Some people just refuse to learn! They are so addicted to doing things a certain way that they can't break free of it.
No human being should be reduced to this level.
I was born in the U.S. as a Christian, or at least I was called a Christian, as is the tradition of anyone born into the religion of his/her parents. I began going alone to a local Baptist church when I was around ten years old.
The preacher scared me intensely, during one of the Sunday Sermons, when he shook his stern pointer finger right towards me and said I was going to “hell in a hand basket“. He was talking to the entire congregation, but at ten years old and no one there to explain things to me, I felt he was indicating hell for me personally and solely.
I walked reluctantly up the church aisle a few times, between the ages of ten into my early twenties, to make a public profession of faith, more out of fear than understanding. I couldn’t comprehend the concept of some of the doctrine of Christianity, like the Trinity.
In 1998, I met a Muslim man online in a chat room. He began telling me about Islam. I was so naïve at that time about any and all religions, and as far as I knew, Muslims were the people who worshiped cows. I was completely ignorant on the topic. He promptly set me straight, informed me that this is not what Islam is about, and then proceeded to introduce me to a teacher at the Islamic Society of North America in a major U.S. city where I lived. This encounter eventually would lead to a drastic and chaotic chain of events that would forever change my life. The next ten years of my life would give rise to a reign of horror unlike anything I had ever experienced in my life. That horror had a name – Islam.
I was given just enough of the teachings of Islam to be convinced that it was truly a religion of God, a religion of peace. It came at a time in my life when I was looking for spiritual fulfillment from a Higher Power, and definitely a little peace in my life. I believed in God, but that was about it. The Muslims had me at an advantage, because my religious slate was practically clean. They could easily convince me of anything they wanted, and they did.
It should have been a red flag to me that I was forbidden by this teacher to have a Qur’an, or even read it in the beginning, until he approved me to do so. Just the same, I was lured into this cultic fanatical religion based on the facts regarding Islam given to me at that time. Their teachings – first and foremost, Islam is a “religion of peace“.
The old loony bin is better!