Can a person sue the Church?

Thirty three years ago, I was born.

I was told by my mother that if I am a good boy, good things will happen. I was given a healthy view of the world.

In my mind, I was free.

When I was six, I started kindergarten. Even though I was a student in a public school, we had weekly scripture. We were taught about God, Jesus, Heaven and Hell. Our lessons taught us about the blood sacrifice of Jesus, that he died for our sins. I never understood what they were talking about.

I was a good boy.

Regarding Hell, I was taught that if I did not believe in God and Jesus, I would be tormented by Demons, monsters that revelled in my suffering, forever. I was told that Satan was always after me, hiding in every part of the world, ready to fool me.

He was everywhere.

Growing up, I didn't see the logic in the belief system of the Christians, the Catholics or any religion.

But in the back of my mind, the guilt burned away at me.

Everything I did, said and thought, in the back of my mind I always heard the whispered words, 'what if?'

What if.

The fear and guilt was deep on me, burrowed in like a cancer of the mind. I couldn't get rid of it, because if I thought about it, I would hear, 'what if God is real?'

Religion is the perfect weapon.

It has crept behind and inside my my entire life. I don't want anything to do with its creeping ideas, and yet it refuses to let go. The meme is too powerful.






Has a person ever been so defiant, so driven by their torment, that they have dared to challenge the Church and everything it has done to them?

My mind has been damaged, albeit, subtly, by a disgusting tool of the most sinister criminals of our race.


Is there a voice I can raise? Are there avenues so untraveled?





Can a victim of the Church sue them for a lifetime of inner torment, stress and lost happiness?

Unrealised
Thirty three years ago, I was born.

Can a victim of the Church sue them for a lifetime of inner torment, stress and lost happiness?

edit on 8-12-2013 by Unrealised because: (no reason given)

Not to put too fine a point on it but that was about as self indulgent a take on religion as any I've ever heard.
Oliver twist should eat his heart out.

You're a 33 year old man. Act like you have a pair.
Or just sit down and have a good cry about it and move on.

reply to post by badgerprints




As a man, I understand what true freedom is.



My mind was infiltrated as a child by a controlled, organised poison.


That poison is led by people who know the power of control. They know that sinking their teeth into young, impressionable minds will trap them for life.


Say what you will, and so will I.

Unrealised
reply to post by badgerprints

 

As a man, I understand what true freedom is.

Sounds to me like you are very much trapped.
My sympathies.
Good luck to you.

badgerprints

Unrealised
reply to post by badgerprints

 

As a man, I understand what true freedom is.

Sounds to me like you are very much trapped.
My sympathies.
Good luck to you.

If I was truly trapped, I would not know that I was.




Sympathy is not needed, only empathy.

Unrealised
Thirty three years ago, I was born.

I was told by my mother that if I am a good boy, good things will happen. I was given a healthy view of the world.

edit on 8-12-2013 by Unrealised because: (no reason given)

You should sue your mom first as your problems started there, as you say yourself. Church teaching came later, as you said yourself.

Interesting you would bring this up. This is the second time in the recent. I suppose one could sue the church, but you would need to see a psychologist first, and get a diagnosis that what you were exposed to as a child had a profound and detrimental effect on you. From there, you would have to sue a particular individual or institution, not the church as a whole.

The thing is, you're looking at an uphill battle, at least in western society. Nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise me to see a case like this won in the next several years. If and when it happens, it will change western society forever.

NowanKenubi

Unrealised
Thirty three years ago, I was born.

I was told by my mother that if I am a good boy, good things will happen. I was given a healthy view of the world.

edit on 8-12-2013 by Unrealised because: (no reason given)

You should sue your mom first as your problems started there, as you say yourself. Church teaching came later, as you said yourself.

I didn't say that my problems started with my mother.

I said that she simply told me to be a good person.

Klassified


The thing is, you're looking at an uphill battle, at least in western society. Nevertheless, it wouldn't surprise me to see a case like this won in the next several years. If and when it happens, it will change western society forever.

I pray that it does.



Funny, that.

Unrealised
Thirty three years ago, I was born.

I was told by my mother that if I am a good boy, good things will happen. I was given a healthy view of the world.


Can a victim of the Church sue them for a lifetime of inner torment, stress and lost happiness?

edit on 8-12-2013 by Unrealised because: (no reason given)

As you say, your mom told you to behave and all would be fine for you. You even say you were GIVEN a healthy view of the world because of that.
And we know that is not the case, that wishful thinking isn't working as advertised.

So in my view, your beliefs started there, and they were reinforced by the church, later.

I understand what you are thinking, but I think you will spend many years fighting for nothing in the end. But who knows?

reply to post by Unrealised


just smack yourself in the face
because for 33 years you were :insert nasty word here:
grow up kid you cant sue everyone

Oh, you poor baby! Do you think you are the ONLY one who has a similar background? Millions, don't you think? Do you see everyone else who underwent similar circumstances suing the church? Why not? Because just maybe they have the presence of mind to get over it.

You should try that, too.

This is a highly dramatical post.

Yes dramatical.

I grew up in a highly religious household. My parents genuinely believed in the Christian religion. They were also good people that were good parents, separate from their religion. They also weren't perfect and as an adult I can see the things in my childhood that as a parent I would do differently. Hero worship of parental figures is playing the part of coward. Grow up and look at things logically.

Your mental issues might have been added onto by religion, but that's not where it started. You need to take a very serious and hard look at your childhood experiences.

Telling a child that if they behave good things will happen is horse #. Your disappointment in life started with that nonsense taught to you by your mom. Your torment started because at an early age you were told that being good= good things happening. Did your mom ever explain to you what goodness even was? What is the reward for said goodness?

Sounds like "Be a good boy and you'll be rewarded"; like something you'd tell a dog.

The OP is a fairly well written piece of melodrama, if I do say so myself.

On a serious note, it sounds to me like you really need to get more comfortable with yourself; blaming your upbringing and the church for the "distress" that you claim to be enduring is, in my opinion, scapegoating.

I come from a background in which my father (that is his official title, so I'll use it) had a traumatic childhood and used that same childhood as reasoning for his own reprehensible behavior throughout his life, which included drug addiction (coc aine, primarily), drug dealing, playing muscle for some local gangsters and gun-running. That behavior included abusing his kids (of which, I was the oldest) and his wife. He never grew emotionally to own his mistakes and poor choices, to this day, he still blames his childhood. If you're looking for empathy, sure, I feel the pain of a poor childhood and unrealized expectations of the world, but my position in life has nothing to do with how I was raised (or not, depending on how you look at it). It has to do with my own decisions and shortcomings as a person.

I don't want to sound overly judgmental, but, please grow up and accept what your life has become as your own doing and stop blaming the church, God, or whoever. You're 33 years old; whatever there is, it's because of you.

Yeah, people.

Thank you for all of your posts. They all had the same theme, and that was the thought that I hate my life and it is entirely broken.

My OP was a question about suing the church for implanting religious ideas in children which stay with them for life, even if that person doesn't want them to.






Not that it matters.






A man simply wanted to hear a simple yes, no or maybe, and the reasons or theories why.

reply to post by Unrealised

I think most of us who were raised in a Christian home have felt this way many times in our lives. I for one have always questioned everything I was taught. But, as I got older and a little wiser in my old age, I realized that what I was taught really did have an impact on my life as a whole... For the better. It's very strange how God will reveal himself in the most strangest ways. He really does want to best for us in everything we do. I've come to the realization that He is very real. Guilt is from Satan, not God. Satan is the "Accuser". And remember No One is perfect and we all sin.

Unrealised
Yeah, people.

Thank you for all of your posts. They all had the same theme, and that was the thought that I hate my life and it is entirely broken.

It's only broken if you let it be.
Maybe you need to talk to some of the folks here

Pauligirl

Unrealised
Yeah, people.

Thank you for all of your posts. They all had the same theme, and that was the thought that I hate my life and it is entirely broken.

It's only broken if you let it be.
Maybe you need to talk to some of the folks here

I never said that my life was entirely broken.
What I said was that people think that is what my OP was all about.



Thank you for the link.

reply to post by Unrealised


It really doesn't matter if you ever heard of it before, or even if it ever existed on our timeline.

One thing that is for certain is it is the natural evolution of the human mind so if the mind was not faced with the current flavor which it has been digesting it would be just another flavor.

the current incarnation is the bestus...

Can you say for certain that this lurking struggle you speak of that was happening in the back of your mind hasn't been partly responsible for bringing balance to your life?

You are here seeking answers. Is not that inherent lack of balance what brought you to seek the answers?

Wouldn't you rather be someone who digs for the real truth as opposed to someone who blindly accepts what they are told?

Maybe that was the whole point... I'm betting that you've somehow turned out to be someone who knows the true measure and consequences of their actions.


Not at all to say that I agree in any way with organized religion, but stories of the boogeyman have probably been a part of raising children since we first explored the use of language.

Could you sue the internet because porn ruined your marriage?