I hope you didn’t give him any money?

I shall relate the story of my older brother. We grew up in evangelical type church which was fun as a child. When we were teens an evangelist came to town on a slavation tour. That service went on and on and on. I was twelve. I wanted to be saved. So I prayed and prayed. At the end the preacher asked had anyone received salvation. My brother raised his hand. I was shocked. He hated everything that church stood for. I recall my parents were happy about this, while I sulked on the way home. To me my brother was the incarnation of evil. Years later we are sitting in a bar. I said to him, what did it feel like to get saved that day. "Oh that. Remember that girl Rhonda"? I did because she was very pretty. "Well she said I would never get in her pants until I was saved. So I faked it". Again I was shocked. "You mean you faked being saved in church"? "Yeah", he said. "Why not, everyone else did". Then he told me to ask my mom what went on there. Only later did my Mom tell me the truth of the what was really going on. Of people having sex with other men's wives, of all the adultery taking place. Even the preacher was in on it. That is why he suddenly fled the church. One of the men found out about him and his wife and went to his house with a gun. "And did you", I asked my brother "Get in her pants". "Yeah, she was alright".

Amen!

That is some 'read'...thank you!

If your god is ok with all the suffering in the world. Then your god is a Tyrant who needs to be brought down. That's just my opinion

You can't feel what is NOT there!!!!! True story: I was standing out in the entrance of a church during the church service. In walked a transvesite (we call them Mahu in Hawaii). I welcomed the person and encouraged them to go into the sanctuary and join the service. I noticed the reluctance in her body language and told her it was ok...please come in.

Unfortunately she took my advice and walked into the church sanctuary. Upon her entrance, the church folk turned around in their seats and gazed at this person as though she had walked out of a sewer. Facial expressions and all!! No love of god anywhere to be found. Embarrassed and hurt, she left the church and never came back.

The Bible encouraged.."Whosoever will let him/her come" Ironically that churches motto was..."YOU HAVE A RIGHT TO BE FREE"
The biggest line of B.S. I had ever heard!!!

One thing for certain though, I did have a right to be free from religious judgement, condemnation and B.S. I left the church!!

So sad their god allowed the Holocaust to happen.

God is a stalker!

Ok so the pastor is sorry/feels sorrow. do you have to? do you have to respond in the pastor's terms? I'll bet you're good. You have an authentic life and belief system (feel free to specify). YOU ARE GOOD!!. go forward

The love of god, ha

I always want to respond to that line of talk with "I am sorry you're wasting your life misleading and wasting other people's lives with your faith in your religious fantasty." But I don't out of respect for freedom to do whatever stupid thing you want with your time on this rock.

I'm sorry he's wasted his miserable life.

Well said!

I am sorry he never received a gift from Santa. Unfortunately Santa is,not real either.

Right on kido, if you allow me to be old fashion sounding, but you said it all and I agree with it !

Very well stated.

What great insight!! Thanks for your post.

This should be billboarded. Seriously.

The bad thing is that he probably doesn’t know the history of his religion. It’s very sad when they have blind faith.

When someone says that I just say how much I loved Santa Claus at age four, But then I grew up and became educated, Dear Pastor, I am sorry you feel so selfish that your beliefs must be for all.

The Unitarian Universalist Congregation (UU) I belonged to in Columbia, SC had a pastor who went to seminary as a Baptist and preached as a Baptist and left that denomination because he could no longer preach what he did not believe. One of the members there was a retired Methodist preacher and one where I live now was an ordained minister. As most of you may know UUs have no doctrine leaving it to an individual to believe what they want including nothing at all. I personally am atheist as are most of our members and many others are agnostic. We have close to 600 members. So NO and hell NO. This country does not belong to the Christians; it belongs to all of us!!!!

He is just sorry that you know more than he realizes. He will be out of support when the rest of his congregation wakes up to the fact. You should have told him to get a real job only to find out that he probably has no other skills other than his Sunday one. Never try and rationize or waste your efforts talking with these people.

A friend of mine while hauving a day out in Glasgow ways told by some soul beggers that the reason she was disabled was because she did not believe in gawd. Therevwas no discusion with my friend beforehand to establish her beliefs first.
Anyone else know of or had similar experiences.

I got kicked out of a youth group because I was gay and believed in a woman's right to choose. I was like 15 or 16 and the leader told the entire group I was a homosexual, that he didn't approve of me, and I shouldn't be there. I'm sorry for them because if they cannot accept who I am and love everybody, it is their own fault!

I'm sorry you spoke to a pastor. I stopped reading from that first sentence.