Atheist "Testimonial"

I was raised in a Pentecostal family. If the Catholic Church is known for being secretive & conspiratorial, the Pentecostals are known for being obsessive lunatics (the redneck "snake handlers" are an even more insane offshoot of Pentecostals).

My grandfather was a Pentecostal pastor in Cuba. He moved his family to America, where eventually one of his daughters met my father to be, A Cuban Catholic who's family intermingled (though barely practiced) Santeria along with Catholicism. My father, having listened to my grandfather's nonsense converted to a Pentecostal. Judging by how obsessed he would become with his crazy religion he
probably felt pretty guilty about his "blasphemous" santero-catholic adolescence.

After my parents divorced, I lived with my father for seven years, from age 10 to age 17. During this time I was forced to attend church every week, often several times a week, Including all night every Halloween, New Years and Easter. At church they would "speak in tongues" which I always thought meant screaming gibberish, loudly, while jumping around, knocking shit down & scaring the children.

Aside from my "language lessons" I also had to endure constant personal sermons & exclamations that I was aiming my life straight into hell. Regular anointments with oil on my forehead, CDs, video games, books, television. It was fucking ridiculous & messy. Enlarged bible verses were forced in & around my room instead of posters & my CD lyric sheets were scrutinized in mirrors in search of demonic intentions (not kidding). I had to change into my desired attire @ school because the way I chose to dress was not holy enough. And my books & CD collections were completely purged on more than one occasion. I could go on but this was meant to be more of a rant than a list.

People always tell me religion was so forcefully shoved right down my gullet that I was frightened out of it. My response to that is I was raised no differently than hundreds of thousands of other kids throughout America who fervently swallow up their parent's silly nonsense. My upbringing just made that shit so unpalatable that I was able to brake that ancient spell on my own.

Now I am an adult & I am free. I base my life & my actions on reason & pride. I see the way the country is going & I am horrified. The republican party has been absorbed by the religious right & is actively striving for theocracy. The Democratic party is weak & prefers to placate all ends than take action. I am still young & inexperienced but I hope that as I grow as a person I find myself able & willing to do whatever it takes to prevent the fanatics from achieving their goal.