No funny, just talk

I had to stop for gas the other day on a road trip. I stopped at a JetPep, and felt a familiar panicky feeling as I realized this was the JetPep near my former church. I remembered the painful anxiety attacks I would get going out door to door. Then a major flood of relief as I realized those days are over & I will NEVER knock another strangers' door again. No more do I have to avoid making friendships with people, out of the fear that I must convert them. No longer will I subject a co-worker or relative to a quiz session on their salvation.

I'm mostly agnostic with some atheist leanings. Let's face it, accepting fundamentalism means accepting that the majority of your friends, co-workers and relatives are going to hell. Although they didn't exactly say it, I got the idea that my church ascribed to the KJVO method of salvation. (If you did not use the KJV, you are not saved.) On principle alone, this makes God a dick anyway If he would send someone to hell because they believed IN Jesus [NIV] vs. ON Jesus [KJV] John 3:16. On this technicality alone thousands of unfortunate souls can believe they are saved, attend church 3 times a week and still go directly to hell.

I used to be so preoccupied with thinking everyone was on their way to hell. Everyone. The idea that God would send people to hell even if they never even heard of him, believed the wrong religion, etc. was unsettling. Then I came to realize that someone who was supposed to be all powerful & all knowing was really just an ass. I also wanted nothing to do with him. I guess I'm not the only one who feels that way.