the only right way and that all other ways were lies. I suppose this makes sense, if you believe the Bible as it is written, you don't want your children to go to hell and therefore raise them to believe only this.

I lived the typical Christian life as I grew up and through my teen years. I had periods of rebellion but overall I did a good job of living a Christian life. I went through some hard times after I graduated but believed that they occurred because I wasn't living faithfully enough. I married a Christian man and as children entered the picture, we committed to raising them in a Christian household. I believed that by being faithful and living according to the Bible, I was raising my children in a safe environment and that I was doing the right thing. I had blinders on to what was really happening. Eleven years into my marriage and it all began to break down.

My husband was never really faithful to me. It was only 6 months after we were married that he cheated for the first time. I learned of this while I was pregnant with our second child. He apologized and we moved on. It was a pattern that would be repeated over the next 8 years. He would cheat, begin to feel guilty, come to me and confess, I forgave (and was supposed to forget) and we would move on. Each time, it got harder and I began to question. I began to read books by the Pearls (my opinion on these people is not good and will be reserved for a post of its own. They are evil.) which led me to believe that all of the problems we were experiencing in our marriage were my fault because of my lack of submission to my husband who, I was told, was my authority and the voice of god to me. The last straw for me was when my husband asked for an open marriage and the truth of his sexual tastes was revealed to me. This was a man who was a leader in the church. He was an overseer. All of a sudden, I thought, I'm following this man because "God" tells me to and yet he doesn't follow it himself. The hypocrisy of my situation was ridiculous. I left him but I didn't leave my faith. To be fair, I needed that faith to make it through the months that lay ahead. I still had questions though. Questions that the church wasn't answering and that made other Christians uncomfortable to hear asked out loud.

Questions such as:

How can a "loving" God command the murder of entire populations of people, men women and children? (Old Testament is full of these kinds of examples)

If we are to follow the Bible as the literal word of God then why aren't we stoning our rebellious children? Why aren't women still required to cover their heads? Why are divorced people allowed to serve in positions of leadership? Why do we wear mixed fabrics?

Why am I being told to be more forgiving and stay with an unfaithful man who habitually cheated?

Why, when I proceeded to seek a divorce, was I asked to step down from the praise team but my ex-husband was allowed to continue on in his positions in the church?

Fast forward to today. Three years after I left my marriage, I believe in a god but I no longer believe that it is the God of the bible. I cannot deny that there is a power greater than I, greater than humanity. However, after much searching and questioning I no longer believe the Bible to be the literal Word of God.

Many who subscribe to the Christian faith would say that I'm bitter that God didn't do what I wanted him to and that this "crisis" of faith is because I'm not accepting his will. That isn't the case at all. I've researched how the bible came to be and that knowledge alone was enough to make me question my blind devotion to it's teachings. The bible wasn't inspired. It was put together by the men of the church to control the populace. They picked and chose what would be included in this "holy" book by what would support the deity of Christ. That's the basics. There is much more to the history of it but suffice it to say that there are many writings from that time that could have been included but they didn't support the version of history the church leaders wanted to be remembered and so these writings were left out.

This knowledge stunned me. It made me so angry. I felt so lied to. It took me almost four months to work my way through this blinding rage that I felt at the knowledge that I had been lied to my whole life. I had based my ENTIRE life on a book that wasn't even true. Truthfully, I'm not done working my way through it. The anger is still there but it is no longer a blind rage, it is more a burning fire that motivates me to learn the truth and to stop furthering untruths. The realization that I no longer had faith in the bible turned my world upside down.

How was I going to raise my children? The only framework I had was scripture.

How was I going to make decisions? I had always relied on the Bible to tell me what to do.

What about my family and friends who still believe? My acceptance by them feels dependent on my believing what they believe.

I learned that I can still raise my children to be good, decent people without going to the bible for everything. It is harder. I can no longer just say "You must do this because God commands it." But I also feel that it makes me think more about what I tell them to do and how I instruct them. I'm teaching them to think about their actions and WHY something should or shouldn't be done. I'm teaching them to think about the impact on humanity and others and their own consciences in regards to their actions. Yes, often, they end up following what the bible teaches but sometimes they don't. Such as the teachings of the bible on homosexuality. The kids are learning to question why god would create people to be gay and then sentence them to hell. I think these are excellent questions for them to ask.

I learned the same thing about making decisions. Relying on the bible to tell me what to do saved me from having to take responsibility for the decisions I made. I could just say "The bible told me...". Now I have to research and think. Wow...so sad as I write that out. We SHOULD have to think and reason and figure it out instead of just wanting someone to tell us what to do. I'm learning to think critically about situations and I'm becoming a better person in the process.

The friends and family issue? Still not resolved. I've lost most of my friends from my old life. Or rather, I've given them up. We no longer have anything in common and it is very awkward to say I don't believe what you believe anymore. I've tried to pretend and nod and smile but it is so false that I cannot continue. One of the things I had determined when I left my ex-husband was that I wasn't going to pretend anymore. I was going to be true to myself. I still hold to that, I just hadn't realized who that self was going to be and how hard it was going to be to be true.

This week, for the first time, I finally told someone from the church that I no longer claim to be a christian. That I no longer believe the bible. It was terrifying but freeing. I realized then that I needed to tell my best friend. I was so scared. This woman is amazing. She is my support system. She has been my tether to reality and to sanity when the waves of my life have tried to drown me. She is also one of the strongest Christian women I know. She and her husband are REAL people and they are the one reason I haven't turned my back on Christians altogether. I also know how dear to her the words of the bible are and I didn't want to hurt her. At the same time, she is my BEST friend and I felt like this needed to be in the open because by nodding and pretending I was lying to her and you can't have a relationship with someone if you are lying. Especially about something so important to the other. So...I told her. And she is still my best friend and I know she still loves me. I know that it hurts her heart to know that I don't believe and I know that she still goes to her God in prayer for me. And it doesn't offend me because she isn't trying to control me, she just loves me and according to her belief system, I'm lost.

My family? This is going to be harder. My sister and her husband, they already know and because they are atheists, they support me. One of my brothers know and he's supportive as well. My littlest brother and my parents do not know and I haven't figured out how to handle it. It will break my parent's hearts. My mom is a very strong personality and I have tried my entire life to earn her approval. She is proud of me for going to school and for doing so well on my own but she will not understand my walking away from the faith. She will not approve and this hurts my heart in a way I don't even know how to express. My dad is a quiet person and he won't verbally express disappointment or sadness but I'll see it in his eyes. My little brother and his wife are in college to be missionaries. Their faith is their life's work. I don't want them to look at me and see me as lost and yet I don't know that it can be any other way. To them, nothing matters or is worthwhile without Christ and so no matter what I do, I will not be enough.

I've asked myself if the potential loss is worth what I'm gaining by being true to myself. The answer continues to be yes. It is going to be hard and I imagine I'm going to cry many tears through the process of being honest with people. But I cannot and will not be false. I will not pretend to be something other than what I am.