Dear Comment Section

Admin V addresses the comment section on why she writes what she writes

Admin V here. Let’s talk about why I write about religion, specifically fundamentalist Christianity, on this page.

I consider what I do here to be voter education. Before I started posting here, one of the things I noticed in comment sections across the social media space was that your average person on the breadth of the left did not understand what we are up against from a fundamental Christianity perspective. I thought that my voice on this subject as a former insider could be useful.

I am no longer Christian. There are a lot of reasons for that. If you scroll back on the substack or the facebook, I do a whole series on why I am no longer Christian. I am an exvangelical, secular witch with a bend towards agnosticism. I don’t know if there is a God. I don’t care if there is a God. I’m doing my best and living life without anxiety about it.

I get a mix of responses on these posts. I get responses that tell me that they appreciate what I’m saying and learn from my posts. I am delighted when I see responses that mean the work that I’m putting in for free because I care matters. I want people to read what I write and then be able to take that information into their own life and maybe make a difference to people around them. I want people to share the information they learn from me or the resources that I recommend with others. That is why I do this.

I get responses from Christians who are mad at me and like to tell me not all Christians. I know not all Christians. Generally speaking, I am referring to a very specific brand of Christian. I generally define them as fundamentalist or evangelical or some other qualifier. I don’t care if you are a Christian. In fact, I am delighted that you have a faith that inspires you to have empathy for others and to care for the least of these. I’ve said many times that I love what Jesus represents and I adore the “least of these” passage from Matthew 25. It is still how I run my life even after I have left Christianity. Caring for the poor, the sick, the troubled, and the prisoner is a wonderful way to live.

To those of you who are mad that I have a favorite passage from the Bible. I also have a favorite Shakespeare quote from Macbeth, a favorite Robert Frost poem, and a favorite line from Jane Austen. I always resonate with Lizzie Bennett when Lady Catherine calls her a headstrong, obstinate girl. Same, Lizzie, same. Like the Bible is literature, poetry, and memoir. I can appreciate the writing and not be a part of the fan club.

The last group of responses I get are from people who hate religion and Christianity in particular. They are absolutists who insist they are right and there can be no other perspective than theirs. This is incredibly frustrating to me because it ignores the intent of the work that I’m doing. The irony is that my beliefs align closer to this group of people than to the Christians, but they are so incredibly angry or whatever it is that they are missing my message.

I am not asking people to convert to Christianity. But the right has used a large swathe of Christians as their base starting in the 1930s. It was a plan in opposition to Roosevelt’s New Deal. They have almost 100 years working to manipulate Christians. We on the left can make them aware of this and help them unpack the theological bull crap they’ve been fed while not disrespecting their faith.

Some people need religion and that is okay. I still like ritual and “prayer” and that is why I practice witchcraft. I’m not super woo woo about it. I call it spicy psychology with candles. I do gratitude rituals and cleansing rituals and focus rituals. There are people who need or want to believe in a creator and that really works for them. And maybe there is a God. As I said, I live in the I don’t know.

Disrespecting others’ belief systems is not a way to win friends and allies. Calling them crazy or stupid is a really fast way to stop them from listening to you. It makes me, an agnostic, want to stop listening to you. I’m not saying that you have to do the work if you don’t want to do it. You don’t have to interact with Christians and learn about their belief structure or about the Bible. You can be on the side reminding people “Hey, we aren’t a Christian nation.” Doing work with the Freedom from Religion Foundation or other atheist groups who are doing amazing work.

But I cannot say this enough. Many, many Christians are indoctrinated into their belief systems since birth. Their family is in the church. Their friends are in the church. Their community is in the church. They very deeply believe or have convinced themselves to believe because to stop believing would be catastrophic to them emotionally, socially, and even intellectually. These people are doctors, lawyers, engineers, electricians, teachers, plumbers, etc. Christians are part of every strata and career in society. Some of them are Christian fundamentalists and grand champions at compartmentalization.

When I lost my faith, it broke me for a long time. I had to rebuild everything from scratch. I don’t think everyone should or even could go through what I and others like me have done. I survived because I had a social circle of friends going through it with me and friends who were on the outside already.

What I’m asking for the militant atheists who hate religion is to stop saying people are crazy or stupid. Some options that you could use instead “I am so glad that I didn’t grow up believing this.” “I am so glad that I got out of this before I became that person.” “I don’t understand how people could believe something like that.” This way you are denigrating the belief system and not the people.

And I’m not asking you to have compassion for individuals who are awful. Because Fuck Greg Locke. Fuck Mark Driscoll. Fuck Jerry Falwell Jr. Fuck MAGA asshat pastors who are manipulating their congregations to believe that Jesus would be cool with the shit they do. Fuck Jim Bob Duggar. Fuck Bill Gothard. But maybe lay off the broad-brush statements.

The broad-brush statements are also really insulting to me and others who legitimately believed and fought social conditioning to get out. I wasn’t stupid. I wasn’t crazy. I had been brainwashed since childhood to believe the sky was green.

You aren’t going to listen to me. I say stuff like this on every post, but I thought I would be explicit this time.