I've come to the conclusion that having a journal entry on this site would be helpful for people who are trying to get to know me by my profile alone. I don't really have a purpose for making this entry besides having an entry exist, so I guess I will just write about the most recent thing that was on my mind.

I just finished reading the book The Preacher's Son by Marc Adams. It is a memoir about growing up gay as the son of a fundamentalist Baptist preacher. His parents were strict and abusive. He went to a very Christian high school and sought "freedom" at the age of 16 by enrolling in Jerry Fallwell's college.

Not to give away the ending or anything, but he eventually learns to think about life an religion for himself rather than blindly accepting what the adults have been telling him his entire life and he comes to accept his homosexuality. Today he runs a nonprofit organization called HeartStrong that reaches out to GLBT youth in religious schools.

This book has once again renewed my passionate distaste for religion the way many people practice it. No child should ever be raised without being encouraged to think for themself. All of the black-and-white viewpoints and scare tactics and forced acceptance of what others say...it's infuriating. It leads to nothing but ignorance and miserable, ill-informed, dependant adults.

The book focused mainly on the churches condemnation of homosexuality and their misguided notions about AIDS, but it goes so far beyond that. I mean, it is not uncommon for a religion to encourage ignorance about that religion itself. Many children being raised in deeply religious households aren't told any more about the history of the Bible beyond, it's the word of God. And why? Probably because their parents don't know the history themselves. And why not? Because knowing the history of the stories and the recording of the Bible allows one to begin to doubt the accuracy of these supposed words of god.

I'm not sure where I'm going with this. I'm frustrated and mostly just ranting. It tends to happen when I blog. I will probably go get a snack now and watch The Office. Then off to bed because I have work in the morning (yay).