Written in response to the question How many different churches were you exposed to while growing up?



NOTE: This is not the Marti that occasionally posts here; note the different spelling.

My response:

I did not grow up attending all the other churches. The churches in our school section were the type that would not darken each other's doorway on a Sunday morning. Outsiders probably thought we all went to the same church because we dressed so similar, but we did NOT go to the same church. Any child old enough to go to school would have been scandalized at the idea that those [whichever denomination] were the same as US!?!

We children knew who went to which church, though we never talked about it to each other. Most of us spoke Pennsylvania German at home but at school we were forced to speak English just so we learned the language of the land. We didn't know the English names of the churches anyone went to so it was kind of hard talking about it. But we KNEW. Since none of our churches allowed education beyond Grade 8, all the teachers were "outsiders" from town.

So far as we were concerned they weren't even Christian but I suppose they might have been very strict Christians. Whatever the case, there was a Bible story and Lord's Prayer every morning, also noon prayer and evening prayer before going home. This was public school in the mid-sixties.

Since my deconversion I've often wondered what role this cess-pool of religion had on my religious development, and later on my deconversion.
By the time I was on my way out I had concluded that in the eyes of God one church is as good as another, and that the church one is born into is probably the church one is supposed to belong to for life. If that church is not accommodating of one's person and needs then God himself is not accommodating. That is my position today.

That translates into concrete evidence that god broke his promises to never leave or forsake me, to provide for all my needs, etc. A nonexistent god might well do this, huh?

So when Christians on the internet try telling me that I just happened to have a bad church I think they haven't a clue what they're talking about; I experienced them all from age six on up.