​The Cult of Certainty

For the first 20 years of my life I was raised in a strict pentecostal household. I was in church every single time the doors were open. I taught Children’s Church and was involved in the Royal Rangers program. I played my violin up on stage along with the worship team. Every Halloween instead of trick-or-treating I helped in the Harvest Festival. I went to every single youth convention they had. I hate to admit this now but I even spoke in tongues which I have come to understand is “hysteria at its finest”. Basically I was “in deep”!  

When I was 20 I met my husband, he is a full time atheist. As you can imagine I tried my very best, as any good Christian girl does, to try to convert him. He of course held his ground. When I was alone I would sit and cry because I would be so afraid that the devil was trying to corrupt me. That is what they teach in Christianity, you need to be on guard all the time because the devil is constantly trying to entice you to his side. I lived in fear every single day that I would die and go to Hell.  

After 20 years now with my husband and loving the Hindu way of life I have realized how similar religion is to being in a cult. According to Christianity, you follow one leader or ancient text, you are taught that everyone else is wrong and you only know the right way. If you learn other ways then there is a chance you will be swayed in that direction. There are some religions where they actually shun you if you leave, just like a cult would do.  

Through my husband I have learned that all religion has the potential to become cult-like. Once I experienced the Hindu lifestyle I realized how accepting they are of other religions. There is no such thing as Heaven and Hell. There is no one path of being “saved”. There is not one single text or leader you need to follow. It is more of a way of life, a lifestyle.  

In stepping back from a uniform religion I have begun to realize that I used to live in fear every single day of my life and try to mask it by saying, its faith, the Lord would take care of me. He is sending me a trial which I need to overcome. The Lord will not put anything in my path which I can not handle. It took me years and years to understand there is no one god. I also began to understand the truth. There are texts out there older than the bible and a whole world out there filled with people who believe many different things. According to Christianity all of those people will die and suffer for all eternity if they do not believe in the Christian God. What kind of God is this?  

I also began to understand that all of these religious leaders were just as messed up as the rest of us if not more so. I had a pastor at my church when I was growing up. He felt I was not living an “exemplary” Christian lifestyle as a teenager so he revoked my privileges of playing my violin on stage as well as stopped me from teaching Children's Church. Years later I found out that his daughter became pregnant as an older teen out of wedlock. He now works as a car salesman. I have to be honest I laughed when I heard this news. He basically started the process of turning me off to religion and realizing how cult-like it all is. Most of these holier-than-thou people out there all have skeletons in their closets. 

I also love how these ancient texts are translated by human after human for millenia yet somehow remain exactly how they were written. I mean come on, we have all played telephone at some point in our childhood. These texts have long since lost their original meaning, if they even had a meaning behind them at all. They could be just stories, stories which we should take life lessons from, not by following them verbatim.  

Being able to see religion like this has made me a much calmer person. I feel free to learn about all different religions and ways of life. The chains of guilt that once consumed my life have now been replaced by understanding that I’m human and just learning while I live my life. There is no right and only way to live. If people in this world would break through this cult we call religion there would be more harmony, less fighting, more acceptance that we are all here for the same purpose. To live the best life we can, experience our lives to the fullest. We only live once!