Currently living in a "Christian Program."
July 28, 2015 at 12:16 am
(This post was last modified: July 28, 2015 at 12:19 am by Secular Atheist.)
For about a month now I've been living in a "Christian program." I don't know if it should be analogous to Jesus Camp, however, there is a fundamental similarity to it. I wasn't secretly surprised by pastors or members of the church in the heat of the night, but rather offered an "apartment" for 500 dollars rent. My aunt "found" this place for me because I didn't like living with other people she knew due to how unsanitary their place of residence was. I have to share a bedroom with three guys at the new place, I'm not kidding.
I will supply a little back story and illustrate my situation in depth. I lived with my aunt for about two years in Baldwin Hills California in her gorgeous home. The house consisted of two large living rooms, four bedrooms and a pool in the backyard. I read the Bible here in full due to my confusion about life and just plain out wanted to see "what the big deal was about the Bible." To put it bluntly I was not impressed. Having the knowledge of the Bible currently residing in my knowledge, I started to produce video presentations about verses I've found immoral, scientifically inaccurate, and disturbing. I shown her the video when I was done and she was quite the entire time. She knows two of my cousins are atheists and probably started to worry that I was questioning the ethics of the Bible.
She has been contemplating on "remodeling" the house for awhile and finally decided to do so about six months ago. I was moved to another place she owns in Inglewood California which had a large chapel downstairs and many rooms. She said I "would be here temporarily until the remodeling work was done." Church service was held every Thursday at 7 pm to 10 pm which I've never attended but could hear the shouting and singing up stairs. The place was patently run down and extremely unsanitary. Rodent and insect problems ran rampant throughout my stay here and sometimes I could hear rodents in the walls which kept me up all night some nights. This almost costed me my job due to the lack of sleep I got and loss of focus due to it on that job. I complained a lot to her about this and asked her when am I going back to the house in Baldwin Hills. She told me "I sold the place in Baldwin Hills and no rooms are being rented out." I was pissed but never said anything to her as I was furious due to the blatant lies. We had a conversation about the similarities of Jesus to other Egyptian and Paganism and she looked stoked, as to probably not ever knowing this. She invited me to go to the church service which was being held that night and I replied no.
Two weeks later I confronted her about lying to me and how I didn't appreciate it. She goes on a tangent about "always keeping it 100" and got really defensive. Then I said "I know when someone is hiding something from me because they get defensive when they are called out on it." I exhorted "You did not lie to me about going back in two weeks?" She started stuttering and I said "What are hiding from me?" Then she told me her house burned up from the inside out. The awkward silence subsequently commenced. I asked why did you never tell me the house burned up and how long ago was this? She said "I don't need to report back to you and it was 4 months ago." I walked off pissed and started thinking about it all. She lied and kept this a secret for 4 entire months because well some of my stuff was still at that house which obviously burned up. I had to verify that the place was burned up because at this point I didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth. Indeed it was but wasn't catastrophic.
Now she moved me over here in the "Christian program" which is an obvious attempt at trying to proselytize me. I have to share a room with 3 guys and Bible study is during the day. I'm at work all day so I've never attended one. Church is "mandatory" on Sunday which I've never attended because I leave the house early Sunday mornings. I had a "debate" with the pastor and brought up all the troublesome verses and passages in the Bible. He told me he's never read the entire Bible and most of it is allegorical. I replied "If the Bible is meant to be allegorical then what is the allegory for don't eat shell fish? Or don't eat pork? What is the deeper truth to don't touch your wife when she's on her period? What is the deeper truth to if you don't hate your siblings you cannot be my disciple?" He used the typical cop out of "you must have faith." I told him faith is a unreasonable belief and a license you guys give yourself to neglect thinking when reason fail.
It's really hard to live here because every word out of one of the woman that run this place is "in Jesus name" or "praise the Lord." I have no idea how anything like this is even legal and they had me sign a paper stating a can't sue them. I'm looking for advise on how to survive this.
I will supply a little back story and illustrate my situation in depth. I lived with my aunt for about two years in Baldwin Hills California in her gorgeous home. The house consisted of two large living rooms, four bedrooms and a pool in the backyard. I read the Bible here in full due to my confusion about life and just plain out wanted to see "what the big deal was about the Bible." To put it bluntly I was not impressed. Having the knowledge of the Bible currently residing in my knowledge, I started to produce video presentations about verses I've found immoral, scientifically inaccurate, and disturbing. I shown her the video when I was done and she was quite the entire time. She knows two of my cousins are atheists and probably started to worry that I was questioning the ethics of the Bible.
She has been contemplating on "remodeling" the house for awhile and finally decided to do so about six months ago. I was moved to another place she owns in Inglewood California which had a large chapel downstairs and many rooms. She said I "would be here temporarily until the remodeling work was done." Church service was held every Thursday at 7 pm to 10 pm which I've never attended but could hear the shouting and singing up stairs. The place was patently run down and extremely unsanitary. Rodent and insect problems ran rampant throughout my stay here and sometimes I could hear rodents in the walls which kept me up all night some nights. This almost costed me my job due to the lack of sleep I got and loss of focus due to it on that job. I complained a lot to her about this and asked her when am I going back to the house in Baldwin Hills. She told me "I sold the place in Baldwin Hills and no rooms are being rented out." I was pissed but never said anything to her as I was furious due to the blatant lies. We had a conversation about the similarities of Jesus to other Egyptian and Paganism and she looked stoked, as to probably not ever knowing this. She invited me to go to the church service which was being held that night and I replied no.
Two weeks later I confronted her about lying to me and how I didn't appreciate it. She goes on a tangent about "always keeping it 100" and got really defensive. Then I said "I know when someone is hiding something from me because they get defensive when they are called out on it." I exhorted "You did not lie to me about going back in two weeks?" She started stuttering and I said "What are hiding from me?" Then she told me her house burned up from the inside out. The awkward silence subsequently commenced. I asked why did you never tell me the house burned up and how long ago was this? She said "I don't need to report back to you and it was 4 months ago." I walked off pissed and started thinking about it all. She lied and kept this a secret for 4 entire months because well some of my stuff was still at that house which obviously burned up. I had to verify that the place was burned up because at this point I didn't believe a word that came out of her mouth. Indeed it was but wasn't catastrophic.
Now she moved me over here in the "Christian program" which is an obvious attempt at trying to proselytize me. I have to share a room with 3 guys and Bible study is during the day. I'm at work all day so I've never attended one. Church is "mandatory" on Sunday which I've never attended because I leave the house early Sunday mornings. I had a "debate" with the pastor and brought up all the troublesome verses and passages in the Bible. He told me he's never read the entire Bible and most of it is allegorical. I replied "If the Bible is meant to be allegorical then what is the allegory for don't eat shell fish? Or don't eat pork? What is the deeper truth to don't touch your wife when she's on her period? What is the deeper truth to if you don't hate your siblings you cannot be my disciple?" He used the typical cop out of "you must have faith." I told him faith is a unreasonable belief and a license you guys give yourself to neglect thinking when reason fail.
It's really hard to live here because every word out of one of the woman that run this place is "in Jesus name" or "praise the Lord." I have no idea how anything like this is even legal and they had me sign a paper stating a can't sue them. I'm looking for advise on how to survive this.
Welcome to the forums!
