Words By:  Barbara Symons - Podcast # 11
Channel: Buddy Huggins
Date: 2023-09-19

Barbara Symons Author of:  https://amzn.to/3IhWwor
Escaping Christianity ~ Finding Christ and
Musings From an Ex Christian Fundamentalist

Because I have left the church system and have written a book titled, “Escaping Christianity ~ Finding Christ” does not mean I don’t follow “Christ.”

I have had a conversion experience OUT FROM RELIGION, out from the system that is in my opinion, egocentric religious idealism based on a limited and literal interpretation of scripture, tweaked, and distilled by power hungry men. 

This conversion experience included not taking the bible LITERALLY.  I began to see the scriptures unfold before me MYSTERIES that far exceed any religious and literal interpretation.

I hold Christianity in contempt of the teachings of Christ. This dichotomy is clearly seen when Jesus says to tend to the poor, live community, to love unconditionally and to refrain form judgment. We don’t have to look far to see the difference between what Jesus said in scripture and what modern Christianity teaches. Borders, separation, exclusivity, judgment, ostracization. 

Many of my Christian friends do not know how to relate because I question the hypocrisy of the Christian religious structure and culture including casting aside those that think differently than they do - opposite from the teachings of Jesus.

The scripture that says, “I am the way, the truth and the life and no one comes to the father but by me” is the bedrock of the fundamentalist Christian religious system.

Read carefully their interpretation then please read mine:
Christian Fundamentalism: The only way to get into heaven is when an altar call is given one must walk the aisle, accept Jesus into one's heart and say the “sinner’s” prayer which allows one to have a personal relationship with Jesus. 

In general, this is Christian fundamentalism’s idea of a born-again experience (not scriptural by the way). 
Usually, this opportunity is given along with casual threats of eternal torture in fire, being separated from your loved ones in the hereafter, or of being left behind when Jesus comes back to take all those that have accepted him into their hearts and leaves everyone else behind to suffer here on earth during the rapture. 

Nope.

Mine: What about to take the actual life of Jesus and to follow that way? You know, like when he sat with the common folk, the lepers, the tax collectors, the bar folk, the prostitutes, the adulteress and DID NOT JUDGE ANY OF THEM! 

I never saw a command from Jesus to recite a sinner's prayer but rather he asks us to FOLLOW HIM - AND - tells us to LOVE and NOT TO JUDGE. He never said to separate yourself from those that think or believe differently than you. With Jesus, his way was all about LOVE. 
The only folk he was hard upon were the religious! The ones that claim to have it all right but are themselves hypocrites to the way.

Furthermore - Jesus did not say the only way TO HEAVEN is by me - he said the only way to the FATHER is by me.

And where did he say the father was? Inside the temple made without hands, INSIDE OF YOU!!!

Jesus did not found CHRISTIANITY. Men did that. Men have made Jesus in their image.


About the Author
Barbara Symons is an ordained minister and tireless spiritual seeker whose experience in Christian fundamentalism spans her lifetime beginning at five years of age. After leaving the church in 1999, Barbara began to recognize the fear-based propaganda that most fundamentalism employs. 

Having spent forty-three years within Christian fundamentalism, ten of those years as an exorcist, Barbara has keen insight into this systematic religion and writes of her journey through deprogramming. Always captivated by unusual phenomena, Barbara has a vast repertoire of spiritual and metaphysical experiences from which to draw. She is a lecturer, teacher and writer who hopes to bring light to the mysteries that can be found within the historical stories of the Bible and beyond. 

Barbara resides in College Station, Texas and is married to Lyle. Together they have three children and five grandchildren. Website: www.BarbaraSymons.com


#BarbaraSymons  #EscapingChristianity



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