The really sad part is that nobody cried at her funeral. She had become so
unhappy in those years as a fundy, that everybody felt death was probably
better.
April
----------
> From: Farrell Till <jftill@midwest.net>
> To: errancy@infidels.org
> Subject: Jesus Loves You
> Date: Monday, March 10, 1997 10:30 PM
>
> YOEL
> Uh- you are wrong. Here is a true confession- I converted my entire
> (nuclear) family, either directly or indirectly to Christianity in the
late
> 70's. I have succeeded in getting one sister out. She was constantly
tying
> to commit suicide. She was convinced that she was possessed by demons.
She
> was constantly being told that her doubts were due to lack of faith,
which
> lead her deeper and eeper into depression. She ended up a mess, but still
> believing in Jesus. Finally, she saw reason and... she is a healthy
> productive and happy person now. Like me, she is very distressed at the
> human tendency toward gullibility.
>
> TILL
> Let me tell you about a colleague who taught with me at the college I
> recently retired from. He and I both began teaching there in 1965. He
and
> his family were the religious types who went to church every time the
doors
> open. They had two children when they came here and about 10 years
later,
> they had another son, who was born with a cleft palate and a hare lip.
Soon
> afterwards, the wife began to corner me at social gatherings of the
faculty
> to talk to me about the Bible. She explained that she knew I no longer
> believed the Bible but that everyone knew I was informed in biblical
> matters. She wanted to know if I thought that God would punish people
> through their children. I made the mistake of telling her exactly what I
> thought, that the God of the Bible would punish people in heinous ways
for
> things that they were innocent of. I cited the Amalekite massacre in 1
> Samuel 15 as an example.
>
> Thereafter, she would call me on the phone to ask me if I really believed
> that the Bible teaches that God punished the innocent for the sins of
> others. I began to suspect that she had in mind the birth defect of her
> son, even though by this time surgery had corrected it. When finally she
> asked me pointblank if I thought the Bible taught that God would punish
her
> son for her sins, I realized that she was mentally imbalanced, and so I
lied
> to her and pretended that I really didn't believe the Bible taught that.
>
> She continued to dwell on this and eventually had to be in and out of
> psychiatric wards. Evidently, this became too much for her husband who
> vanished one day without any warning either to his family or to the
college.
> After several weeks, the police located him in Arkansas working for a
> construction company. They were able to find him because he had
purchased
> gasoline on a credit card. His son (not the one who had had the birth
> defect) drove to Arkansas and persuaded him to return home. Because the
> college board realized the stress he was under, he was allowed to retain
his
> teaching position. However, the situation worsened as his wife's mental
> problems continued. Her insurance bills reached as much as $300,000 per
> year, a cost that affected everyone who worked at the college. To make a
> long story short, one weekend my colleague put a shotgun to his chest and
> killed himself, and his wife was permanently institutionalized.
Ironically,
> she died about a year after he committed suicide. At his funeral, I
nearly
> gagged on the nonsense that spewed from the pulpit as the minister
spouted
> garbage about how Jesus loved xxxxxxx and had taken him home to a better
place.
>
> The psychological harm still lingers in the family. His older son was an
> active churchgoer at a congregation only three blocks from my house, and
he
> himself lived in my neighborhood. About three weeks ago, his daughter
> called the police, because her father had gone berserk and was
threatening
> the family with a gun. He was taken into custody, and I have heard that
he
> is now undergoing psychiatric counseling and has been put on some drug
that
> his doctors hope will enable him to control his rage. He lives apart
from
> his family.
>
> I could also tell everyone about my fundamentalist sister-in-law whom my
> fundamentalist brother came home one afternoon and found unconscious from
an
> overdose of prescription drugs she had taken in a suicide attempt. He
got
> her to the hospital in time to save her life, but her health has been
> affected ever since. When I know of cases like these, how does anyone
> expect me to buy this "Jesus loves you" crap? It just does not agree
with
> the reality that I see around me. When I see people like these whose
lives
> have been ruined or seriously damaged, probably by their religious
beliefs,
> I think, "There but for the grace of common sense and rationality go I."
>
> By the way, my former colleage has a daughter who is an atheist, and from
> what I hear she is emotionally stable in a successful career as a marine
> biologist. I remember before he died, her father told me one day at the
> college that she was an atheist. He remarked that maybe she was the
smart
> one in the family. At the time, I thought that he was maybe saying this
> because he knew what I thought about the subject, but I afterwards
realized
> that he was probably expressing a cynical belief.
>
>
> Farrell Till
> Skepticism, Inc.
> jftill@midwest.net
>
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