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I have done much family research, and I understand why all of my family was so deeply a part of the religious community. My first ancestor on one side of my family was a minister in early Virginia. That line had a Methodist minister in every generation from then on.
Another line was mostly Baptist. They came also in the 1700s from Northern Ireland. They were pastors of churches in Alabama and Georgia.
My parents were very active in the church. I was raised there. Most of the social life in my early years was spent at church picnics and dinners. That is how it was here. It changed as I entered college.
I had professors at the two colleges I attended who forced us to question our faith, to confront the realities of the rest of the world. It was hard, but I did it pretty successfully. My parents were thinkers, clear-headed, and they sat down with me during those years, reading the philosphers along with me, helping me see that I could find my own way in all that.
My parents were seeing the changes in the Baptist churches here before their deaths. It was hard for them to deal with it. People like Bakker and Falwell and Robertson were turning out to be crooks and scoundrels. But they still kept their faith, just saw through the trappings of it.
People like this make up a huge majority of the those in the 700 club, at CBN, people who are religious, but being disillusioned by those they trusted.
Many people on this forum are like me, they are making their own religious and political journey, trying to comprehend this world as it is.
I have changed a lot of my views this week, though I did not plan it that way. My so-called "fundie" neighbors have shared a lot of my pain this week. A lot of them are better people than some here think. They know we left the church because of the war, and now they share that pain as well. They have their journeys to make also.
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