Apologies to any followers of this religon, there are many levels of beleif and many ways of sharing, following, understanding within this church and I cannot say all members are bad people.
I was 11 when my mother died, after 2 years with a brain tumor. During that time she sought the comfort of her grandmothers religon and when my dad remarried 4 months after her death, he chose a woman that he met through the church. Within 6 months of my mothers death I was in a new place, going to a religous school, eating strange food and wearing clothes I wouldn't have chosen for anything but maybe a bet. Basically I went from knowing almost nothing of this church to following it's rules 24-7 within a years time.
My stepmother totally eliminated anything my mother left me, telling me I shouldn't have left it out, if I had put it away she wouldn't have thrown it away. She and my father ridiculed me for living in the past when I was begging for anything from my past to carry over into the new life, anything at all. They forbid me to go visit my old neighborhood, I was grounded and lost priveledges for anything they saw as anti religous behavior, they even had the guts to tell me that nothing had changed, I was just reluctant to accept that my mother had died and I needed to grow up! I recognise it now as brain-washing. They used some very basic techniques, they used pain, hunger, isolation, it was brain washing pure and simple.
The religon is Seventh Day Adventism, and my stepmother has gone so far beyond the basic beleifs of the church that she no longer has any friends in the church or even a church she feals lives up to her high standards. And of course only people she is trying to convert are worthy of her friendship outside the church. She takes it to the level of cult-like beleif in the words of a prophet that lived in the 1800's and is widely held to be a plagiarist and even the church admits she contradicted herself in her writings, they choose not to reprint or follow some of her teachings.
I have started writing this response 3 different times, I think I will post this time. I still have such anger and frustration about it all.
I have eliminated my parents from my life 100%, almost a year ago now. It didn't take long from the time I was diagnosed for PTSD (from my strong reactions to near misses in traffic and the deaths of people I knew caused by drunk drivers) for my counselors to recognise my problems were based on the horrible life I led in my parents home and it didn't take much to convince me that I was better off without them or the memory of them in my life, I do my best but I still find myself deep in a state of frustration and anger, as if I was still 11 and living in that hell on earth. I don't know if I can ever forgive them, I don't know that I can ever be around any religon of any kind.
