Welcome, Rechelle

Rechelle, at My Sister's Farmhouse, is a former fundamentalist, homeschooling Christian who has become an atheist, and is being very open about it. Her Parable of the Hole in the Curtain, (I'll include a bit below the fold) about losing her faith, is just amazing. It is amazingly well written, amazingly honest, and an amazingly clear description of what it is to realize that you just don't believe anymore.

Rechelle is no longer accepting comments or emails due to the hate mail her honesty has earned her, but I would like her to know that we know where you're coming from. We support you in your journey, and more than anything else, we appreciate your honesty. Every atheist that stands up to be counted, even if only on the internet, is a step forward for all atheists. We are people, too. Our experiences are valid, our beliefs (or lack thereof) are valid, and we are not going away.

Thank you, Rechelle, and welcome to Hell's Blogroll. (And feel free to come on over and bust out with a well placed "shit".)

Excerpt from the Parable of the Hole in the Curtain:

The holes in the curtain appeared whenever the woman read the bible. Whenever she read about god asking someone to kill their child to prove their faith. Whenever she read about god condoning slavery or misogyny or the murder of women (and not men) for having sex before marriage or for being a homosexual or for working on the sabbath or for disobeying your parents or for having sex with an animal (the animal has to be murdered too of course). She tried to ignore these old laws that were written by the same god who is also Jesus and instead focus on the new laws. Because those old laws were clearly written by an insane person and not an eternal god of love and mercy who longs for a relationship with human beings. The new laws were a little better, but they still condoned slavery and misogyny and quite often they didn’t make any sense either.

So she tried to focus her belief on miracles. She tried to believe that god impregnated a thirteen year old virgin with his god seed and grew a mini-god inside of the virgin. She tried to believe that this same mini-god seed son had been crucified, died and then was RESURRECTED FROM THE DEAD because this is how god shows his love for us. He kills people. Innocent people. A lot! She tried to believe that even though the bible tells the incredible story of Jesus and all the miracles that surround his life and especially his resurrection FROM THE DEAD this amazing event did not make one single Roman history book. Which is kind of like the U.S. landing on the moon and not being mentioned in the history books in Canada.

The woman began avoiding that room with the window altogether. She didn’t want to watch the shredding curtain fall apart. She stayed in other rooms. Dark rooms. She threw herself into working for her church. She became an elder. She taught Sunday school. She served on committees and directed choirs and organized plays for her church.

But it was impossible. There was a room in her house with a light filled window. And a curtain that was full of holes. She couldn’t forget it was there.