Non-effect of Christian Science

As I write this, it’s a few days after Christmas, the Boxing Week sales are in full effect, and I am slowly recovering from a holiday battle with a flu virus that finally caught up to me. It started innocently enough as a little scratch in the throat, but snowballed from there and has laid me flat for the last three days. Since Tuesday, when I battled through it to drive to my cousins’ place where I usually spend Christmas, I’ve been virtually a recluse on their downstairs family room couch. Christmas dinner, with the failure of the oven, was an entertaining (for all of us) comedy of errors, all adding up to a holiday few of us will forget. It was the only moment I made an appearance that day.

Seasons Greetings

Image credit: Truth Saves (www.truth-saves.com).

Today is a festive day; a day for family and friends; and a day to celebrate all that is good. It’s taken me a long time to find joy again in the Christmas season. Christmas Day is the day my Dad took his final breath, and it is the day that the final tragic failure of Christian Science in my own family came to its full fruition. But, I have slowly regained my joy in this season, and adopted new traditions as old ones have faded away. I’ve even begun to try my hand at some of the Christmas baking that my parents used to do–after all, that’s the only way I can enjoy those treats now. I’m not as good at it as they were, but then again, they had years of practice to perfect their art. I am merely a young padawan.

Misplaced Loyalty (Warning: a bit of profanity ahead)

Image credit: Intelligence is sexy (Facebook page).

How many of us have stuck too long with something because we thought, or were told and we believed, that it was the right thing? How long misplaced loyalty can draw on. In my case, with Christian Science, it dragged on for 40 years. I’m not sure if I necessarily became a slave to my beliefs (I always had my questions and doubts), but it certainly was a dysfunctional relationship of the worst kind.

Something More Disgusting I’ve Read…

For an example of how truly despicable, disgusting, and truly misogynistic some Christians can be, give this a quick read, or just Google Doug Phillips. If there is such a place as Hell, I think he deserves to spend some time there in the afterlife. This man is a true example of human flotsam. If anyone wants to know why I and many others such as myself despise organized religion, this is a perfect example.

Stuff I’ve Been Reading and Watching

Here’s some interesting things I’ve been reading and watching lately:

Life’s Trajectory

Image credit: Doghousediaries (thedoghousediaries.com)

We rarely end up where we plan in life. Well, most of us don’t anyway. When we’re younger, many of us imagine a straight line, leading perhaps through college or vocational school, then some sort of career, perhaps marriage, and maybe kids.

Uncomfortable Truths (a follow-up to “Where’s Mary?”)

My post “Where’s Mary?” from earlier this week has generated some interest from a fellow ex-Christian Scientist blogger (who re-blogged it on her blog) and some of her/his followers, although I don’t think the Christian Science apologist really read my post. In this post, I ask the rhetorical questions, “What are Christian Scientists afraid of?” and “Why are Christian Scientists in stealth mode?”. While I do sort of answer them in the post, here’s an in-your-face answer to that: a video by Liz Heywood, a survivor of religious-based child neglect. I’ve talked about her case many times in the past, how her Christian Scientist parents chose prayer over conventional medical treatment to treat a bone infection that left her permanently crippled, eventually necessitating amputation of the affected leg. Had her parents sought treatment, she could have been successfully treated with antibiotics, and the whole thing would have been an anecdotal memory of childhood.

Where’s Mary?

I have lurked on the Christian Way forum for a number of years, and have now posted twice as a guest commenter. I enjoy this forum and appreciate it as a gathering place and outlet for those of us I like to call “refugees from an obscure religion”, whether we be religious or not. A thread I recently posted my second ever comment on inspires today’s post (my comment is #22235–signed “Emerging Gently”). The topic of the thread touches on an interesting trend I’ve noticed recently with Christian Scientists’ interactions with media, specifically blogs, guest blogs, articles, etc.–most often from those who act as the spokespeople for Christian Scientists: Committees on Publication (I’ll call them COPs for short), but also other Christian Scientists as well.

Something Disgusting I’ve Read

More reasons I have nothing but disdain (to put it very mildly) for evangelical Christians. Tax exemptions and deductions for religious organizations must end!