Fundamentalist Ministry Website Compares People Leaving Their Churches To Sewage

I thought I had heard it all when it came to fundamentalists hating on people who leave their closed minded organizations, but no, this one tops the list.

I have heard/seen fundamentalists lash out at former fundamentalists in many different ways, saying that they were never "true Christians" to begin with, attacking their character (because, you know, anyone who isn't living according to our horrible ideas must be a vile, awful "sinner").

They will dismiss them by calling them "bitter" in a very patronizing tone, as though you are a child who is sour over your family not buying the toy you wanted for Christmas, and even go as far as to deny the sexual abuse that some people suffered, and call the victims "opportunists" who are out for money in a lawsuit.

They will lash out at former fundamentalists in many different ways, but I never heard a fundamentalist pastor or group out rightly call former fundamentalist excrement. Call it what you want, excrement, poop, even shit, but it is very clear what a group/blog that calls itself Ministry Best Practices means when it says this about people leaving their churches:

"On one hand it can be a healthy thing. Perry Noble say that because the church is a body, and every good body has a back door (I think you know what I mean here!) - it is important for the church not to be constipated. It can be healthy for a people to leave a church. If they are not aligned to the vision or if they are being contentious, then we should allow them to leave."

That is exactly what they intended to say, to compare people who leave churches that agree with their fundamentalist beliefs. Notice the last line:

"If they are not aligned to the vision or if they are being contentious, then we should allow them to leave."

Let me translate from fundie speak here, it should read:

"If they don't agree with the pastor or the leadership of the church in any way, shape or form, whether that  be in church doctrine (beliefs), or in how their church should be run, then they should be forced out of the church" 

That is what they truly mean, I never thought I would see the day when a fundamentalist group would just come out and compare people who disagree with them (whether it be more liberal Christians, or former Christians) to excrement, but they are being honest here, and I think they speak for many groups out there, but most of those groups wouldn't have the nerve to come out and say it.

Big hat tip to Joe Sands of Incongruous Circumspection for bringing this to my attention in a blog post of his, and for calling this group out on their blog.

Blogger Incongruous Circumspection Responds to a Pascal's Wager Argument from a Reader.

When he wrote a great blog post about his change in beliefs from fundamentalist to agnostic and his friend's reactions, titled Who Am I Now, Really? , an anonymous reader left a comment that in his words was a "veiled Pascal's Wager". See his great rebuttal to that comment here, Answering a Veiled Pascal's Wager.

The Pascal's Wager argument is often used by fundamentalists as a "what if you are wrong?" argument. It basically states that if a skeptic is wrong, in the afterlife they will lose everything, but a believer who is wrong will lose nothing, other than believing in something that turned out not to be true, because that person (according to the argument) lived a better and more fuller life due to their faith.It was named after the 1700's mathematician and Christian, Blaise Pascal.

I have talked about Incongruous Circumspection before in my favorite bloggers post. He's one of those bloggers that doesn't post often, but each post is worth waiting for.

A shout out to some of my favorite atheist and former Christian bloggers

There are so many great bloggers out there who are atheists, agnostics, and former Christians, and I want to introduce you to some of them. Some are completely atheist, some are fellow fundamentalism survivors like me, but are still searching/confused as to what they currently believe (but know that they don't want any part of Christianity).

One of my favorite qualities in a blogger is when they take the time out of their day to respond to readers and their comments, concerns, and questions. If I had to give out a "most responsive blogger" award, it would hands down go to Godless Poutine of My Secret Atheist Blog. Not only does he respond regularly to comments from readers, despite having a busy life that includes being an IT professional, a husband, and a father of a 3 year old son who has autism, but he actually devoted an entire blog post to giving a well thought out response to my comments on a previous post on Freethought blog's recent controversies and their proposed Atheism + movement. Read the post and comments following here .

Taking the time to do that shows just how seriously he takes his blog, and it's readers, and that's a great quality in a blogger.

My favorite informative blog on atheism is Debunking Christianity by John Loftus. John gives a unique perspective on Christianity from an academic prospective. He was a Phd theology student in the Church of Christ denomination before leaving the faith. He is an avowed atheist, and you can read his full intro story here. If you have been looking for a good resource of Christian doctrine/ the Bible and it's flaws, as well as good atheist arguments, look no further.

My award for quirkiest former Christian blogger would have to go to Joe at Incongruous Circumspection .
He is a former fundamentalist and was part of the extremist "Quiverfull" movement which feels that birth control of any form is immoral, and that having many children is a sign of divine blessing. He and his wife have 6 children, and he now considers himself an agnostic

 His posting style is hilariously erratic, and at times full of snark. Sometimes he can go from a long response to the sexism and horrible child raising techniques of  fundamentalist leaders Ed Baker and John Piper, to this post, in which he states his opinion on abortion in just 8 words, and that includes the title of the post! He also enjoys talking about on the random insights on life that only raising children can give you. Sometimes the shortest statements are the most profound, as seen by his abortion post, there's many great comments there, including a great rebuttal comment from a reader to my comment.

A good blog for looking at Christianity from the perspective of someone who has lived it is Past Tense, Present Progessive by blogger "Latebloomer". She presents a very raw, real, personal look at her homeschooled upbringing, and how it effects her still to this day. Read the full series on her life from childhood to early adult years here. She also does a great job of exposing extremists like author Reb Bradley, (distracted OCD moment here, but seriously, a first name of "Reb"? that's just begging for some redneck jokes......) . His books on child raising give a very frightening look at how fundies view their children and their ideas on how to raise them. Her critical review of his 1995 book "Child Training Tips" is very much worth reading. Posts, Introduction , A Parent Who Assumes The Worst , and  An Extremely Controlling Parent  are her posts so far on the subject, check back every couple days for more, it's an eye-opening series.

I could post some more of my favorite blogs but I don't want this post to get too long, I might make a part 2 sometime soon, and I'm also considering expounding more on Latebloomer's criticism of Reb Bradley, my thoughts on what she has exposed about his views, and how much of his views reflect how I was raised as well.

If you don't see any more posts on these topics by Labor Day (September 3rd), you may have to wait for a while, since I will be out of the St. Louis area the week of September 4th, and are unsure how much time I will have to post.

I noticed that people are linking to my blog and reading it from some varied places, including Canada, England, and even Russia. If you are reading this, let me know! Comment, tell me what can be improved, suggest topics, tell me how you found out about my blog. I thank you for reading my thoughts here, but I want you to join me in the discussion.