u/Fun_Grapefruit0789

Hello, a few days ago I posted and mentioned my mom was nearing the end. She has entered into the Kingdom of Christ. Her final words were "I see angels."

The words heartbroken and devatastated and shocked don't beging to describe what we are feeling as a family. She wad only 65 and I had to watch my grandma say goodbye to my mom.

I have kept up a facade of being a Christian to keep my mom happy and I am glad I did it. But I haven't been a Christian in a long time.

This makes me want to return to the faith.

Even though the church we grew up in was very conservative, and it spoiled my mind against Christianity, my mom was the one fighting for them to be better.

She was friends with and dating other races in the 70s when cops would pull her over asking if she was being kidnapped or hurt, and she would say "no, these are my friends." She was always trying to push for more church support for the poor and the sick. She had a special connection to the elderly and always tried to serve them. She truly believed in seeing others as if they were Jesus himself. She was all about making people comfortable and happy, even if it was at the detriment of herself. Even at the end she was telling the doctors she is in no pain. But the hospice experts said her body language was consistent with extreme anxiety and discomfort, but they felt she didnt want anyone worrying about her. ​​

I need prayers. I need peace and strength to do life without my mom, which seems absolutely impossible. ​I need peace and strength for the rest of my family - especially my dad who just lost his own mom a few weeks ago and now his spouse. And I need direction - this is making me very confused and i don't know what to do in terms of my faith or lack thereof.

One thing that I struggle with in Christianity, having been raised as a lifelong Christian and as an adult being back-and-forth atheist and agnostic - it has not necessarily been the existence of God, it has not been the lifestyle, or anything like those typical things. It all goes back to.....you are so evil, you need saving. In fact, so totally evil that the creator of the universe needed to go through the extreme sacrifice of sending his own son to die FOR YOU AND YOUR EVILNESS. And this includes babies, and toddlers, and children! And we must live with this guilt hanging over our heads of this sacrifice all of our days.

So what exactly is in the human soul that needs saving? What about me at age like 13 was so dastardly bad that I needed to remember scenes from Passion of the Christ representing Christ sacrifice for me to save me. Why did I need saving? Why do I still need saving?

Hypothetically I could say yes, I believe in God and I believe the moral lessons in the bible.....but I can't believe that we are so evil and need saving. Not as the only way I've ever known it to be. But are there other ways of seeing it?

*Full transparency - this is a genuine question and not meant to be aggressive. My mom, who is devout and raised me in the church, is currently in end-of-life care and I am trying desperately to see a glimmer of goodness in the faith.

My mom may pass tonight. I'm not even 35 yet. She just turned 65.

About 5 years ago, she went through a procedure that many other people go through as fairly routine and heal up quickly. But she never healed up. She has lived in pain and severe discomfort with very frequent hospital visits and falls requiring fire department help. My dad basically turned into a full-time caregiver, with the past year my mom needing 24-hour care and help with EVERYTHING.

Now we are waiting for some test results and based on these, we may be looking at making a late night visit to the hospital to say goodbye.

I struggle with knowing how to help my dad - like...I know practically. But emotionally? He just lost his mom last week! What on earth could I say or do? Nothing. And the thought that the last time my mom hugged me was maybe the LAST time I would ever get a hug from my mom and I didn't even know it. I hear similar stories from coworkers who are in their late 60s with their 90-year-old parents and thinking we could have had so much more time ahead. I had begged and pleaded with my mom years prior to take better care of her health, and she made the decision every day not to do it.

I also struggle with the good, the bad, and the in-between of who she was as a parent and as a person. I just struggle seeing what my future looks like without my mom.

Thanks for listening. :(

Hi everyone,

I know I've commented about this before and I've seen other people comment as well. Would anyone else who is interested in combining Epicureanism and Non-Theistic Paganism be interested in connecting, maybe getting together on a discord or something?

Non-Theistic Paganism is having a ritualistic life revering the cycles of nature and science, abstains from worshipping literal spiritual beings (although many do "worship" deities symbolically and don't believe they are actual real entities), reject superstition, and sometimes will practice SASS witchcraft (stands for Skeptical, Agnostic, Atheist, and Science Seeking; basically believing spells and such are good psychologically for mental health and do not believe that anything supernatural or mystical is happening).

Hopefully this is allowed, I feel like these two things are very compatible but it's not necessarily everyone's cup of tea, so maybe it would be useful to have a separate place for us to discuss things without having to clog up this subreddit which is probably mostly people who would not be interested in this. 🤷‍♀️

Merry meet,

I was wondering if anyone would care to share on if and how your Wiccan spirituality affects your relationship with technology? Not just social media or AI, but other technology too.