A guest post by Ian
Music plays a large part in my life. It is something that evokes my strongest memories and feeling. This morning, I had the song Funhouse, by Pink, running through my head.
Suddenly, the lyrics hit me, and I realized that they were appropriate for those of us who are ex-evangelicals — wherever we are at in the process.
She is singing about a relationship that has gone bad. Our relationship with evangelicalism has gone bad. Maybe not with God or the people we worship with, but with the thought process and constraints of those religious practices.
Now, we are breaking away from the abusive state we were in. We were told we were happy and all was good. Finally, we understand that all was not well.
Here’s the chorus:
This used to be a funhouse
But now it’s full of evil clowns
It’s time to start the countdown
I’m gonna burn it down, down, down
I’m gonna burn it down
I can think of a lot of evil clowns that I have known through the years. I’ve been working on burning down those constraining walls for several years. I don’t know if they will ever be gone, but they are nowhere near what they used to be.
The song is worth a listen with the thought of getting away from poisonous religion in mind.
Thank-you for talking about this, Ian. What always impresses me is the car-wreck of the experience we have had and that so many of us wonder if we will ever finally see the end of the damage done. Sweet peaceful Jesus and his sick clowns are quite out of control in the world, human wreckage strewn far and wide.
My thoughts are with you in your efforts to walk in freedom. You might be alone in facing it all but there are lots of us doing the work. Best wishes.
And, of course, even without the ex-evangelical background it’s just a good song. Pink is an amazingly talented musician.
One of the big revelations I’ve had in the course of getting older (I’m now in my forties) is that it’s possible to simply outgrow relationships. In my twenties, I really thought that our group of college friends would remain friends, or at least friendly, forever; over the years I’ve discovered that in several cases there just, well, isn’t anything there to connect us anymore. A few fond memories will only carry you so far, and you can’t be friends with someone you never really interact with. So yeah: burn it all down if you need to. It’s not just okay, sometimes it’s the only healthy choice.
And that goes for your relationship with religious beliefs, too.