Religious people can destroy lives.

G'day Everyone.

Have you ever stared at your computer screen via an email, or get a letter in the mail that starts out like a final suicide note to you personally, or a phone call from someone angry that just shouts some important words that stay with you? Something like:

"YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE!"

Those words can either haunt you for your life, or you can choose to ignore it and later suffer the consequences at your own peril.

Let me repeat that a little louder to the religious crowd out there:

"YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE!"

So why do I choose to shout it out? I know a few religious organizations that I used to be involved in long ago in my young life. I learned the hard way that if you don't play by their "rules", they can choose to destroy your life and then claim "God led us to do that so you can't get along in the world with anyone else but us". When you don't play by the "rules", they can betray you as much as they please to do and they can think that they're scoring points with God for an easy after life. But destroying my (and your) life can also have a personal consequence of having the religious organization paying a price of their own of standing behind the Word of God.

Since then I've rebuilt my life in a non-religious way. I may seem rebellious to some people (even to some of my still religious friends), but I have chosen to shun a few things I once enjoyed doing. But along the way in my current life, I had a close friend who told me a dark and terrible secret that he had been living with for a long while. I did not know how to help him. I felt helpless for him.

When I told a group of my confidential friends about my close friend, we all agreed that it would remain with the group and it would not go anywhere else but our prayers to God for help of my close friend. I was given assurance. I promised of what I would do to them if I was betrayed. I had hoped it wouldn't come to that point in my life. But now it may have.

In a moment of time, two former friends of mine, who were once my close confidants, decided to try to score points with my close friend and told him what was going on. Only that they choose to *twist the truth* to the way that it sounds like it was God leading them to say things against me to my close friend. That was their betrayal of me and my group of confidential friends.

In another moment of time later, I was given one of the most angriest emails that I ever had in my life from my close friend who called me every swear name in the life that he could think of. But of course, the opening email starts out with:

YOU DESTROYED MY LIFE!

I have tried to ask my close friend questions and asking him to sit down and talk with me in person. I needed to find out what was going on and who said what. But he's too angry to see things straight. I'm hope he will one day sit down with me before it's too late in this life.

As for the two former confidential friends of mine: time has passed for those two. They were given many chances to explain their actions defensively. Of course, they both have chosen to hide behind their bibles and praying that God will "defend" them. Their actions are their choices. But, I will have the final say. Of when and where I will strike at these two ex-friends will be left up to God and me. Trust me, it won't be pleasant to either of them when it happens.

However, if there was grace to exist in this world, it would extend to every person who destroyed my life and to every person who's angry with me for whatever reason they have, I would encourage those people to contact me and say "Let's sit down in person and talk things out. " If they do that, they could not just only regain friendship, but rather have true forgiveness and get true points with God. Plus, they get bonus points if they choose to help rebuild my life more.

But if they choose to wait till the judgment seat hits before the throne of God, every one of them loses so much more and then more hard feelings are created in the afterlife.

So while we're here on earth, let's try helping people put their lives back together, in a non-religious way. People deserve to enjoy life. They also deserve to be helped and lifted up in prayer. The less people betray their friends, the more good they can do to help each other.

In closing, I ask my close friend to please, contact me and sit down with me. We need to talk things out before it's too late. Let's find the truth before we're too angry, blind, and lost to the truth. Bitterness should not stand in the way to find out what's really going on.

Semper FI.