Other Christians may not be comfortable with this questioning. But I have been doing it for over 30 years now. I believe it has led to a lot of growth for me, and I would encourage everyone to do it.

God is not going to strike you dead for questioning him/her. God is not offended by being questioned. I wish more Christians felt free to do it.

I was really religious at one time, but I started to question the validity of the Christian bible and then questioned whether god actually existed or not.
I told myself that I couldn’t be half-hearted with my religion. I either accepted god unconditionally or didn’t. I couldn’t stop myself from questioning religion, so I decided that if god existed, it would be better if I stopped following him completely than if I continued without giving it my all.

I was really religious at one time, but I started to question the validity of the Christian bible and then questioned whether god actually existed or not.
I told myself that I couldn’t be half-hearted with my religion. I either accepted god unconditionally or didn’t. I couldn’t stop myself from questioning religion, so I decided that if god existed, it would be better if I stopped following him completely than if I continued without giving it my all.

The older I get, and the farther away from my fundie past (I left the philosophy behind in 1989), the more I believe in a well rounded life in which spirituality plays an important role but does not demand amputating the other important parts. In face, I think now that my spiritual life is enhanced if I also do things like exercise, have a loving relationship with friends and family, keep abreast of events in the world so I can be an informed voter, and so on. I bring more to the table that way when I tend my relationship with the Divine. I don’t think God wants us to be depleted, exhausted, at the end of our rope, and begging that He (She) make up for our neglect of our well being by magically making it all OK. I think that any God worthy of the title expects us to take care of ourselves and each other.

–Tapati

The older I get, and the farther away from my fundie past (I left the philosophy behind in 1989), the more I believe in a well rounded life in which spirituality plays an important role but does not demand amputating the other important parts. In face, I think now that my spiritual life is enhanced if I also do things like exercise, have a loving relationship with friends and family, keep abreast of events in the world so I can be an informed voter, and so on. I bring more to the table that way when I tend my relationship with the Divine. I don’t think God wants us to be depleted, exhausted, at the end of our rope, and begging that He (She) make up for our neglect of our well being by magically making it all OK. I think that any God worthy of the title expects us to take care of ourselves and each other.

–Tapati

Jesus says…

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

He doesn’t say, They’ll know you are Christians “by your head coverings”, “by your home schooling”, by “looking different”.

I read in one yahoo group one time where someone said, “But if I don’t wear a specific head covering (as opposed to a stylish hat), how will people know I’m a Christian?” That’s NOT supposed to be the reason you wear it, if you wear it. We’re all mixed up here.

If you lived in an orthodox society, no one would think you were a Christian if you dressed modestly. You’d have to “show by your love for another” that you are a disciple of Christ. That’s actually a whole lot harder than putting on a certain attire.

Jesus mixed with people in the marketplace. We can too. In fact, we should. He spent time with wicked people and didn’t avoid them. Our kids need to see us getting “out there” and being a real person in a real world.

There has to be a balance, of course, and we need to be sensitive. That is why we need to be careful that we don’t go beyond scripture.

Col. 2:8 warns us to not follow the tradition of men but to follow after Christ. It appears that some in the home schooling community have created their own “set of traditions” that need to be followed. This seems to have become more important that following Christ.

There should be red flags waving around! Big ones. We need to be comparing what we are learning daily with what the Scriptures teach.

We’ve got to be careful that we don’t go beyond Scriptures and make up a bunch of rules or even principles that aren’t there.

Most people aren’t even close to that point in their lives, but apparently there is this segment of home schoolers who have gone far beyond Scriptural mandates and are declaring their rules as “biblical”.

Jesus says…

John 13:35 By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”

He doesn’t say, They’ll know you are Christians “by your head coverings”, “by your home schooling”, by “looking different”.

I read in one yahoo group one time where someone said, “But if I don’t wear a specific head covering (as opposed to a stylish hat), how will people know I’m a Christian?” That’s NOT supposed to be the reason you wear it, if you wear it. We’re all mixed up here.

If you lived in an orthodox society, no one would think you were a Christian if you dressed modestly. You’d have to “show by your love for another” that you are a disciple of Christ. That’s actually a whole lot harder than putting on a certain attire.

Jesus mixed with people in the marketplace. We can too. In fact, we should. He spent time with wicked people and didn’t avoid them. Our kids need to see us getting “out there” and being a real person in a real world.

There has to be a balance, of course, and we need to be sensitive. That is why we need to be careful that we don’t go beyond scripture.

Col. 2:8 warns us to not follow the tradition of men but to follow after Christ. It appears that some in the home schooling community have created their own “set of traditions” that need to be followed. This seems to have become more important that following Christ.

There should be red flags waving around! Big ones. We need to be comparing what we are learning daily with what the Scriptures teach.

We’ve got to be careful that we don’t go beyond Scriptures and make up a bunch of rules or even principles that aren’t there.

Most people aren’t even close to that point in their lives, but apparently there is this segment of home schoolers who have gone far beyond Scriptural mandates and are declaring their rules as “biblical”.