Raise your hand if you've ever been taught one or more of the following:
1. The earth is 6,000 - 7,000 years old
2. Evolution is a lie
3. Global warming is a hoax
4. The story of Noah's sons is the story of how God created the 3 human races
5. America is a special nation chosen by God
6. Abortion is infanticide (and all the moral implications which make 'pro-choice' = Hitler)
7. Religion is good, secularism is bad
8. Any exercise of government for the common good is outside the boundary of God's will
9. Rock and roll music contains hidden Satanic messages when you play it backwards
10. If two people love each other and desire to protect this love in the bounds of a covenant relationship recognized by the state this is an abomination to God and will destroy society if the two people are of the same gender.
11. Social justice is a distraction from the true Gospel message that individual sinners require individual salvation
12. The basic disposition of God is that he hates you and wants you to spend an eternity in hell. Unless you ask him for forgiveness in the name of his son, Jesus. In which case God loves you. This is Good News!!
13. People who are not Christian cannot be moral
14. AIDS is God's righteous punishment on homosexuals and therefore actually good
15. God will destroy all of creation in an apocalyptic judgment. This is good news and totally righteous!!
16. If you don't have a really awesome relationship with God, kinda like he's your perfect boyfriend/girlfriend, it's your fault and a sign that you aren't right with God.
17. The most important work of spirituality is attending church on Sunday morning.
18. If going to church on Sunday morning isn't the best part of your life something is terribly wrong with you.
19. The Bible is inerrant.
20. Everything in the Bible is eternally true.
21. The best form of government is a benevolent theocracy.
22. Pluralism is inherently evil.
23. Jonah, the creation story, etc. are all literally true and must be read that way or else you hate the Bible and are destroying Christianity.
24. Christians have always been awesome. The couple of times they haven't been, like in the crusades, are totally understandable. Besides neither you nor I or perfect, either.
The hell of wading through all of this is simply too much to bear for most folks I know. And why not? The wonder is that there are still those who seek God after having been battered so relentlessly with such an onslaught of cognitive dissonance.
