Beauty, Lost & Found

This is what I've come to believe: When something is so beautiful it brings you to tears, it's because that very beauty was somewhere hidden deep, deep inside of you, lost. You live your days with a heart stirring, yearning to find this lost thing, and only when encountering it in your world can this hidden beauty that was always a part of you be found, finally known. Who wouldn't cry?

Leaving Your Faith and Self-Loathing

Recently, a friend posted this article on Facebook, and the content of it really hit me:

The sad, twisted truth about conservative Christianity’s effect on the mind

I can relate to this at a visceral level, and though it's harsh in its accusations, I'm certain this brings some soothing comfort to those who've experienced what's described in the article. I do think that when we all finally heal, and when I say "we," I mean our society as a whole, not just former believers, we have to find a way to acknowledge and dare I say love what Christianity has brought us from a cultural standpoint. Even for those who've left the faith, it's so much part of our psyche that it is who we are, to some more deeply than others. Still for all, as a culture that has lived enmeshed in this institution of thinking for centuries, it's part of our evolutionary past. It's like embracing the family member who hurt you, perhaps unintentionally, but who also made you who you are in the end. To stop at the anger stage would mean that we are doing just as this article describes, which is to engage in self-loathing.