I have taken the challenge of Jeremy Rounds and all the others who feel Christianity is the only path to follow. I have looked at my life, and sorry to disappoint you, but I am more satisfied than I have ever been. I can split my life, as you can, into two distinct phases: before I found my faith and after.

Before I found my religion and way of life, I was actually a very devout Christian. I was baptized, saved and allowed Christ into my life.

However, I was not accepted within a religion that preached the glories of love. I could not follow my instincts and love men. I was labeled an abomination.

Have you any idea what that word does to a boy in his early teens who already has low self-esteem? Let me tell you. I became severely depressed, suicidal and filled with self-loathing. But I was told there was a way out of this mindset. I had to deny who I was and throw myself upon the mercy of your lord. I was unwilling to do so, especially not after studying the Bible further.

Shall we review a few things that your loving God has done since the ancient Hebrews decided on monotheism? Read Psalm 136. The Psalmist praises God’s steadfast love, then details accounts of his slaughtering in the past. Read 2 Thess 2. God deliberately deceives people so they won’t be saved. Read 2 Samuel 12. God kills an innocent baby for his father’s wrongdoing, making the child suffer and ignoring the father’s pleas.

Remember the ordeal of Job? In a wager with Satan, God allows Job’s entire family to be killed, his livelihood ruined and then Job himself to be inflicted with a plague, just to see how he would react. (Job 1; 2). In Proverbs 16, God admits to creating people so he can destroy them.

Your Bible even admits that God commits evil and is repentant himself in Exodus 32, 2 Samuel 24, 1 Chron 21, and Jonah 3. There are many more bloody and sadistic acts committed by your God and his followers than these, but I’m sure you know them yourself since learning the Bible is so important.

A few zealots spouting off about God’s decree against homosexuals sparked this religious debate. Why is it that so many Christians still cling to this inane little law, while it is perfectly acceptable to disregard others? For instance, it was decreed that a girl found not to be a virgin was to be killed in Deuteronomy 22.

God demands death for anyone not circumcised in Gen 17. God also demands the sick are to be driven out of the community in Numbers 5. God sanctions slavery and a man selling his daughter (Exodus 21).

There are more, but I’m sure you get the picture. Why is it that some laws are followed and some aren’t? Please don’t reply by saying it is because these laws were in the Old Testament; so are the 10 Commandments. It is because times change. Maybe these were values thousands of years ago, but not anymore.

Kind of amazing that not just Christians know the Bible, isn’t it? As for understanding it, no, I do not understand the hate, blood-shed and hypocrisy that riddle this chronicle of a misguided people. Obviously, Mr. Rounds, you were able to justify or ignore these passages to suit your beliefs and values. Once I started thinking for myself, I wasn’t.

In my late teens I was introduced to the ways of the Mother Goddess, which date back thousands of years before both Christianity and Judaism.

Centered on the Great Mother, our Earth, who cycles between life, death and rebirth, it is a belief in Nature as the supreme force of the world. It recognizes the duality (feminine/masculine; positive/negative) in all aspects of life. It also recognizes the forces in Nature variously called magik, workings or the Craft.

So what was the result of my conversion? I was no longer depressed. I was no longer suicidal. I no longer hated myself. I realized that I was good, something I was never told as a Christian. Because of this change, I could believe in myself again. I could enjoy sex. I could enjoy life. I was no longer told my body, urges and pleasure were sinful.

Instead, I learned how the Mother gave us pleasure to help us enjoy life. Unlike your God, our Mother likes to see us enjoy ourselves. She doesn’t threaten us with eternal pain and damnation for every little transgression and certainly not for enjoying the pleasures She gave us.

She doesn’t demand that we fear Her and declare ourselves nothing in comparison to Her. Instead she wants us to recognize that we are part of Her life force. I have found more inner peace and meaning in life since finding the Goddess. I have become happier and learned to love more. So it seems that I have reached the same state as you, Mr. Rounds, but I have taken a different path. Why is that so hard for you to understand? If you are happy with your religion, great. I am happy with mine. It has given me peace, a calling in life and a brighter perspective on the world and myself.

And for this, your religion says I go to Hell. Your churches have spent thousands of years depicting people like me as witches, servants of Satan and baby killers. Your Bible demands our deaths. The forefathers of your religion hunted us down, tortured us, burned us and destroyed our way of life until it was driven underground. That doesn’t sound like a love-based religion to me. It sounds like hatred and vile evil.

My way of loving does not make me the things your religion calls me. I am not an abomination. I am not evil. I am not unnatural. I am not unholy. I am a good person. I follow a credo of “Do what you will and harm none.” I do not steal or kill. I try to help others when it is in my power. I think I have a good heart. I have a great capacity for love.

Yet you and others like you have the audacity to tell me that my life is not moral. Who gave you the right to make that judgment?

I don’t intend to convert you to the Goddess with this letter, Mr. Rounds. You are obsessed with too many poisonous thoughts for that. Realize, however, that my beliefs are as strong as yours.

Fortunately, I have not reached the point you have. I do not have the false peace of mind that a silent god is going to take care of all my problems for me. You, and others like you, are never going to convert me back to Christianity. I am happier with myself and the direction my life is taking than I have ever been.

I tell you in all honesty and with passionate conviction, I would rather die and return to the Goddess than ever rejoin the hate-filled, hypocritical, self-denying world of Christianity.

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David Hahn

Junior

Botany