Where You Afraid?

I remembered  today an experience I had when I was about 11 years old and going to church. They made us watch a movie(sort of) about hell, that explained what hell was about and had weird images, people screaming, fire and those things. I remember I couldn't forget those things for about a month, I prayed everyday, tried to be more active in church and all that because I was terrified to be sent there. Do you have any memories like that? if you were raised on a religious environment.

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Permalink Reply by Nicholas Dennis on May 9, 2011 at 8:39pm

 /agree on all points

I'd also like to add that I believe the concept of hell itself was created as a fear tactic to scare everyone into believing. After all, common people in the dark ages were as gullible as children nowadays (for the most part).

Permalink Reply by James on February 27, 2011 at 10:33pm
When I went to CCD school, they would talk about hell. But my memories are a bit blurry to say to what degree it affected me. I do remember having worries about going to hell though. Worried I didn't pray enough, worried that was somehow lacking or broken. But I don't recall a crippling fear. We never watched any movies on hell though.
Permalink Reply by Nate on February 28, 2011 at 2:19am
oh man definetely, all the way up til about 12 i genuinly believed in the supernatural, satan, demons, possessions, exorcisms, my family and religion had me freaked, so whenever i decided to watch movies related to any of that i would not get much sleep for days, just thinking about all that, feeling like demons were gonna come after me or possess me, i can kinda laugh at it now but it really is messed up to think how much it affected me and knowing that it has the same effects on other kids and children then and now, as far as hell goes, the religious were on my dads side of the family and they were all(and still are)hardcore jehovah's witnesses, they didnt teach me that there was a hell, just that there was gonna be Armageddon where every living thing that wasn't in "the truth" and part of the jehovahs witnesses were gonna be destroyed and not have a chance to live in paradise earth, i never worried about that though because i just could never wrap my head around the thought that god would kill every man, woman, child and elderly person for simply not being a jehovahs witnesses, i just had the hardest time believing that, perhaps that where my original doubts about the religion began and when i started to question more
Permalink Reply by Hope on February 28, 2011 at 3:03am

When I was in high school they were given us lectures about hell, torment of the grave, day of judgement, bridge of hell....


I remember the teachers and the school principal crying... I saw them crying and I cried because I was saddened to them not because I was afraid of Hell..

 

Also, I remember last time I had a debate and a crazy muslim that I argued with him he doesn't have anything to say but hell, repent, hell, repent...

and because this was my first debate..

I felt like he hit me on my head with a hammer. >I was like what ? where am I ?

suddenly my friends supported me and they said to him, hey you don't terrify her with hell.. 

Last thing he said to me, you are crazy and should go to psychiatrist or otherwise, you will go to hell and forever ..

Here is the Hell and the bridge of Hell of the merciful cute terrorist Allah.

 

Permalink Reply by natanael on February 28, 2011 at 8:57am
is really frustrating to know that this is happening to kids right now
Permalink Reply by Becca on February 28, 2011 at 10:37am
I was never afraid of hell because as far back as I can remember I didn't really believe in any of it god, religion, heaven or hell. I always had my doubts and questions... tons of questions. Also my family was Catholic so there was this nifty thing called purgatory which I though of as a giant waiting room for people who committed more minor sins like disobeying their parents. I was pretty sure that if the hell thing was real I or my family weren't going to go there because none of us ever did anything bad enough. When I was really young (5 and 6) I was just confused about religion in general and annoyed family members with my questions in church. I couldn't figure out why god, religion and all those Bible stories which I was sure couldn't real were so important to everyone around me. I couldn't figure out why they all took religion and the bible so seriously when the bible read like a Brothers Grim fairy tale (gory, entertaining, and completely made up). For a while I felt like there was something wrong with with me because I just didn't get the whole god and religion thing. I think that was worse than being afraid of hell for me. Ultimately I gave up on the whole god/religion thing at about 9 years old. I just stopped caring about any of it and stopped thinking about it. Thankfully by that time my family no longer lived near the more religious part of my family so not going to church wasn't a big deal. In fact I found out around that age that the only reason my mom went to church and took us kids along with her was because her mom had always tried to make her feel guilty if we didn't go to church or skipped a weekend and my dad, he never went to church so far as I can remember.
Permalink Reply by Kirk Holden on February 28, 2011 at 11:03am
I never believed in the supernatural. Religion was a social and political construct but I couldn't put that into words at age 6.
Permalink Reply by Doug Reardon on February 28, 2011 at 10:08pm
My parents were catholic, I went to catholic school for seven years, I was an alter boy because my father insisted.  But, I never, that I can remember, bought into any of that crap.
Permalink Reply by Ronald on February 28, 2011 at 10:15pm
I remember when I was young and my dad told me about guardian angels. He said that everyone had an angel floating over them at ALL times. Taking that into account, I was freaked out every time I had to use the restroom, lol. I didn't question him on angels even though the thought of someone watching me was creepy. (Looking back on it, I think it was just another one of those "god knows everything" scare tactics they use.)
Permalink Reply by Tammy on March 1, 2011 at 3:16pm

I am sure I wasn't so much affraid as concerned. When I was 15 my boyfriend suddenly jumped on the Jesus wagon. As unhappy as I was about the entire thing I just kept it to myself and went with him anyway.

 

After about a week my BF decided on this small church located above a sub shop. A few dozen hugs and a cup of juice later we were sitting in our seats, the preacher screaming about the rapture and shaking his bible around like he was on fire. He was on a roll as he called for as many amen, Jesus be praised as he could. Then suddenly 20 minutes into the sermon, in the middle of his "god anoint us with your love" chant he dropped to the floor in a crumpled heap. Not even a twitch from him nor the people around him. There was no concern, no rush to emergency, they were calm and at best excited. Some sang while others prayed. I think one of them was even knitting....

 

Then for 45 minutes all our asses just sat there and for that entire 45 minutes I was bored and worried out of my damned mind. Most of the time I was trying to figure out if he was dead, sleeping, or if everyone there was certifiably insane. The rest of the time I was trying to figure out what I was going to tell the cops if or when they ever came. At one point I even started to get up to go and check on him when one of the women grabbed my arm and sternly told me to sit because "god is here with us, can't you feel him? He is testing us, he is anointing us with his love, don't sin child or he will punish you  to damnation so sit and pray for his touch". I sat back down looked over at my BF who looked as stressed as I did if not more. It wouldn't be till after we left that I learned that the entire time this was happening, he was thinking we were all gonna die and that they had poisoned the juice we had when we first arrived.

 

Soon the paster in his wrinkle free expensive suite jumped to his feet panting and praising gods love. The people chanted and chirped right along with him as he recounted his journey.... He said and I quote! "I went into gods home, sat beside him at his table, we had tea, we had cookies, but there were few cookies so he brought me the most wondrous crackers, and as we ate together god spoke to me of his love, and BLAH BLAH BLAH". He lost me at tea and cookies. I was mentally shut off at that point.

 

Few minutes later as we drove away I couldn't help but burst out laughing. When my BF asked what was so funny I blurted out "I wonder if Jesus ate all the cookies".

 

Permalink Reply by Eric Lawson on March 1, 2011 at 5:30pm
My church screened the "Left Behind " series when I was a kid...frightened the shit out of me.
Permalink Reply by Evey on March 7, 2011 at 2:03am
Oh yes. 

When I was very small I would have terrible nightmares if I didn't pray before I went to sleep. I would wake up screaming and in tears, begging Jesus to forgive me for not praying. The nightmares were always about hell as literally as most Christians believe it to be and it scared me very badly.

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