In order to start this story off right, I feel the need to go ahead and clear up a few points before we begin. Because of the particular subject matter, I've elected to discuss, I will be taking steps to protect the privacy of the people and places that have played a part in my life. No real names will be used. Not even mine. Although I do consider myself to be fairly open about my lack of belief, there are people in my life who for a variety of reasons I will probably get around to explaining at some point do not know. Opinions down here have improved but airing your dirty laundry won't always make you any friends. Now that that stuff is over and done with, let’s carry on with our tale!
Long ago when the Earth was young, a child joyously came forth unto the world. It was an entirely auspicious event. At least we're going to pretend it was. Now you might be tempted to think that because I turned out this way that my family was ambivalent toward religion or also non-believers themselves but I’m here to tell you that that's just not true. The majority of my family actually maintains the title of primarily Southern Baptist to this day. However, the level of participation in religious pursuits varies widely. Several of my Great Aunts and Uncles have been avid churchgoers my whole life. Both of my parents, on the other hand, claim religious association but in reality, neither of them have found a reason to step foot inside a church without the prompting of a social event such as a wedding or a funeral in years.
My beloved mamaw, Esteemed and Honorable Grandmother, on the other hand, regularly attended Sunday service at this teeny, tiny traditional Southern Baptist church throughout my childhood but her attendance waned considerably in later years. When she went she often brought along my cousins, Dearest Brother, and I so we could attend Sunday school. This congregation gave me a love of traditional church hymns that persists even today. The pastor, however, was an old fashion fire and brimstone type who enjoyed preaching the paint off the walls. I'm sure he was always polite in person but to this day, I honestly cannot stand for someone to yell at me like that. I was scared at an early age.
My parents were both very young when they had me and Dearest Brother followed less than a year and a half later. As a result, the majority of my mother's incredibly large extended family had a hand in raising me. Dad’s family was less numerous and involved but still a force in shaping me into the person I became. Believe you me, I've tagged along to what feels like a county’s worth of Sunday services and Vacation Bible Schools. Christianity was very much a regularly accepted part of life for me. I remember sometimes hearing people talk about what their lives were like before they found God but I had absolutely no idea what that was like. Thankfully my mother, wonderful woman that she is, was always encouraging me to ask those hard and indelicate questions and find out what I wanted to know for myself. I credit her more than anyone else with my dedication to inquiry.
I use the phrase primarily Southern Baptist solely because of the off-kilter religious ambitions of one of my Great Aunts. For the purposes of anonymity, let's call her Auntie M. I love my Auntie M. She's is tiny but fierce. A spitfire through and through. We lived with her, her husband, Uncle Fix-It, and her children for a period of time not long after I was born. I spent a considerable amount of time at their house as a tiny person. I even regularly went on vacation with them. This particular set of beloved relatives joined an unconventional church almost 30 years before I came along. They raised all three of their children as a part of this congregation. This church flitted between just shy of the mainstream and outright cult throughout their tenure as members. I'll discuss it briefly here but I do plan to do a whole post on the subject later on. To give you a feel for what they were all about, the leaders were extremely controlling of their members, in services and during their day to day lives. Auntie Worrier, Auntie M’s oldest daughter, was only 3 or 4 when they joined and she had to ask the preacher to go on Spring Break. She was told no and couldn't go. On a scary note, modern medical care was regarded with suspicion and often put aside in favor of prayer and anointing.
Anyway, they were creeping slowly back toward the more common brand of Christianity in the early 90's when I came along. After a couple of changes in leadership and power structure, the doctrine was suddenly forced back to center angering many members and causing a mass exodus toward fellowships that continued to follow the old ways. My Aunts congregation declined from over 300 members to probably less than 100 in a number of months. Six year old me found this incredibly puzzling. Where had all my friends gone? I must say this whole shebang taught me a valuable lesson. I could hardly believe how easy it was to use the Bible to rationalize the changing of almost everything you believed in. And then maybe not everyone would stick around but enough people would believe strongly enough to keep the organization going.
After this event, membership continued to trickle down until the location shut its doors almost a decade later. You’ll hear pastors down here talk all about the phenomenon of church hoppers. These are people that move from church to church whenever they become even slightly perturbed. Well, my Aunt and Uncle are quite the opposite. They are literally church stayers. Over the next decade, this church and its ever-dwindling fellowship went through multiple pastoral and location changes. My Aunt, her family and I followed dutifully behind them. It took the church's final death knell to drive them out. In less than a year they had found themselves in a comparable situation.
This brings us up to that lovely period of time parodied so often in Hollywood filmography. The Awkward Teenage Years! We will pick up our story here when I wonder on back over to it. Oh, also, there is now a Facebook Page and an Instagram for the blog. I will be adding them to the blog proper just as soon as my technologically inept self figures out how to do that.
Thanks for Reading,
A Southern Atheist
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