agnostics who spent their lives, maybe even given their lives, to help the unfortunate in third world countries, go to hell?
REGINA: What happened?
CYNTHIA: St Augustine said, “Our souls are restless until they rest in you”. Abandoning my faith left a gaping hole, and so I went a little crazy in my explorations.
REGINA: Crazy?
CYNTHIA: First I explored Wicca. I was a solitary practitioner for 6 years. I would occasionally visit covens where I didn’t feel like I quite fitted in. Something was missing. I longed for the fellowship I had with Christians. Eventually I found my way into a Unitarian Church where the pastor was basically a humanist.
My deceived heart leapt with joy when I first entered the Church and I saw flags that recognized a diversity of religions. This was a good thing, right? The church was liberal, but there was community for me and my kids.
REGINA: And Wicca?
CYNTHIA: By this time, I had left the Wicca thing alone and was just starting to believe in God again, but I believed all religions were fine. I was there for about four years when I started to notice something disturbing. There was great antipathy to Christianity, but all other religions were welcomed.
REGINA: Funny how that is the case, right?
CYNTHIA: I knew I had enough when on Easter Sunday, the pastor referred to the “Christian myth” of the resurrection instead of saying, “Christians believe…” and in celebration of Easter, he released a bunch of balloons. I found that so patronizing.
REGINA: Not to mention ‘ignorant’.
CYNTHIA: Fortunately, I had made a friend at the church who was tired of the same thing and told me about another church she had been visiting – Marble Collegiate Church.
It’s famous for its previous pastor, Norman Vincent Peale, who wrote the book, “The Power of Positive Thinking”. It is also famous for two celebrity ex-members: Donald Trump & Liza Minelli. Liza Minelli had one of her weddings at the church and Donald Trump supposedly met Marla Maples there.
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