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After a 30 year stint as a Christian, I am celebrating 3 year of deprogramming . It may not seem like a big deal for those who didn’t grow up around religion but it is to me.

These 3 years have been great. I actually feel like a better person. Instead of worrying about other people’s sins and going to hell I can mind my own damn business focus on myself and be friends with a gay person without judging them.

It has truly been a liberating experience but I’m far from where I need to be. It seems each day I realize more and more just how indoctrinated I was. The key for me was just to remain open minded and realize that 30 years of indoctrination doesn’t go away in 3 years but I’m committed to when I realize I’m in error with my thinking to correct it

abyers1970 7 May 12
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It will linger and there will be moments that you catch yourself thinking like one of the infected.

Yes but I make an effort to change it when I catch myself doing it.

@abyers1970 It is an on going process. Every once in a while some bugger of a thought wil come out and at least now you can identify the cause!

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I left the fundagelical realm about a generation ago and feel reasonably deprogrammed now but still on occasion I stub my toe on my own expectations or assumptions. I would say it's just now down to about the same dull roar as any member of the species has to deal with; I don't get the sense my remaining blind spots or bad thinking are specifically anchored in my past religious views.

So ... there is an endpoint, somewhere. Sort of.

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Recalling a lifetime of Atheism, the societal suspicions, limited opportunities, and obvious retribution felt stifling.. A solid sixty years into it, the freedom I had to make healthy choices, develop reality based relationships, appreciate nature & science … then raise a couple of the same -- and aided by testimonials of those like yours - lead me to fully appreciate what an easy road I had in comparison.. Stay the course 🙂

Varn Level 8 May 12, 2020
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If I were you I'd stay with those good feelings and not allow yourself to get distracted by the negativity inherent in the Christian religion. Concentrate on the positive.
It's like being a vegetarian or even a vegan: at first you're awash in the glow of being so healthy and free of planet-destroying guilt, but at some point you look around and realize the world hasn't changed! Still a McDonald's and Burger King on every corner, still the grocery shelves are overflowing with meat, billboards, TV commercials, aieee! Everywhere you look, there it is!
Like an alcoholic trying to avoid alcohol's ubiquitousness.
Or a food addict trying to avoid junk food!
Like an agnostic trying to avoid religion!
It's actually not quite as bad as meat, booze, or even junk food.
Unless you go looking for it, it usually leaves you alone, and it's easy enough to avoid in everyday life (except for the omnipresent, 'Have a blessed day!' and annoying stuff like that.
So try to put up with the negativity on this site and elsewhere. It really is great to put all that childish, paranoid fear-mongering behind you and begin seeing the world in a more free, unblinkered light. Don't give that back up by replacing it with yet ANOTHER pair of dark sunglasses.
Just watch where you look, and especially watch where you step. Lots of people don't clean up after their pets.

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I can go with that. The vile shit that was the headmaster of my primary school 57 years ago has a lot to answer for. "May he rot in Hell!"

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Congratulations! Hooray, freedom!

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Sounds like a worthy anniversary to celebrate!

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