Grew up in the Evangelical church - the way they always explained it to us is that it's not a religion (which is a dogmatic set of beliefs that one only obey because they are told to), but rather it's a personal relationship with Jesus, and you do the things he tells you to do only because you love him so much.
It also opens the door for some weird loopholes for dealing with apostates, since if you stop doing the things they tell you to, you must not truly have loved Jesus to begin with.
It really feels like they've honed the edge of the mind virus extra razor-sharp. Lots of wacky thought-terminating logic structures, kinda cool if it weren't so devious.
That thing about apostates actually reminds me of how CS treats it when faith healing fails. "They didnt really believe the truth" victim blamey nonesense.
Of course my mom, when i brought that up to her (well before i left the religion, just a brief burst of rebelion because i was studying it for a school project) she said that if that was my takeaway i "didnt really get it" so what do i know
(The woman was an abuser she loved the gaslighty part and wiedled it against me constantly lol)
Grew up in the Evangelical church - the way they always explained it to us is that it's not a religion (which is a dogmatic set of beliefs that one only obey because they are told to), but rather it's a personal relationship with Jesus, and you do the things he tells you to do only because you love him so much.
It also opens the door for some weird loopholes for dealing with apostates, since if you stop doing the things they tell you to, you must not truly have loved Jesus to begin with.
It really feels like they've honed the edge of the mind virus extra razor-sharp. Lots of wacky thought-terminating logic structures, kinda cool if it weren't so devious.
That thing about apostates actually reminds me of how CS treats it when faith healing fails. "They didnt really believe the truth" victim blamey nonesense.
Of course my mom, when i brought that up to her (well before i left the religion, just a brief burst of rebelion because i was studying it for a school project) she said that if that was my takeaway i "didnt really get it" so what do i know
(The woman was an abuser she loved the gaslighty part and wiedled it against me constantly lol)