Morning. It's three AM. I like getting up early. The world is always mostly quiet at 3 AM. My head inside is seldom so. Internal noise. We all have it to some degree I imagine. So. I'm going to let this internal unquiet spill onto this page.
I started this blog about ten years ago. A teacher I had in private school, whom I'd greatly admired, had a blog I'd discovered after I began following him on social media. He was a great teacher. You could tell he really enjoyed forming young minds.
This school where I met the teacher was a private Christian school. Non-denominational, this school like to call itself. Baptists. Brethren, all sorts of funny names worshiping the same God. Catholics, they taught us, were going to hell. Unless they saw the light, accepted Jesus and began thinking and believing like them. Reformed Catholics were a hot commodity among our numbers.
My first church was a Brethren church I believe. Bowman Street Church of something in Mansfield, Ohio. Yes. Bowman Street. Not far from the steel mill and the Little Kentucky neighborhood my mother had grown up in. I know. Shocking. We were white trash and remain so although some of our family have forgotten.
I cannot remember who first told me there was a God. Funny. But in my Protestant upbringing we were told we worshiped the only Living God. That sentence sends shivers up my spine now days. Everyone else is going to hell. Unless. Drum roll. They get "Saved."
"Saved" was a biggie. After a sermon. With every head bowed. You got to think about stuff. Then the alter call. You walked forward, prayed with whomever. Confessed your sin and asked for forgiveness. Then asked Jesus to come into your heart. You were then saved. At a later date, you got Baptized. Dunked of course for those that merely got sprinkled were heathens and going to hell.
Hell. I was scared to death of hell and did not want to go there. Still don't. Fire and other icky unpleasant stuff was there. And the Devil. Oh shit. I capitalized his name. Of course his real name is Lucifer. God. I don't even like saying his name.
Different things were, "Of the Devil" as I was taught at the school and the churches I hung at. Dancing led to sex. Yep. That did happen to me later in life. If I got lucky. Movies and bowling were bad. They served alcohol in bowling alleys, and movies had bad words and sex. If a fellow Christian saw you going in these places, you were being a bad witness for Christ, and could cause your brother or sister in Christ to fall and head to the dreaded hell.
I guess. Now days. I sometimes call myself a Baptist. But. I embraced all religion for many years. But let us just stick to the fundamentals.
I guess I was a Fundamentalist for awhile but did not know. I was having no fun.
I had an enormous number of Catholic friends growing up. I was really drawn to their faith for a while. Of course. In my early life. I had to "Witness" to them and tell them they were wrong and in danger of hell fire. Romans 3:23 rolled off my tongue and John 3:16 followed. Of course the King James Version was the only true word. The living word, they taught me.
What do I believe now? My beliefs are no one's bizz. It's between me and my God. Your God is yours. I no longer enjoy discussing matters such as eternal security or baptism or anything on the subject thank you very much.
We live in times when we cannot discuss things as the rational beings we sometimes used to be. We are divided. Separated by an abyss. Them versus us.
We are democrats. Republicans. Independents. Red. Brown. Yellow. Black. And white. Separatists. Wiccans. Racists. Northerners. Southerners. Christians. Muslims. Jewish persons. All God's children's.
