It was a joke, Jake. I also grew up in a church, a Baptist church, and I got baptized out of my own will early on in High School, but by the time I was in my Junior year, I had pretty much had enough. I remember hitting one of my friends because he was always cussing and that was a sin. I'm glad he refrained from striking me back because I would have gotten my ass kicked for sure. I thought about it for a bit and realized that if it is belief in Jesus that makes someone a Christian then what does it matter if someone says curse words or not? Anyways, those incidents and a few others, such as when I asked my mom if being gay was a sin and she dropped a Bible in front of my bedroom door with tons of bookmarks of verses that she believed show that homosexuality is a sin. I realized that if that is the meaning of those verses or not, I didn't want to be a part of a religion along with people who believed that. Love is love is love is love.

I kept going to youth group for a while longer because most of my friends did, tried a few new churches, but I always asked questions that weren't desired and at any church I went to there were always the exclusive cool kids. It wasn't for me. I'm an atheist band geek for life. My mom still gives me gifts like little angels that say "Jesus Loves You" every so often, but my dad, even though he is a pastor, stopped proselytizing at me because I told him I don't want him to. We get along pretty well now and talk about politics most days.

I also worked for a Jewish temple for about 7 months playing piano for their three choirs, but they kept urging me to join the temple and sign documents saying that I wouldn't do any drugs so I quit. Me? Not smoke pot? LOL. That day they lost the best pianist they'd had in a long time.

I stick by my belief that the Christian Faith is a fabrication to control a populous with.
>>>>>>>>

It was and still is used this way.
Some people live to be led, I am not one of them.