"You Can Check Out Any Time You Like, But You Can Never Leave"

I haven't entered the premises of the old "fundigelical" church I was undercover in since The Confrontation. I went in to personally resign my membership, and oh my, was that a mistake....

First, I was told by the church's office director that formal notice would have to be given before Wednesday, to put it on this month's business meeting to be formally accepted. Then, "Pastor Jones" happened to show up as I was leaving, and requested that I meet with him in his office.

I should have known they were going to try to reel me back in. Pastor Jones, instead of trying to be the typical raging fundamentalist pastor, likes to portray himself as the soft spoken southern intellectual (originally from North Carolina, graduated with a PhD in church history).

He wanted to know why I was wanting to resign my membership in the church, and had told me that he didn't like the idea that the church's office director had about me sending in my resignation via e-mail to her. He wanted a signed paper copy mailed in, (so it will be more official, of course). I told him about my theological issues with Christianity, about The Confrontation, and finding peace and acceptance at the Unitarian church.

Undaunted, he kept wanting to ask more questions, kept wanting me to come back to Christianity, and actually had the nerve to pull out the "honor your father and mother line".

Yes, he went there, and said that he wished that I could be reconciled with my family, made excuses, maybe it's because of the holidays, etc. I told him him that she has been like that my entire life, and now my dad is starting to act just like her.

I told him that I have always felt like I've been treated like property, and that she won't change that view, won't ever recognize me as an adult. Undaunted, he kept on, started saying that maybe there's a way to keep them in my life, but keep them at a slight distance. I told him that I can't go back to living my life that way, she will not change, I have given her plenty of chances. He clearly didn't agree with me, but he let it go, and then zeroed in on the theological issues.

He wanted to know what led me to change my mind on Christianity, and he kept pushing for me to meet with him later to discuss it. I had told him that I had spent quite a while going over everything myself, it's been 4 years now, it's not a phase (like many Christians I have come out to have thought).

I even consulted with a few people from the church, who ended up introducing me to John Piper, which just disgusted me even more. He said that he felt like he was more equipped to deal with the hard questions of theology, since he had had so much experience as a pastor, plus advanced seminary degrees, and tried to get me to set up appointments with him to discuss it

 Before I said that I had been talking to a few people from the church, he kept wanting to know who I had been talking to about this, it was very reminiscent of the guest post I had Sunday, "Somebody On That Internet".