Natural Born Skeptic : My Journey from Faith Part 1

When I was an infant, my family would regularly travel the 20 miles or so to my father’s grandmother, Granny Rogers, the woman who raised him from an early age. This trip took us past a classic old south single structure white washed church sitting high upon a hill. It was hard not to notice the church from some distance away.

I was very late in my development of speech as a child to the point of it being some concern for my parents. I simply had very little to say and rarely spoke. On one of our trips to see Granny Rogers as we approached the church, I suddenly said in a loud lisped voice, "Ut Oh, Dars a chuch". After the initial shock of my sudden speech, the family roared at the content of my verbal outburst.

Of course, I cannot remember this event, but it is clear to me that at that early age I already knew that going to church was not something that I wanted to do.

My family attended a local Southern Baptist church of a very fundamentalist nature. Our pastor was of the ridiculously theatrical bent - jumping up and down, slamming fist on the pulpit, falling to his knees, running up and down the aisles of the church, even locking to door to the church to keep Satan out. This being a Southern Baptist church, there were of course no black members. Our pastor even used the 'N' word occasionally from the pulpit for comedic effect.

While these theatrics were entertaining, there was some part of my young brain that still told me that this guy had a screw or two loose. I got nothing out of his sermons. Not a thing. But at least he kept me from falling asleep.

When the time came that everyone felt I should "Come under conviction", I began to be pressured to succumb to an alter call and be 'saved'. I eventually did one Sunday morning. I remember the pastor kneeling with me on a pew and asking me some questions. I really had no idea what he was talking about and luckily they were of the 'yes/no' variety. So I bluffed it.

I did pretty well until one question when I said 'no' instead of 'yes'. The pastor startled at the answer so I quickly changed my answer and he seemed OK with this. So I was saved. My family could now rest easy that 'if I should die before I wake' that god would take my soul.

More to come.