Non-Believer Former Members of the Worldwide Church of God

This is my story, you can post it, delete it, whatever you want to do, I felt compelled to write it.

I was born in 1966 and somewhere around that time my mother, who already had some issues, became what I would regard as a hardcore christian with the church. She actually trashed a Christmas tree and some gifts in her spin to follow what Herb Armstrong said.

I grew up practically living in a vice. No friends outside the church, they were all evil in some way, no rock music, Satan inspired that and most movies and TV shows. NEVER miss a sabbath, and you will tithe if you starve to death doing it. I have always been a bit of a goth and because I had slightly different tastes, she felt that, as she put it, Satan had taken over my mind.

I went to summer camp three times, twice in Minnesota and once in Texas. I will say those were great times except that I was broke, and due to her Carrie’s mom mentality she had warped my thinking and made it hard to pursue friendship.

We were poor because she loathed work and lived on welfare, her kids, and on church financial assistance for years, which made pastors feel they had the right to own us, and dictate our lives to us.

I was shunned because I was the poor kid, and the other church kids avoided me with a few exceptions. I became very withdrawn. As a result I went through depression, wrote suicide notes and very nearly succeeded. I also married wrong which has had dire repercussions.

On the other hand, there was a time when the ministers took all of the music I owned and condemned it all as anti-Christian (we are talking fifties and sixties rock music, none of the stuff we have nowadays) and told me to destroy it and take up classical music because that was the only kind God allowed. I guess he must have sent them an e mail and I missed it.

That was the first spark of free thinking for me. I spent a day or so analyzing the music and what it meant to me and decided they were all wrong. Of course we were banned from birthdays and all other holidays also.

When the WCG announced that they were selling Amy Grant’s country music Christmas album and changing other beliefs, I quit completely and that was the best thing I ever did. I learned so many things in the following years. I let my hair grow and actually got compliments on it when I realized a man’s hair length does not make him a heathen. I evaluated music based on what I liked about it rather than how it aided Satan in destroying me. I also asked what was wrong with honoring birthdays, and stopped trying to ban my family from everything.

I had embraced gothism from early years, and it had been condemned as absolutely Satanic by people like my mother. She disowned me and turned the rest of the family against me, all the while staying tight with the old church ways.

I soon found that the gothic community was filled with Christians also, and that the idea with them was to live and let live. No condemning of people over music, sexuality or whatever. A few years ago we turned Halloween into a family event of just dressing up and having fun and it was one of our best family oriented experiences.

It took years to pry away from the old beliefs and the damage that was done, but most of it is done now. Do I believe in God? I’d love to see a second coming and see the Utopian society come to pass, ending the evil in the world. But I’m not the one to swear to anything. I don’t know where I will go when I die. I believe most of religion is based on people who attend church for their own reasons, and much of what they preach is not even biblical. Most of them attend to appease God and wind a place in heaven.

I dress in gothic clothing now partly because I like it and it is me, but also because it sets me apart. The shallow minded still condemn me as evil, but people with depth get to know me and ask why I do things.

I like rock music, I also like movies ranging from kid movies to horror, to action to comedy. No Satan hasn’t corrupted my mind. He might get a good laugh out of my mom though.

~Gene

This entry was posted on Sunday, November 29th, 2009 at 11:54 pm and is filed under Personal Story. You can subscribe via RSS 2.0 feed to this post's comments. You can comment below, or link to this permanent URL from your own site. Your comments must be approved by the moderator before they will appear.