I am doing a bit of a brain dump here, not because I want sympathy, but more to give some insight to some of the pauses in posting etc. /life update.
I was born into a high control religious group. I am deliberately NOT naming them, and would appreciate if others didn’t try to guess as i guarantee these things get monitored. Happy to respond in DMs.
I have been careful with anonymity to date for this reason. They have been getting a bit of media attention of late, but I have also started really “reconstructing” my faith as I got more serious about it. Growing up in this group it is easy to just follow the rules and not be serious about your faith, which pretty much describes me in my teens and early 20’s.
Once you start to see the disconnect between the system you grew up in and what the Bible teaches, you can’t bury your head in the sand, especially with a young family that you want to raise better than you were.
I am seriously considering exiting, but it will come with shunning, etc., which makes it a very hard choice to do. Its not as simple as just “not going to church”. Every aspect of life, family, job, finances is all tangled up in it. Posting online is not exempt tbh. I am very grateful my wife and I are on the same page about this, as there’s a bit of a track record of dividing families over doctrine with this group.
As stated not looking for sympathy, but I actually can’t state this sort of thing to my current circle of friends, family etc. so guess I’m sticking it out there to my anonymous internet friends instead.
But to those who are of faith, and I know a few here are, do you have any comment or advice about finding a church group? I’ve never had to think about it before.
To those who are not, you’re not excluded from answering of course!
