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[–]risistill me 3 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 0 fun4 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Many decades ago I concluded that the purpose of an organized religion is to make its adherents feel superior to other people.

Until a couple of years before I stopped attending church, I believed the purpose of religion was to spare me from burning eternally and to help me behave more like Jesus (as very distinct from Paul). The adults seemed to me to be lovely, caring people, concerned with my well-being.

The more I got old enough to engage in behaviors that my very fundamentalist sect considered unacceptable--listening to secular music, to name one of the more strict views--the more I experienced judgment.

That violates violates the teaching of Jesus as presented in the New Testament. So, my initial disappointment was a gap between the NT and the behavior. Although I stopped attending church, I continued to believe in God--my own version, I suppose--for a number of years after that.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 2 insightful - 2 fun2 insightful - 1 fun3 insightful - 2 fun -  (4 children)

behaviors that my very fundamentalist sect considered unacceptable

You mean like Southern Baptists saying that dancing is sinful? :-)

From the Religious wing of the Old Jokes Home:

Q: Why don't Southern Baptists have sex standing up?
A: Because it's too much like dancing!

[–]risistill me 3 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 2 fun -  (3 children)

You mean like Southern Baptists saying that dancing is sinful?

We were not supposed to listen to secular music. What would we have danced to?

At one point, a group of churches got together to try to figure out what the could do to stop losing so many kids when kids neared or the teen years. One of the things they came up with was jointly renting a roller rink.

I knew a young man from another church, maybe 16 or 17, I expected to see there, but didn't. I asked someone who knew him if he was sick. Nope. His father had not allowed him to attend this brightly lit, extremely well-chaperoned, multi-church event lest there be couple skating, which would involve hand holding!

Somewhere, I have an email with some religious humor. I'll try to unearth it.

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (0 children)

lest there be couple skating...

Plus the kids might start skating backwards, a sure way to end up in the arms of Satan 😈. Vade retro satana!

Not to mention figure skating. A kid might inadvertently do a "figure 666" ⛸️

[–]CaelianPost No Toasties 2 insightful - 3 fun2 insightful - 2 fun3 insightful - 3 fun -  (1 child)

We were not supposed to listen to secular music. What would we have danced to?

Well, there's Salome's Dance of the Seven Veils. Totally biblical!

[–]risistill me 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

She undoubtedly danced to music, but I don't know the tune. And, she danced to have John the Baptist killed. So, she wasn't anyone we were supposed to consider a role model.

David, on the other hand, was supposedly an ancestor of Jesus, beloved of God and author of the psalms. Quite the cv for a shepherd, even if you don't include Goliath and the reign as King of Israel. (Who taught shepherds to read and write back then, I wonder.)

David wrote of music and dancing, but that never got mentioned in my Sunday School. And, given that Bathsheba business, I don't think we were supposed to model on him, either.