4 ms·

I'm trans and sexually active. I was raised evangelical, amongst the Pokemon-promotes-evolution, Satan-left-bones-in-the-earth-to-trick-us variety. This gives m

I'm trans and sexually active. I was raised evangelical, amongst the Pokemon-promotes-evolution, Satan-left-bones-in-the-earth-to-trick-us variety. This gives me the willies. It reminds me of being six years old and questioning whether everything I saw that wasn't church was evil. I dealt with suicidal thoughts for many years, largely because my rearing amounted to being shoved in a box and told not to come out. Also, "Covenant Eyes" sounds like it came straight out of The Handmaid's Tale.

soulofmischief 4y ago
Sorry you had to go through that. Christianity is so fucked up. I was raised Catholic and wasn't allowed to have long hair or dress myself or play flute in band etc. because it would turn me gay, heavily physically abused on a near-nightly basis, yada yada. No Pokemon or Harry Potter. Solidarity, friend.
- tb_technical 4y ago
  I was raised Catholic, and none of that happened. You were raised by a lunatic.
  - ASalazarMX 4y ago
    You were probably raised by a kind of Catholic I call "Catholic Light". They pray, go to church, think of god from time to time, and that's about it. Hardcore Catholicism is scary like any extremist religion, it will instill in children the fear of being watched and judged all the time, with no place to hide, not even your thoughts. It will make you fear eternal torture in hell because you're impure since birth, and every tiny sin makes you impure again. You become totally dependent on Catholic authority because only they can clean and save your soul, only for it to become dirty again almost immediately. Subjecting a child to the fear of thought crime is the actual lunacy.
    - soulofmischief 4y ago
      Yep. Most of my early hacking endeavors and criminal mentality were developed while circumventing net nanny software and learning how to sneak and lie effectively. I wasn't allowed a computer in my room, there were long stretches of time where I didn't have a door, and when I finally got a phone it was subject to daily random confiscation so that my texts could be read. I struggled deeply with a sense of identity. Sorry you had to deal with that stuff, too. I know that you don't gain that kind of perspective without seeing it for yourself.
    - tb_technical 4y ago
      I'll say the same thing I said to soulofmischief: you're painting with a broad brush. Who's to say my "Catholic light" behaviour isn't how the majority of what Catholics act? In fact, I bet that's so. Characterizing a group by a small minority is the work of demagogues and thugs.
      - soulofmischief 4y ago
        > Who's to say my "Catholic light" behaviour isn't how the majority of what Catholics act? It's not about how the sheep act, or if they believe their own dogma. It's how the leadership acts, now and historically. And public sentiment is also localized. Not every Christian is born in white America. > Characterizing a group by a small minority is the work of demagogues and thugs. The small minority (a questionable label without citation) does the majority of damage, while the rest of the congregation fund and venerate them, sticking their heads up their own asses so that they don't have to see what they're really contributing to. Painting your detractors as thugs is just so lame, so lazy, I know you can do better than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_violence
  - soulofmischief 4y ago
    I was raised by a Catholic deacon, in a family of prominence in my local diocese. Before dismissing my experiences and perspective, you would do well to question your own experiences and perspective. Perhaps you were raised thinking you were Catholic, but I was raised according to what the Church actually peddles. I was deeply involved. Mass every Sunday morning, beatings on Sunday night (most nights, actually), religious education every week, forced participation in youth group and anti-humanitarian protests. My traumatic and abusive experience is indistinguishable from a cult, and your effort to discredit my experience of the Catholic faith, intentional or not, is extremely harmful to me and others who have suffered. And when I refused to be confirmed into the faith at 15? I was dropped on the streets and made homeless for years, just barely etching out a high school diploma despite my circumstances. That's the Catholic institution. Anti-education and anti-humanitarian at its core.
    - swat535 4y ago
      So I consider myself a fairly religious person. I went through RCIA and is in good communion with the Church. After I received Catechesis and was Baptized, I began to dig deeper.. I started reading many of the Encyclical Letters (Humane Vitae, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, etc.), history of early Church fathers, as well the works of theological philosophy such as Summa Theloica and so on, I've concluded that far too many "Catholics" either have very little or no understanding of Catholicism at all. When you mix this with right wing politics, nationalists, extremists,.. you end up with something that ventures so far from Catholicism that it becomes unrecognizable. Just to make a single example nowhere in the Catechism does it say you should be shunned for refusing Confirmation.. in fact being "forced" to do any of it deems it invalid! Nor those it justify any kind of violence or hate towards transgenders and homosexuals. It really is a shame that many Catholics (and broader Christians as well) seem to struggle with treating LGBT brothers and sisters with dignity. Treating another human being with dignity and respect does not mean you endorse any of their actions, it's just... how we are called to love. There's nothing I want more for people than for them to realize that they have immense value as a child of God outside of anything else - their sexuality, their appearance, etc. because it's heartbreaking to me that many feel they do not. Anyway, it doesn't take much for me to reconcile being respectful of others with my faith. I guarantee that I consistently fail at doing this in a proper way but I do try. We're all sinners in the end and we all have things that we need to work on. I am sorry you went through this.
bergenty 4y ago
- danbolt 4y ago
  Give me strength.
ASalazarMX 4y ago
Indoctrination of toddlers is one of the most evil things in this world. They still haven't developed their brains enough to have common sense, they will believe whatever the adults tell them is true. It's akin to brainwashing, and the worst part is that indoctrinated parents will indoctrinate their children themselves, just to be accepted in their community. Wait for the kids to grow old enough to choose a religion for themselves, meanwhile you can still teach them values, ethics, and common sense.

soulofmischief 4y ago

Sorry you had to go through that. Christianity is so fucked up. I was raised Catholic and wasn't allowed to have long hair or dress myself or play flute in band etc. because it would turn me gay, heavily physically abused on a near-nightly basis, yada yada. No Pokemon or Harry Potter. Solidarity, friend.

tb_technical 4y ago
I was raised Catholic, and none of that happened. You were raised by a lunatic.
- ASalazarMX 4y ago
  You were probably raised by a kind of Catholic I call "Catholic Light". They pray, go to church, think of god from time to time, and that's about it. Hardcore Catholicism is scary like any extremist religion, it will instill in children the fear of being watched and judged all the time, with no place to hide, not even your thoughts. It will make you fear eternal torture in hell because you're impure since birth, and every tiny sin makes you impure again. You become totally dependent on Catholic authority because only they can clean and save your soul, only for it to become dirty again almost immediately. Subjecting a child to the fear of thought crime is the actual lunacy.
  - soulofmischief 4y ago
    Yep. Most of my early hacking endeavors and criminal mentality were developed while circumventing net nanny software and learning how to sneak and lie effectively. I wasn't allowed a computer in my room, there were long stretches of time where I didn't have a door, and when I finally got a phone it was subject to daily random confiscation so that my texts could be read. I struggled deeply with a sense of identity. Sorry you had to deal with that stuff, too. I know that you don't gain that kind of perspective without seeing it for yourself.
  - tb_technical 4y ago
    I'll say the same thing I said to soulofmischief: you're painting with a broad brush. Who's to say my "Catholic light" behaviour isn't how the majority of what Catholics act? In fact, I bet that's so. Characterizing a group by a small minority is the work of demagogues and thugs.
    - soulofmischief 4y ago
      > Who's to say my "Catholic light" behaviour isn't how the majority of what Catholics act? It's not about how the sheep act, or if they believe their own dogma. It's how the leadership acts, now and historically. And public sentiment is also localized. Not every Christian is born in white America. > Characterizing a group by a small minority is the work of demagogues and thugs. The small minority (a questionable label without citation) does the majority of damage, while the rest of the congregation fund and venerate them, sticking their heads up their own asses so that they don't have to see what they're really contributing to. Painting your detractors as thugs is just so lame, so lazy, I know you can do better than that. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_violence https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_and_violence
- soulofmischief 4y ago
  I was raised by a Catholic deacon, in a family of prominence in my local diocese. Before dismissing my experiences and perspective, you would do well to question your own experiences and perspective. Perhaps you were raised thinking you were Catholic, but I was raised according to what the Church actually peddles. I was deeply involved. Mass every Sunday morning, beatings on Sunday night (most nights, actually), religious education every week, forced participation in youth group and anti-humanitarian protests. My traumatic and abusive experience is indistinguishable from a cult, and your effort to discredit my experience of the Catholic faith, intentional or not, is extremely harmful to me and others who have suffered. And when I refused to be confirmed into the faith at 15? I was dropped on the streets and made homeless for years, just barely etching out a high school diploma despite my circumstances. That's the Catholic institution. Anti-education and anti-humanitarian at its core.
  - swat535 4y ago
    So I consider myself a fairly religious person. I went through RCIA and is in good communion with the Church. After I received Catechesis and was Baptized, I began to dig deeper.. I started reading many of the Encyclical Letters (Humane Vitae, Sacerdotalis Caelibatus, etc.), history of early Church fathers, as well the works of theological philosophy such as Summa Theloica and so on, I've concluded that far too many "Catholics" either have very little or no understanding of Catholicism at all. When you mix this with right wing politics, nationalists, extremists,.. you end up with something that ventures so far from Catholicism that it becomes unrecognizable. Just to make a single example nowhere in the Catechism does it say you should be shunned for refusing Confirmation.. in fact being "forced" to do any of it deems it invalid! Nor those it justify any kind of violence or hate towards transgenders and homosexuals. It really is a shame that many Catholics (and broader Christians as well) seem to struggle with treating LGBT brothers and sisters with dignity. Treating another human being with dignity and respect does not mean you endorse any of their actions, it's just... how we are called to love. There's nothing I want more for people than for them to realize that they have immense value as a child of God outside of anything else - their sexuality, their appearance, etc. because it's heartbreaking to me that many feel they do not. Anyway, it doesn't take much for me to reconcile being respectful of others with my faith. I guarantee that I consistently fail at doing this in a proper way but I do try. We're all sinners in the end and we all have things that we need to work on. I am sorry you went through this.

bergenty 4y ago

danbolt 4y ago
Give me strength.

ASalazarMX 4y ago

Indoctrination of toddlers is one of the most evil things in this world. They still haven't developed their brains enough to have common sense, they will believe whatever the adults tell them is true. It's akin to brainwashing, and the worst part is that indoctrinated parents will indoctrinate their children themselves, just to be accepted in their community. Wait for the kids to grow old enough to choose a religion for themselves, meanwhile you can still teach them values, ethics, and common sense.