Facebook Christians

This was one of the first things I saw after opening my eyes this morning. It was shared by a Facebook friend. It is a metaphor correlating the ark to a relationship with Jesus and it is awful. It is so beyond disturbing. It's not something I would have paid much mind to a few years ago, but now I look at that and I immediately feel discomfort. I see how toxic this is. It is even causing me to want to distance myself from the person who shared this. They would not understand my issues with this meme and they would not understand why I would feel the need to separate myself from something they saw not only as a helpful reminder, but the truth. 

I am trying not to judge religious people for the sake of them being religious. As long as they are not using their religion to hurt others then there is no reason for me to be bothered one way or another. I am trying really hard not to look down on religious people as if they are idiots or naïve. As a Leo this can be really hard. Right now I want to seclude myself. I want to hide. I want to withdraw. At the same time I want to talk through all of this stuff. I want to find common ground with someone who shares my feelings or I want my feelings to be validated. I'm not sure. Right now I am staying in the atheist closet.  

Here are my issues with this Facebook meme:

• Let's ignore the message that this meme thinks it is getting across, which is the importance of teaching your children to have a relationship with Jesus so they don't miss the ark (go to hell). Let's instead look at the way the child has been indoctrinated. This child had the ability to show empathy and was horrified for those who were killed in the flood. The parent in this story did nothing other than place blame on the parents of the children and babies who were left to drown. This parent really thinks they did something here and you can tell by the way they add the weight of their own statement is just too much to handle. Nobody is looking at God and thinking this is fucked up?
• In the story of Noah, there was no room on the boat for the other people and that was the point. God enacted literal genocide in this story. He straight up murdered the people he claims to love. 

I also want to look at that closing statement. I kind of have to look at that and chuckle. People really be out here thinking they own their offspring. You give your children life so they can live it. You don't give them life so that you can direct it like they are an actor in a movie you are producing. My mother wanted to instill the knowledge of religion in me so that I could make informed decisions about it one day and my grandparents, aunts, uncles, other extended family members, pastors, Sunday school teachers and youth leaders did everything they could to give me the path to a relationship with Jesus. Even after all that indoctrination, telling me that questioning things was wrong and trying to frighten me with eternal damnation; even with all that knowledge I eventually still found a way to break free of the bondage of religion. I have never felt so free. But I have nobody to talk to about it.