Canadians
Tag Archives: religion
You Can’t Stop the Overturn of Roe v Wade, but Here are 6 Things You Can do to Mitigate the Harm and Fight Back — AwayPoint
For the time being, the Religious Right has won on federal abortion rights. The Supreme Court is stacked with Catholics—two thirds to be precise—and they have voted to overturn Roe v Wade. For now, conservative Christian theology limits your legal rights and the rights of people around you. But there is a lot we can […]
You Can’t Stop the Overturn of Roe v Wade, but Here are 6 Things You Can do to Mitigate the Harm and Fight Back — AwayPoint
It’s Not About Religion
I had set aside some of my research into Christiane Northrup for my own mental health. There’s a lot of us hurting as we’ve lost family members to conspiracy theories (and I mean that in the broadest sense of the word.)
I have kept a journal for reference and taken many notes along the way. Most of the material I have doesn’t touch the boat load of stuff being thrown out there now. Still, if you’ve been following her, there really isn’t anything new under the sun.
For instance, Russia and Putin are all the rage right now among conspiracy theorists. As I have mentioned/contributed elsewhere, my mother was talking about how Russia/Putin were going to fix everything while Obama was President. It’s not new.
I’ve decided to print out from notes I took from a video dated October 3, 2021. I tend to think I’m going to draw this to an end. However, the notes I have I would like to document, so will do so here and then as usual I’ll add them to my journal.
The following is from a website url – *https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91wphMNeSn8 (Please note I buggered up the url with an * so if you are searching, remove the * first. I don’t want a hyperlink from here to that YouTube page.)
Christiane is introduced as Dr. Northrup and another man is introduced as Dr. Palesvsky. The video is titled: Envisioning Health Care on the New Earth.
Though I listened to the entire video, only that which I include here is of interest to me.
At the 1:17.40 Northrup is speaking and I simply wrote down what she said. Punctuation is mine.
Northrup: ” . . . there’s many many things they can do but the first thing is they need to bring their own divinity back in. You said it yourself. God didn’t leave, we left God. So you got to invite God the Creator that created your body and you are made in the image of God. So you need to get right with your Creator. This has nothing to do with religion. You need to get right with your Creator and then you’ve heard the term – ask and you shall receive, knock and the door shall be open unto you. You need to take this seriously. And what people have done – really, for generations now they have put their faith in medicine and not God.”
My commentary. Keep in mind there’s so much more going on here. Again, this is one of the influencers my mother follows. Northrup says here that this is not about religion, while at the same time floating religious notions, including Biblical passages. Anything she says is a hodge-podge of grab-bag spiritualities. Many years ago when mom started parroting Northrup and others, one of the things she kept saying is: It’s not about religion. This reminds me of my own Christian walk where a lot of people would say: I don’t call myself a Christian. I follow Jesus. People will stumble all over themselves trying to say it’s not about religion when it simply is.
The next post will include Dr. Larry Palesvsky’s illustrious words. (Sarcasm implied.)
Look Away
“Those people were suppose to die.”
“They are old people.”
“It’s the old people that are dying.”
“It’s people who are already sick who are dying.”
All statements made to me back in early 2020 by my mother about a hoax called Coronavirus. It did not exist. Yet, she had explanations about the non-existent deaths due to the non-existent virus.
The first statement is about the “contract” souls made before they came here via sex or perhaps Neptune. A lovely way to bypass the hardness of reality is to believe souls had a choice to come or not. So as they (the dead souls) go, believers like mom can ease their death anxiety by letting them go, for the most part with no mourning of their departure. It is all as it is suppose to be.
The second statement is about dismissing the elderly as they not only agreed to the length of the stay but also agreed to depart when they did. And with no complaint either because, well, they’d stayed long enough. No need to complain about it. They’d used up enough resources and time. Time to make space for the young, fertile and productive.
The third statement is about making the old deaths “okay.”
The fourth statement is about the reality of aging. The organs are no longer “in tune.” The mind and body are in the gradual process of decay. Body parts no longer strong enough to counter the evils of sickness. It’s those people who are dying. Oh well. Farewell. This also includes those of a younger age whose bodies are failing them for all kinds of reasons. We must not linger here. We must let them go. It was all meant to be.
In case anyone else wants to know where I’m coming from, where I’ve been and where I’m headed.
Violet: “We’re PEOPLE, Zoe. Just people, trying to get through our day despite being ruled by an imperfect government. Just like everyone else on earth.”
Zoe: On the night I posted David Frum’s Twitter message, I had been texting my close friend who is American and lives in Michigan. She told me she was terribly depressed about the U.S. President, the postal service debacle, and told me “Don’t come here, it’s awful!” She forgot that we can’t go there as our border is not open. My point being, she was terribly upset and in the years I’ve known her I have not heard her admit to this kind of depression. I tried to lift her spirits and planned to talk to her the next day. And so I did for several hours. She kept asking why these people in the U.S. believed Trump. How can they not see he’s lying, his narcissism, his cruelty. We talked about David Frum’s Twitter message. I found it interesting, so I posted it. She hesitated to talk about the QAnon stuff because she knows it triggers me and I told her we both could talk about it since we both were upset about it. I don’t go on and on in writing anymore Violet. I’m tired. I’m no longer going to invest in the behind the scenes explanations. No one reads here because I write great instructive exposes on anything. This is like a personal diary that I sometimes write poorly in and for the most part anyone that reads here and sometimes comments here has done so with grace. I suspect many have moved on. And that’s not a problem with me. Every day I think about moving on too. Often I can’t even form sentences anymore. I might start something and not bother with commentary on it. I’m just putting it here for something to do.
Anything I write regarding the U.S. is because I’m fucking shitless scared of the world we are living in. Yes Violet, I’m a people too. And yes, the U.S. is a big part of my life from the time my ancestors landed on your eastern shores. The branch I was in stayed loyal to the throne and headed north. Others stayed south. In doing so, some of my ancestors died before they got here. They were considered traitors. Some of my ancestors came up the St. Lawrence and participated in establishing a Christian religion and nation by eliminating Indigenous peoples all in the name of Christ.
The U.S. Southern Baptists highly influenced the Independent Fundamentalist Baptist Church here in Canada and to tell you the truth, the U.S. was the bees knees and we were beneath them when it came to the one true religion. Our speakers on creationism, evolution, abortion and demonic activity travelled from the U.S. to tell us all about it. The gospel groups came from the U.S. to sing their praises. Our printed materials for Sunday School came from the U.S. to indoctrinate our children. Our youth programming came from the U.S. Seminars and mission events were held in the U.S. We were inundated with the U.S. conservative evangelical movement and when the church growth movement started, we did it too. During my short stint in Bible College some of our full-time profs were Americans.
We have friends and family in the U.S. By the way, the U.S. family are very conservative and think we Canadians aren’t the sharpest tools in the tool chest. Talk about vitriol.
When I came online in 2001 , to forums looking for help with spiritual abuse I knew not one Canadian. When I started blogging a few years later, I still did not know one Canadian blogger. When it came to Christian blogs they were American. I literally lived in the American Christian world day and night online. The books I read were written my American authors. The forums were run by Americans. It formed my world view both religiously and politically. And though when I deconstructed what I use to believe I slowly left that world with as much grace as I could knowing that once again I was disappointing people I had networked with for years.
When I started writing as an agnostic and then an agnostic atheist I found only one online atheist woman and she was American. She stopped blogging years ago. Later I found John Loftus’s blog and though it was way out of my league that’s where I started to learn of others who had left Christianity and were blogging about it. Then over the years, ex-Christian blogs blew up all over the place and guess what? All American. I was still fully engaged in the U.S. as we all wrote about, commented on and discussed leaving the faith. I think a few other Canadians were in the mix but I no longer know as I myself don’t read hardly any blogs. If you look at my list of blog sites, almost all of them are dormant as many people aren’t blogging anymore. I still leave some of their blogs listed just in case by chance someone pops in here looking for information and maybe then they can find stuff that will help them with their doubt and changing beliefs. Maybe they won’t feel so alone.
So I’ve just sat around in here, though less and less as the years pass by, toying a bit I suppose with what might have been or what should have been. Then Covid-19 startled not only me, but you and an entire universe with traumatic changes. I decided to try and develop a cohesive way of learning about QAnon and trying to understand mom so that every single time I am in touch with her I am not literally slain and knocked off my feet for days, weeks &/or months at a time. And I’m sorry but I can’t talk about QAnon without talking about the U.S. President, his government and the people who believe it. And yes, we have QAnon here in Canada but every bit of mom’s stuff comes from U.S. websites. So I am pissed beyond measure. I’ve been traumatized since Trump came down the escalator. I’m not the only one. And yes I know people are dying and starving and killing one another and despairing. I bloody well know that Violet. And though you aren’t reading this, I’m content to know you’ve moved on because this blog doesn’t meet your expectations anymore. Hell, it doesn’t meet mine, apart from the fact that I can come in here because it is my blog and prattle on about what ever it is that is making me sick to my stomach at the moment.
Violet: “I initially came to this blog because we both had similar experiences of being beaten down by religion. Religion was something I was born into and had no control over when I was a child. Now I’m leaving this blog because because I’m being beaten down for being American…something I was also born into and have no control over. You can say I’m taking things too personally, but when I read post after post of hatred toward the US, I feel unwelcome here.”
Zoe: You can take it personally. If there’s anything I’ve learned now by age 64 is that a woman has every right to take whatever it is that she finds offensive and hateful and leave. I don’t hate the U.S. Violet. That is over the top. It’s because I care that I’m angry, scared and traumatized by what’s going on. I am taking what is going on in the U.S. personally. You want to blame me for hating the U.S. go ahead. I only hate Trump and the goons who once ran against him and all said on tape that he was terrible in every way shape or form. Now they have bowed down to him and kissed his ass. Yes, I take that personally because as the U.S. goes often the world goes and it damn well affects/effects Canadians too. As well, right from the start, what is going on in the U.S. government reminds me hook, line and sinker of my days in church. Is this all stuff for a therapist? Yup.
Violet: “I wish you only the best on your journey. My journey leads me elsewhere now.”
Zoe: Okay. You may feel unwelcome here. I would never dispute what you feel. For the sake of people who may read here and wonder, people who have the password to my password protected posts are not unwelcome and Violet, that includes you. I don’t give my password out to just anybody. There are people who have asked and I’ve said, no. We are people and there’s so much more to both of us as human beings than what is shared on this one blog.
Addendum: For those reading this, I apologize for the discomfort. I’m feeling it too. I do not expect anyone to feel they have to respond &/or comment. We’re all entitled to come and go and to give voice.
“Say what you want to say and let the words fall out, honestly . . . ” (from the Brave song.)
Over At Bruce’s
Another evangelical pastor with a message for Bruce.
As is the case, some of us are responding to pastor Nelson. My comment follows:
Dear pastor Nelson,
How many people “come to Christ” because they have been hurt and are in pain?
Is their conversion illegitimate because they came to Christ for emotional reasons?
I came to Christ for emotional reasons. I was 13 years old and scared shitless by fear of a parent’s possible death and then retraumatized by camp counsellors a few years older than me telling me that even though I had believed in Jesus I had not yet “asked Him into my heart” therefore headed to hell if by chance I fell off the Lake Erie cliff that day and died.
With tears in my eyes on top of a cabin bunkbed I looked out over the lake fog settled in on the campgrounds and quietly talked with “Jesus” as I understood him at the time. It was all emotion. A sincere young teenage girl sincerely emotional and placing her trust in other teenagers and a few young twenty-year olds and giving up her own intellectual mind to people she somehow thought knew better than her.
So pastor Nelson. Was I saved? Am I truly born-again? It was all emotional.
Love/Hate Relationships
Summer of ’69, thirteen.
I had always believed. Not raised in a Christian fundamentalist home. Raised in a highly dysfunctional home.
A loving Jesus came in handy for a traumatized child.
Bible Camp and the born-againers threatened hell and told of a Jesus who not only loved but also hated. The same scenario I was nurtured in at home.
Not only did Jesus love me but He also judged me. Familiar.
Broken with no sure foundation, I took the bait.
My contribution to the comment section for Bruce’s blog post HERE.
Bolding emphasis added for my post here.
Secular Wings 
Violet: “If I were asked which country in the world hates the US the most, I would have to say it’s Canada.”
Zoe: I would say if I was asked, the U.S. does a fine job of hating itself and one another. Then maybe China and North Korea might hate you more than Canadians. Of course, I don’t know which Canadians or Canadian bloggers you are referring too.
Violet: “I don’t know why, but it seems it’s a Canadian religion to bash Americans every chance they get. You know what’s odd? I almost never hear of Americans having vitriol for our neighbors North of the boarder.”
Zoe: Almost never but sometimes?
Violet: “I notice that you never talk about your own country on this blog, but persistently harp on every flaw Americans have. I’ve read many Canadian blogs but have had to bow out of all of them for this same reason.”
Zoe: I gave up talking about my own country when my adult children assumed positions in the community and province that would expose them if people knew who their mom was and what she was writing online. That’s also when I chose the option for search engines to ignore my blog. I also moved here to this new url (14 years ago according to my WordPress Anniversary notice last week) when I made those decisions. Up and until then I was followed by bloggers all over the world in the Christian community. During that time I spoke up politically about Canada frequently as it pertained to religion, not just Christianity but often involving Islam. I wrote frequently about honour killings and wrote a long article encouraging a former Premier to outlaw Sharia law. The next day he did. Did he see my article? I don’t know. The point being I was a prolific writer and at that time unafraid in regards to my government. I have been a political person my entire life, having written to my Canadian government during my college years as well as being outspoken in the community, medical and educational system. I’ve also had politicians in my family. It’s in me. As well I have been an advocate for the abused outside the church, for those with special needs, for those who are dying and in the mental health field. At one point, I became very concerned about exposure and people figuring out who Zoe was/is. I also developed a fear because I was outspoken regarding Islam and the honour killings happening here. I was brave then. I’m not now. And though I wrote about this in a previous blog and during my busier blogging days, I was scared to death of a former friend’s “lover” who at one time was involved with (removed as this info. can still trigger me). Shortly after being verbally and abusively in written form, attacked by her, my husband had to pick me up off the floor from being shattered in a million pieces as she told me I was an abomination to the Lord and responsible for raising and immoral and corrupt generation of children. Narcissists love to hit you where your strengths are. Meanwhile she’s carrying on an affair with a converted preacher (removed this info. as it is still triggering) guy. But I’m the abomination. And just sharing that there is too much information to put in a blog.
In my 30’s I fought for my life with severe illness, spending almost 2 years in bed, only later to be hospitalized and fighting for my life sick with intestinal disease as well as battling a body and mind that were deteriorating. If I’m not mistaken, you suffer as well. In my 40’s I began to deconstruct my religion and belief system understanding that I was falling apart emotionally and mentally due to Christian abuse and felt the extreme weight of guilt and shame for having taken part in it, raising my children in it, losing friends over it and being active in youth ministry. As well, I began to develop deep understanding of the roots of original trauma from my youth. I’ve never been the same since. This blog is read by maybe 6 people though all kinds of people *follow* it and commenting here is at a minimum. You have been privy I believe to some of my password protected posts and know some of the shit I’ve been through. You also know I’m not a human being who ignores the humanity of other people.