I'm not welcome in the clubs of my former co-religionists

William Irvine

In July 2010 I decided to visit some of the websites about "The Truth." (Yes, that is the name of the church.)

I usually stay away from sites by and for ex-members because I find the obsession with "scripture" and "the real Jesus" to be unhelpful. I've spent a long time and a lot of energy getting my mind free of a set of oppressive and constrictive beliefs that I learned from my religion's version of Christianity — and in my perspective the other versions can only be marginally better. The Bible, to me, is a horrible document and it hurts people. It comforts people, too, and I don't know how to reconcile my distaste for the book with the peace that it offers to people, some of whom are dear to me. But I do know that I don't believe enough of the Holy Bible to consider it a good book.

I re-visited "Veterans of the Truth," which I believe is one of the two big ones (along with "Telling the Truth.")

Within a minute of arrival at the home-page of "VOT," I came across a video called "Hell is REAL!"

Ahem....

I left a note in the comments section. I refered to the content of the video as "guilt manipulation."

I also wrote an email to the site administrator.

The site administrator Cheryle wrote a polite letter in return. I won't quote her because I didn't ask permission. She referred me to an article called "Why I left atheism."

I haven't read the article, which is long, and which (I scanned it) refers to Jesus Christ as the savior. .

Cheryle also informed me that she'd removed my comment about the Hell video.

I had to suggest that, with a name like "Veterans of the Truth," a website should serve as a resource for anybody who has chosen to leave the religion, or who is thinking of doing so. While they are honest about their Christian ideology, and I respect that, it's not helpful to everybody — and in fact it excludes people who just don't need more of the same religion from another perspective.

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