hogwash

I'm a tad irate this morning.
Reading the newspaper can sometimes do that for me.

I understand that throughout life there will be things we change our minds about.
Our opinions modify with maturity, experience, feelings, education, and sometimes even through stupidity.
But just because I change my mind about an idea, or philosophy, or a political candidate, or belief, does not make me brainwashed, sick, brain-damaged or incompetent. It simply means I changed my mind. Perhaps I recognized I was wrong. And if that's the case, then I've learned something.

It is so bizarre to me that people will call themselves "recovering Evangelicals" as if a belief system is an illness. Being an Evangelical simply means that you have a set system of beliefs that influence how you live. It's called a worldview. Everyone has a worldview, even atheists. Atheists who become a believer of any religion do not refer to themselves as "recovering atheists". You recover from an illness. You change your mind about your beliefs or ways of living. Perhaps there's the rub. If beliefs are an illness, then the no-longer believing believer doesn't have to admit that a) they changed their mind, b) they were WRONG (gasp!) or c) they were stupid, naive, unthinking or whatever else the case might be, to be swallowed up by such shallow or convoluted thinking. BUT, if such a previously-held belief was the result of brain-washing (and what does that say about you to begin with?), then it's an illness, and it's not your fault. 

You don't recover from a faith. You simply stop believing parts or all of it. It's that simple.