Toxic Faith (ritual, moral, salvation, beliefs, mission)

[Radio Frequency X]

For the last ten years I have been struggling with a severe anger at Christians and Christianity. When I was a teenager, I had a personal relationship with God that was beautiful, until I became surrounded by Christians whose idea of God was extremely toxic. For some reason, I decided that their toxic God was the real God and my God was just a product of my own imagination. I read the Bible with their toxic interpretation and decided that I hated the Christian God and that I hated Christianity, and I suppose, I hated Christians.

Lately, I've been reading a book by Ernst Troeltsch called The Christian Faith which has answered many of my problems with modern Christianity and the history of the Christian Church. But it really didn't do anything for my problem with Christians. So, I've also been reading a book called Toxic Faith by Alterburn and Felton, and have begun to understand the psychology of these religious people that has bugged me for so long. So, I thought I'd share these 21 examples of Toxic Faith in the hope that I'm not the only one that has been turned off by them.

1. Conditional Love: God's love an fovor depend on my behavior.
2. Instant Peace: When tragedy strikes, true believers should have real peace about it.
3. Guaranteed Healing: If I have real faith, God will heal me or someone I am praying for.
4. Irreproachable Clergy: All ministers are men and women of God and can be trusted.
5. Monetary Rewards: Material blessings are a sign of spiritual strength.
6. Investment Tithing: The more money I give to God, the more money he will give to me.
7. Salvation by works: I can work my way to heaven.
8. Spiteful God: Problems in my life result from some particular sin.
9. Slavery of the Faithful: I must stop meeting other's needs.
10. Irrational Submission: I must always submit to authority.
11. Christian Inequality: God uses only the spiritual elite.
12. Passivity: Having true faith means waiting for God to help me and doing nothing until he does.
13. Biblical Exclusivity: If it's not in the Bible, it isn't relevant.
14. Heavenly Matchmaking: God will find me a perfect mate.
15. Pollyanna Perspective: Evernthing that happens to me is good.
16. Bulletproof Faith: A strong faith will protect me from problems and pain.
17. Vindictive God: God hates sinners, is angry with me, and wants to punish me.
18. Mortal Christ: Christ was merely a great teacher.
19. Impersonal God: God is too big to care about me.
20. Divinely Ordained Happiness: More than anything else, God wants me to be happy.
21. Possibility of Gaining the Divine: I can become like God.

These make up several mini chapters (really just a few paragraphs a piece) but the represent the kinds of beliefs held by people with a truly distorted vision of religion. My frustrations have been with the moral self-rightousness that seem to thrive in organized religion. I was so tired of hearing all these irrational claims made by people that used "God" for their own purposes, as if God was a tool or some means to an end (happiness, social acceptance, heaven, peace, salvation, etc.).

[JMoum04]

I agree with all of those except number 7. I personally believe that works, just like faith, can be redemptive.

[Hema]

Number 21 struck me. We cannot become like God because our true nature is Spirit which is part of God. So in essence, we already have God within us. The body is a temple of God. The one about money made me laugh...what will God do with money? Everything is already his! Heh heh. There is no Christian God or Hindu God etc. There is only one God whom we all pray to in different ways and whom we call by different names. As for no. 7 I do believe that when we do good "works" we will attain God faster and as for no. 20 I do believe that God wants us to be happy.

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by Radio Frequency X

20. Divinely Ordained Happiness: More than anything else, God wants me to be happy.
21. Possibility of Gaining the Divine: I can become like God.

How is this toxic? how is this hurting anybody and distorted?

Why is the idea that more then anything else, God wants you to be happy? He's not gong to make you happy, but he wants you to be happy. There is a difference there.

Also, how is the idea that we can become like God a toxic idea? Who is this hurting?

[standing_alone]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

How is this toxic? how is this hurting anybody and distorted?

Why is the idea that more then anything else, God wants you to be happy? He's not gong to make you happy, but he wants you to be happy. There is a difference there.

Also, how is the idea that we can become like God a toxic idea? Who is this hurting?

I would think that the belief that "God wants one to be happy" would become toxic when one takes that belief so seriously that if he or she is unhappy, he or she questions that God loves them, or exists, etc.

I would think the belief that "one can become like God" would become toxic when one, similar to above, becomes disappointed that they are not becoming "perfect," or become self-rightous and condemning, etc.

[Radio Frequency X]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

How is this toxic? how is this hurting anybody and distorted?

Why is the idea that more then anything else, God wants you to be happy? He's not gong to make you happy, but he wants you to be happy. There is a difference there.

Also, how is the idea that we can become like God a toxic idea? Who is this hurting?

The problem is that when people end up believing that God wants us to be happy, more than anything, that religious folk will justify their toxic behavior as God's will because, "well, God wants me to be happy and this behavior makes me happy". Or, "God wouldn't want me to do "x" because "x" doesn't make me happy.

The idea that we can become like God assumes that we actually know what God is like. The idea that we have direct knowledge of God leads us to be arrogant and self-righteous. We end up trying to glorify ourselves, our knowledge, our godlike-ness, and we ignore God. Self-Righteousness is made the most disgusting kind of religious behavior.

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by Radio Frequency X

The idea that we can become like God assumes that we actually know what God is like. The idea that we have direct knowledge of God leads us to be arrogant and self-righteous. We end up trying to glorify ourselves, our knowledge, our godlike-ness, and we ignore God. Self-Righteousness is made the most disgusting kind of religious behavior.

Actually, in my experience I've seen people become more humble and serving to other people in regards to trying to become like God. It's the people who don't understand what it means that become self-righteous.

[Radio Frequency X]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

Actually, in my experience I've seen people become more humble and serving to other people in regards to trying to become like God. It's the people who don't understand what it means that become self-righteous.

Service can also become an addiction and toxic. People will define themselves by their sacrfice.

Here is the problem, because things can constantly get to extremes in one direction or the other, people use religion to define themselves instead of coming to religion as they are. People go to religion to get something, they use it the way college students use a university... to get ahead. They use religion for all kinds of reasons, but the most important thing (a personal relationship with God and allowing god to work in our lives) gets left behind.

[Bishka]

Originally Posted by Radio Frequency X

Service can also become an addiction and toxic. People will define themselves by their sacrfice.

Here is the problem, because things can constantly get to extremes in one direction or the other, people use religion to define themselves instead of coming to religion as they are. People go to religion to get something, they use it the way college students use a university... to get ahead. They use religion for all kinds of reasons, but the most important thing (a personal relationship with God and allowing god to work in our lives) gets left behind.

That may be true in your life, but most people I know, including myself have a personal relationship with God. I am not using it to 'get ahead'. It's God and me, I talk to Him all the time about my problems and life, and He give me a comfort that no one else can.

[Radio Frequency X]

Originally Posted by beckysoup61

That may be true in your life, but most people I know, including myself have a personal relationship with God. I am not using it to 'get ahead'. It's God and me, I talk to Him all the time about my problems and life, and He give me a comfort that no one else can.

What do you mean by "true in your life"?