PTET - godless culture

Is the Christian "Relationship with God" Healthy?

It has struck me more and more recently how the Christian view of God can be likened to an abusive relationship. I'd started to put together some notes, when I found this great page from Ebon Musings:

Many evangelical Christian organizations tout what they see as the ultimate benefit of their belief system - the chance to have a 'personal relationship with God'. This relationship is claimed to be deeper, more intimate and more meaningful than anything offered by other religions, similar to the relationship a person might have with a loved one.

However, a detailed look at the Bible reveals that the God these Christians claim to have a relationship with is not a kind, loving or merciful being. As 'A Book of Blood' points out, the God of the Bible is a wrathful, jealous tyrant, swift to send terrible punishment on anyone who does not obey him absolutely and do exactly as he commands. A human being who did the same thing to his loved ones would be considered a domestic abuser, and any competent mental health professional would advise people in a relationship with such a person to get out of it immediately for their own sake.

This article will endeavor to show that, even if taken at face value, the Christian 'personal relationship with God' is abusive and unhealthy in the extreme and deserves to be terminated. To do this, it will list the most typical red flags of an abusive human relationship and show how well they fit the theistic version. As will be shown, despite the fact that these warning signs were intended to apply to human relationships, it is striking how well they match God's behavior as presented in Christian belief and in the Bible... [continued]