Sent in by Ted

My story is typical of everyone else.

I was raised in a fundy home. My father, who thinks he can sing, would occasionally torture, I mean sing for the church. He would have my siblings and I sit before him while he sang. This was an overt display to his "Christian friends" that he was a "godly family man."

My parents were number one first class hypocrites. Jesus says to give to the poor, but when my folks see a homeless person begging they turn their nose up at them saying, "The reason that they are poor is because they are lazy."

The final nail in the Christian coffin was when my older and favorite brother came out of the closet and said he was gay. My parents have been trying for years to "correct and to save him." I finally left Christianity when I started attending college, where I was exposed to a wide variety of people.

Anyway, last Thanksgiving my wife and I were planning a secular, non-religious dinner. Instead of praying to an invisible God we were going to be thankful for what it means to be human. My brother and his partner were invited along with my folks. My folks were specifically instructed to leave their religion at home. Of course when they showed up they tried to straighten out my brother and his partner by suggesting they attend a recovery class for homosexuals. I promptly showed my parents to the door and told them they could go to a local restaurant for diner. I suggested that my younger brother and sister, who are still living at home, were welcome to stay and could be picked up later. Of course my folks refused.

According to my younger sister, soon after they had an enormous prayer vigil at their church to ask God to free their family from the "grasp of Satan." They glorified themselves by claiming, "We have been persecuted in the name of Jesus!” Both my brother and sister have told me that they cannot wait to get out of that house.

I have one grown sister who is an atheist and one brother who still believes in Jesus, but only goes to church occasionally.