Conforming

[SueBaroo]

I'm fairly well-known as a Christian on MN, and there's very little that would sway my beliefs on that.

I came from a fairly muddled up and confused background to being a Christian, and it all co-incided with me getting married.

The trouble is, I think I've lost myself in all of it. It's almost like, I was convinced about Christian belief, but all this other stuff attached to me like goose-grass when I went to pick the Christian belief up.

Now, I've got no intention of dropping the Christian belief, but now I'm trying to figure out how to disentangle it from from all the other stuff that seems to have accumulated around it in my life.

I've already managed to shed the notion that contraception of any kind is a sin (and managed to get my Dh to deal with it ) but I'm trying to look at positive things now - who am I, not who am I not.

Does anyone have the faintest clue what i'm talking about?

Sue but also very proud of you.
how is dh taking this?

Bemusedly. But he's a very good man (best I've ever known, tbh) and he just steps back and lets me thrash about for a bit. He knows this is something only I can work through, really.

"I think I am starting to be shocked at how much I am complicit in my own oppression, really. I'm not being hard on myself, just realistic"
Hiya Sue,
I'm a lurker on this board, but I really had to post. I was brought up quite strictly (no nailvarnish, dresses on Sunday etc) and when I reached my teens, I did exactly what you describe - threw the baby out with the bathwater, and rejected EVERYTHING, Jesus included. As I've travelled thru my 20s I've refound my faith, and now I'm a strongly left wing Christian, and 'liberal' - not about the core tenants of the gospel, but about all the rest of it. I look back on some of the stuff I was sold as Christianity, and realise it was oppression. Not that the people who believe this stuff meant to oppress anyone, but nevertheless it was oppressive. It really helped me to realise that so many of the wierd ideas - especially about women - totally came from men 100s of years ago, and were part of a general culture of sexism, not anything to do with Jesus at all. I remember reading the story of the woman who bled, who was healed by touching Jesus' cloak. She was so rejected in her society, and unclean, and yet he calls her 'daughter'. He is not someone who advocates the oppression of anyone, including women. He was revolutionary in the way he treated women - definatly a jeans-and-tshirt rather than a floral-dress kind of approach! But the extent to which we're complicit in the floral-dress opression is debatable. We've been told this stuff since we were small girls, and the church has got so tangled up in these ideas, that we can be made to feel like we're not 'proper' christians if we question...
I reckon maybe God is freeing you to be the amazing woman you are. You are maybe coming ou of a floral-dress chrysalis, and who knows what will happen next...
Sorry for long post, just your op really struck a chord. xx

Forgive my ramblings - it's helpful to have somewhere to put this all down. I should get a proper blog really. Hmm, think I will, hold on..

There we go. If you want to follow along, you can - I shall splurge there from now on.

SueBaroo, if it helps at all (and if you're still reading this thread!) I have been on a bit of a spring-clean, sifting through my christian beliefs / baggage over the last few years and I just want to say it has been, and is continuing to be the most exciting, liberating thing ever, and if anything I fel that I have become more authentically Biblical and certainly more consistent in my approach to various key issues. I'm totally committed to traditional christian beliefs, but thankfully less encumbered than I was 10 years ago.

I became a christian at 13 in a very conservative church (to the extent that we weere told that if you don't vote conservative, you're not a real christain ). Coming from a family who were active members of the Labour Party that was a bit difficult for me, and it was only at university that I realised how bizarre that idea is.

If you want to e-mail me I'd be really happy to chat. On the women in ministry thing, I was very agnostic until about 5 years ago when the issue was forced (long story). I am now applying to train as an Anglican vicar, so that gives you some idea on where I've ended up on the issue! I had to sort it out Scripturally before I could go into this with any integrity, and what I found in the Bible was fascinating and liberating!!! Again, I'd be really happy to chat about that if you like. In the meantime there's the most fabulous book I'd like to recommend -
https://www.amazon.co.uk/s/ref=nb_ss_w_h_?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=woman+a+celebration+ of+freedoms+&Go.x=12&Go.y=16 read it!!!

On the losing your support group thing, I've found that not to be the case at all - in fact as I've gone on in my faith I've found much more support than when I was floundering, and some surprising responses from people whom I'd totally wrongly second-guessed.

"It was for freedom that Christ has set us free!"

Whoops, let's try that link again:

this

SueBaroo, I've subscribed to your blog and look forward with interest to reading about your journey. Good luck with it.