Recovering from Religion

I grew up in a Southern Baptist Church or rather churches… My dad was the preacher of a church all my life. I went to the children’s programs, youth retreats, and anything else you could imagine. I was a church kid.

I loved church growing up. The events, the games, memorizing Bible verses at Awanas! It was something I lived for. It made me so happy. But something changed as I got older. I started to notice and hear things that I didn’t feel were right or fair.

The church we were at in Georgia had a very strict view of a Christians life. I’ll never forget a sermon series my youth pastor at the time went through on purity. He said that if a girl had been raped she needed to admit her impurity to her future husband because she had sinned. I remember being kicked off the youth praise team because I attended my public schools homecoming dance my junior year of high school. I remember purity retreats for the girls and being told that if you even kiss a boy before your wedding day then you have sinned.

It all came to a head when I was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer when I was 15. My youth pastor basically said that I had gotten this cancer because I had sinned. God was punishing me.

I lived with this view of a young lady being perfect for years. As a result, I suffered from anxiety attacks constantly because I thought God would punish me for my sin.

This idea of God is so detrimental to people. I lived for years and even to this day still fight the thoughts of what religion did to me as a teenager. So why does the church do this to people???

Religion has destroyed what God really wants with us.

Evan and I had a friend over for supper one night and he explained what God truly wants the best I have ever heard it.

I was holding Savannah up on my arms as she slept while we talked. She just wanted her mommy to hold her and I did. She didn’t do anything to deserve it. In fact she had actually hit me in the nose by accident just before that! Ha! But she needed her mom and when she was in her moms arms she rested.

That picture and explanation of Savannah in my arms helped me let go of some of the religious torments that had been destroying my life.

We have done nothing to deserve it, but the father just wants us to come to him and be held. He wants us to run to him when we mess up. He wants to hold us because we need him.

I know I’m not the only one who is still recovering from what religion has done. I know others have been hurt by the lies that religion has told you.

I just want to tell you that 1) you’re not alone and 2) God loves us so much. Religion tries to tear us apart and down, but I promise you that is not at all what our Heavenly Father actually wants for us.

Just let go and be held by Him.