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From: wjhovi01@ulkyvx.louisville.edu
Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian
Subject: Re: tuff to be a Christian?
Message-ID: <Apr.19.05.11.45.1993.29115@athos.rutgers.edu>
Date: 19 Apr 93 09:11:45 GMT
Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu
Organization: University of Louisville
Lines: 24
Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu

Someone writing anonymously asks:

> Would you have become a Christian if you had not
> been indoctrinated by your parents? You probably never learned about
> any other religion to make a comparative study. And therefore I claim
> you are brain washed.

I *did* become a Christian without having been indoctrinated by my parents, and
having studied Buddhism fairly carefully and other religions to a lesser
degree.  I made a decision to accept the truth-claims of Christianity after
having given it a lot of thought.  (I have to point out that the process was not
purely a cold, rational one: there was a powerful experiential element as well.
Also, my Calvinist should rest assured that I don't lay any of the
responsibility for the outcome [my conversion] on anyone but God.)

It took me years and years for this all to happen, because I had many of the
objections that this poster puts forward.  I grew up in the shadow of [generic
authoritarian conservative denomination], and I *knew* that that wasn't a way
of life that I could adopt.  But I gradually learned not to tar all of
Christianity with the same brush, and realized quite suddenly one cold winter
night that I accepted what I had heretofore rejected.  I am quite certain that
I was not "brain-washed".

bill hovingh
