A sorry observation indeed

Here is a sample of what I get almost every day in the search text that people have typed in and got to my blog:

masturbation is wrong
sin masturbation
divorce masturbation sin
church says masturbation is sin
masturbation hell evil
bible masturbation right wrong 

Following an earlier post, I only hope each of these poor people will wake up to the plain and simple fact that there is nothing wrong whatsoever with masturbation, that the bible says nothing at all about masturbation, and that the christian church has twisted and bent this simple gift into a grotesque and unrecognisable act of shame. The only reason so many people are struggling with this otherwise very simple issue is because what they have been told by other people is in conflict with what their own feelings are telling them.

To everyone who has ever taught that masturbation is a sin, I tell you that you are a false teacher and a liar, that you have heaped unecessary guilt of those who have trusted your words, and that you should apologise to each and every person that you have deceived.

To everyone who has ever been taught that masturbation is a sin, I tell you that your sexuality is given to you by God and is very good. You are free to discover and enjoy this aspect of your sexuality in the full knowledge that you do this with God’s full blessing and that you have nothing to fear.

Christianity, the evils of masturbation, and other such nonsense.

When I was 16 I converted to christianity with a dramatic experience of joy and freedom. I was then told that masturbation was a sin, and since back then in those days I believed that what christian leaders said was true, I spent the next 8 years (I married at 24) battling and struggling and weeping and confessing and repenting against my own sexuality. Looking back I see now what a misguided and un-necessary waste of my energy and time! I am still angry at the church for having robbed me of so much of the joy of my teenage years because of this simple but stupid lie. The christian religion has done more to twist, contort and generally ruin the beauty of human sexuality than all of “Satan’s demons” put together.

What a fool I have been

Haven’t been “blinded on the road to Damascus” or anything that techno-colour, but sometime between when I started brushing my teeth this morning and when I finished it hit me hard that ranting on like an idiot is really not the best way forward at all, so as of today welcome to “Jon’s post-church journey“. I hope to make a more postive contribution moving forward.

Thank you everyone for your comments that have helped me along on my way.

An Embarrassing Question

Today I have a rather awkward and embarrassing question:

“If you have become unhappy and even angry with several individuals at the church you used to attend (for whatever reason), or have become convinced that the cause of your unhappiness was the structure the leadership have chosen to adopt in running that church, which is the better action to take?

1. Start a blog and rant on and on and on to whoever is bored enough to listen
2. Go back to that church, meet with the individuals concerned, and try and sort it out?”

The Dysfunctional Family (rant)

Warning: my whole body is covered with red buttons clearly labelled “do not push”. Well, what happened this afternoon … yes, someone just HAD TO GO AND PUSH ONE!

Those red buttons will always get me going about how the church-goers look upon me with a mixture of squinty-eyed suspicion and patronising pity when they find out I don’t go to church anymore.

“You can’t live in isolation”, they say, “You need to be in community with other believers.”

Oh, pulllleeeezzzzze.

I would love nothing more than to have meaningful relationships with other Christians, but it just isn’t possible in the institutional church. On Sunday its “welcome, sit down, look at the back of the head of the person in front of you, and listen quietly.” Every minute is organised and controlled from the front by the “leaders”. After that, it’s a stampede for the door to get lunch on. I have never seen a family that meets like this.

Then there’s all the other meetings and activities and whatever. Here’s the study we have prepared for you. Please welcome Mr ABC, our visiting teacher/preacher. The cleaning roster. The music team.

Where is the space just to form quality relationships at our own speed and in our own way?

Losing Leaders (rant)

I heard on the radio that the Christian church is growing supa-fast in Asia, and that some folks here think there is ‘an urgent need for trained Christian leaders’.

I also heard on the same radio station that the Christian church in the West, which has a glut of ’trained Christian leaders’,  is in decline, with people leaving the institutional church in herds.

So why on earth would anyone want to send our ‘trained Christian leaders’ to Asia?