christianity is fucking everywhere
6/29/23
When I was a christian, one of the ever-present narratives passed around every church I attended was this idea that christians are being persecuted. The examples were numerous: family values were being eroded by liberals and gay people; atheists didn't want the ten commandments on government buildings; prayer wasn't allowed in schools anymore; teachers weren't allowed to express their faith in the classroom; people weren’t voting for pro-christian legislation; secular music was bringing demons into people's houses straight through the radio waves; profanity scribbled onto playgrounds was corrupting the minds of children... I could go on. And most of these are pretty innocuous things talked about in front of me, a child.
As I grew older, I was let in on the secrets of how sex perverts holy minds and how divorce was a sign a couple had allowed satan into their marriage and how using swear words gave demons a foothold on your mind. I learned that christians must stand tall and resilient to resist the temptations of the flesh, because the government, schools, and pretty much everyone who didn't attend the same church as us (and maybe even some people who did! *gasp*) were dripping with satanic influence.
It sounds like hyperbole when I write it out, but I'm dead serious.
It's been over ten years since my Exit. I thought when I quit christianity that my life would suddenly be filled with "secularism." I thought I'd run into people who actively weren't christian anytime I went to a bar or an event or work. I thought it would take me no time at all to find spaces to exist in that didn't involve christianity. Because, after all, christianity was being eroded, right? It was being attacked from all sides! We had donned the armor of god and were ready to do battle in the lord's name! The enemy was everywhere!
If atheists = the enemy, and then enemy was everywhere, therefore, atheists must be everywhere. Right?
And now that I had defected, I wanted to find the enemy and ask them to be friends.
But I couldn't fucking find the enemy.
Because, as it turns out, atheists aren't everywhere, but christianity is.
You can't fucking escape it. You can't avoid it. It. is. ubiquitous. Way worse than dandelions.
There are christians in the office at work. christians at mcdonalds. christians in bars, getting wasted and sexually harassing people. There are christians in your neighborhood. There are christians at the doctor's office. There are christians who hunt and christians who play sports and christians who go to college and christians who mow lawns and pave your driveway and install sump pumps.
There are even corporations who are explicitly christian. Hobby Lobby. Chick-fil-A. Forever 21. Whataburger. Not to mention all those small-town businesses who are closed on sundays, which is annoying af.
There are 2300 people in my small USA town. Guess how many churches. FOURTEEN. In like, a five-square-mile radius. And if I expand to a twenty-mile radius? Over a hundred churches. I got tired of counting, so it could be more. I tried figuring out how many are in my county, but all I got was that there were 72 towns. Multiply that by 14 churches/town? Over a thousand.
If life were a Where's Waldo book, I'd be Waldo and everyone else would be a christian.
All the churches have signs too, just in case you forgot they were a church. One near me says "jesus is risen and nothing can change that." My husband likes to say, "Pontius Pilot would beg to differ," lol. Another one says, "It's not about guilt, it's about being free." Sure. Gaslighting 101, right there.
It's not just churches who have signs either. My neighbor still has up an easter flag that reads "jesus is risen" (this flag replaced the "trump: right to bear arms" flag with two pistols on it). There are a bunch of farms around who put bible versus on signs, too. One nearby says, "He knows every hidden thought," which is super creepy. It doesn't make it less creepy knowing it's a bible verse. And tons of people have christian shit on their cars—bible verses, jesus fish, crosses. Not to mention bibles in hotel rooms (I throw those away when I find them) and christian billboards (I flip those off when I see them).
I even have christian clients and I have to edit their books! Even my therapist is a christian.
christianity is everywhere.
You can't escape it.
Every time I meet a new person who is christian, or remember that someone I know and like is still christian, I experience a surge of disappointment.
Not you too.
On my worst days, when I am triggered and anxious and full of rage at the ideology that caused me so much pain, I can't even leave the house, because doing so would require me to drive down a road named after the church located on it.
christianity is like hydra. You can run. You can chop off a head or two or three. But it always grows another.
birth is a curse, and christianity is a prison.











