Moving Forward, Facing Uncertainty

As Christians, we were taught our morality depended on our avoidance of “sins”. Sins are considered not only generally harmful, but spiritually harmful as well. This creates a mechanism in which any wrongs committed can be held against someone as evidence of their impurity, lack of faith, or rebellion. Within this mechanism, it becomes very important to be moral and follow the rule of morality, and sometimes this develops into a sense of judgment or misunderstanding towards those who don’t subscribe to the same rule. I know I used to have this same assumption towards non-Christians, and I have since heard many Christians ask how I, or any other non-Christian, can claim to have a sense of morality. I will admit, when I first left the church I was uncertain how to assess what I considered moral or not. It does take some time to learn the skills necessary to accomplish this . I questioned my stances on premarital sex, euthanasia, abortion, modesty, violent and gory media, curse words, an...

[Content Warning: Descriptions of emotional, psychological, and physical child abuse] Until adulthood, I did not consider the physical violence of spanking or “corporal punishment” to be especially harmful. I had always understood the logic and intention behind the practice and I rationed there was a specific difference between spanking and “abuse”. Spanking existed within a disciplinary structure which included other tools. It would only be “abuse” if the physical violence was random and without reason. These were rationales I adopted from those who had condoned the conditions of my being spanked. From my understanding, spanking was set inside of a disciplinary structure which began with segregating the child. This alone time is intended for the child to reflect on their wrongdoing, while providing the adult time to become calm for the disciplinary interaction. When the adult returns, there is a conversation regarding the wrongdoing; Do you know what you did, Why did you do it, Did yo...