u/fullofuckingbears313

Did anybody else experience members or preachers essentially acting like other religions don't genuinely believe what they believe? I remember sermons where the preacher was heavily implying that Muslims don't actually believe in Islam and Hindus know vishnu isn't real and secretly "know in their heart of hearts" that Christianity is true, when that wouldn't make any sense at all. There's no motive at all for something like that and that damn near requires conspiracy theory tin foil hat level of insanity.

This is furthered to me by the many sermons we had on "what other faiths believe and why it's wrong" where they very obviously misrepresent what those faiths believe to make it seem silly and ridiculous.

I suppose they have to tell themselves that because then they'd have to contend with the fact that other faiths can be just as convinced what they believe is true as they are and that due to that they can just as easily be wrong and another just as easily be right. Opens up a type of introspection that can very easily lead to deconstruction, so it's easier for them to convince themselves they're the only ones who believe that strongly and that makes them special.

One of the things I could never cope with in the CoC was the whole idea that the only acceptable divorce was if you got cheated on, and if it was over anything else, you could never get remarried. It never sat right with me that domestic violence and other forms of abuse weren't included in that, as well as many other issues where the one in the right is still punished for marrying somebody who wasn't like that when they got married. I remember hearing growing up when asking about that "that doesn't happen. Nobody becomes abusive and there's always going to be signs beforehand", but I've seen so many times where that's not the case. There's so many examples of men only becoming abusive once they're married since now there's consequences to leaving, so now a woman is no longer allowed to try again if her first husband turns out to be one of those men who are like that?

Secondly, forcing unhappy couples to stay together forever if kids are involved does more damage to the kid than having happy mom and happy dad living separately. Those kids are going to turn out more well adjusted than some kid who watches Mom and Dad scream at each other all day every day and fight over every little decision, or even just have tension leaving that kid anticipating a divorce that never happens, so the kid is going to have some intense anxiety.

I always heard growing up that "God's way is always better" and "God's rules are better for humanity", but like in this regard, this is an example of God's way having an innocent victim being punished by making that awful person their only chance to find love and then them being expected to live the rest of their life single because they chose the wrong person? Disgusting.