Excerpt From Escaping Christianity; Finding Christ

Excerpt from my book titled, Escaping Christianity; Finding Christ

In fundamentalism, through repetitive programming, I was focused on fear and literalism. Not unlike most fundamentalists, I became more of a Pharisee, loving rules and rituals rather than loving mankind. My ego-centric self needed to be right rather than righteous. These are hard statements for Christians to swallow indeed. I know it was for me. Coming out was a torrid process for me and spanned years of heartache and confusion. I was fighting for the return of my critical judgement as I waded through decades of piled high, dogmatic poo...

But as hard as it was for me to understand this, I see now that religious systems are for some, absolutely necessary. Human consciousness evolves both individually and collectively and for some, religious structures are beneficial while their individual consciousness is in need of rules, regulations and boundaries. Fledgling consciousness is like children that are in need of parental guidance (Galatians 4). All of our individual experiences benefit the whole of consciousness in some way. For some there is a need to experience restriction until Christ is formed within the whole of mankind - like a pearl within an oyster, closed tightly until the time of opening. Before I understood this valuable truth, I tried to convince others to leave the system as I did. I was like a cage fighter only my opponent was the cage itself. I felt battered and beaten by trying to dismantle the religious system from the inside out as I tried so hard to get those still within it to come out. I now understand that people will remain within restraint as long as they need to, that although a pearl is formed in one, the process is ongoing in another. My problem is that I was still programmed to proselytize.