The belief that people of African descent are of less value than God’s favored white people ran very deep in my childhood religiosity. It was believed that Blacks were the offspring of Satan through the lineage of Cain. That they were cursed with a dark color so that we would know to fear them and avoid them at all costs. To me this is one of the most hurtful and hateful beliefs ever propagated by religion. The belief that God despises some of Earth’s children so much that he holds them accountable for the actions of their ancestors thousands of years before their birth is mind-boggling. Talk about harboring resentments.
This was one of those beliefs that deeply affected my life for a very long time, really until just a few years ago. I had many dark skinned friends who I adored, yet still felt fear around them. Although I stopped logically believing this nonsense many years ago, my body did not get the message. While I truly enjoyed the company of my friends and their beautiful energy, I found it difficult to feel as connected with them as I was with my Caucasian friends, and this deep-seeded reservation really troubled my heart. To put it in easy to understand terms, I practically had an anxiety attack whenever I hugged one of my friends. It literally gave me heart palpitations, which I found very disturbing.
Once I understood where the root of my anxiety came from I was able to deal with it through forgiveness, compassion and love. After confronting the belief and working through it, I cleared any control it had over me and its remnants in my body. Freeing all of me up to genuinely love my friends, regardless of their physical appearance, and embrace them without reservation.
I am now able to see the ridiculousness in the belief that the shade of a person’s skin plays any role in their physical and spiritual worth. The rainbow does not judge one of its colors as better than another or the sun judge a ray of light as more valuable than the next, and yet we somehow have bought into the irrational belief that the Creator judges some of us as more worthy than others, simply because of our ancestry.
What makes this belief all the more irrational and inconceivable is information we now have about humanity and our collective evolution. Thanks to science we now know that all human life originated in Africa, which means we all had dark skin at one point in our ancestry. It really is amazing how one person’s story and perception spreads like a wildfire of destruction through the hearts of humanity, causing us to hold resentment toward other members of our human family. The belief that Black people are evil is only one story that shows evidence of how hurtful and unjustified our beliefs can be.
Liberating myself from my childhood experiences and beliefs did not happen overnight. It was a journey that spanned most my lifetime and only recently became a journey in paradise as I came to understand a greater sense of myself and my own truths. I came to recognize the truths about my beliefs and how they affected me on my life path.
The core belief in my childhood religion was that men are Gods and God is man. I was born into the belief that I was, and always would be, worth less than men. I believed that God saw men as more important and more deserving then women. From the time I was very small I knew that a woman would only be allowed into heaven if a man deemed her worthy and without marriage she was destined to spend eternity as a lonely servant in a spiritual prison. I was also led to believe that the only way a woman could earn real status in the eyes of God was to give her husband other wives with which to plant his seed. The more seeds a man was allowed to plant in the fertile womb of women the greater his worth in the eyes of God and the greater a woman’s worth in the eyes of her husband. The sole purpose for woman’s existence was to bear her husband’s fruit and to raise her husband up to the status of a God. I was taught that God had my physical and eternal existence planned out for me and that any deviation from His plan ensured an eternity in misery. I came to fear God and His angry judgments of me. In the pervasive belief that I was of little worth I held no esteem for myself and had no concept of love. I knew nothing of love for myself, for my family, for my life or even for God. My entire existence evolved around dependency on men and their version of God.
The God of my religion was not only a sexist; He was a racist and a bigot. I was taught that black people are the children of Satan and even being in the midst of a black person would ensure an eternity in hell. I was taught that only those in my religion were God’s chosen people and that anyone with any other religious conviction had succumbed to the ways of the devil. It was ingrained in me that our church was the only true church of God and every other belief was a deception. I was indoctrinated with the knowledge that God’s people are a peculiar people and to be proud of a life filled with judgment and ridicule. I was taught that life was meant for misery and that I would be rewarded in eternity for a lifetime of pain. I was told to fear anyone who did not look like me, believe like me or live like me. Fear penetrated every aspect of my life until I found myself in the desperation of suicide – but fear prevented me from taking my own life. I came to realize that I could no longer live with the beliefs that deep inside of me did not resonate with my truth and I had to find a way out.
Breaking free from polygamy and the other irrational beliefs of my childhood became what I now recognize as a four-step process. The initial step to overcoming my beliefs was physical freedom which I attained at the age of seventeen as a runaway in the back seat of a stranger’s car. Dropped off in the heart of Salt Lake City I was free to navigate a world I knew nothing about and had been taught my entire life to fear. I hoped that the change of environment would miraculously bring me happiness and fulfillment, but the emotional anguish I thought would disappear by changing my circumstances only followed me.
That internal agony I had hoped would go away instead became emphasized by my fear of repercussions from God for disobeying Him and not following His plan for me. I lived in the misery of knowing I was destined for an eternity in hell, not recognizing I was already in hell because my beliefs held me there. I did everything I could do to escape my emotional captivity. I became an addict of many things out of desperation for the validation and affection I had never received as a child. I developed an insatiable appetite for food, sex, alcohol and drugs, anything to numb the ever present pain. On the outside I was cool, fashionable and chic. On the inside I was a desperate little girl crying out for attention.
That road of desperation continued until the age of twenty-one when a psychology class opened my eyes and allowed me to see that my childhood experiences and traumas had caused me to grow without esteem or confidence. I was also introduced to the Science of Mind principles and for the first time I began to see that I could change my life and create my own destiny. I no longer had to live in the pain, fear and guilt of an angry and judgmental God who existed to spite me. I began a path to healing my mind and my emotions and I began learning how to make choices as I navigated my life with curiosity and courage. Over the next six years I intensely focused on my mental and emotional transformation. Eventually I came to a place where I felt an inner sense wellbeing and balance. I was no longer dependent on anyone or anything for my happiness and sense of self. The fears of God’s punishment vanquished and hell ceased to exist. I was emotionally and mentally free and from there I began a journey to success and financial reward. Life was good. I met my husband, owned several successful businesses and had two beautiful children. I purchased a new home, wore beautiful clothing and I traveled the world. I thought I had it all but something was still not quite right. Deep within me I was still tied to my circumstances and haunted by my past.
It wasn’t until life began crashing around me that I discovered what had been missing and the key to true and lasting liberation. In the midst of chaos I found spiritual freedom. I came to discover that I never felt truly fulfilled in my life because the fear-based beliefs from my childhood religion still lingered in the recesses of my mind. They still penetrated every cell of my body and tore at my heart and soul. I had let go of any notion of religion and spirituality in my twenties as part of my emotional and mental freedom process. But those deep seeded beliefs still controlled me at a very deep and unconscious level. All of those fear-based beliefs kept me from experiencing the glorious potential of life and knowing my true divine worth.
It wasn’t until I learned how to separate religion and spirituality that I found my spiritual freedom. I came to recognize that my fears and beliefs were nothing more than the fears and beliefs that others attempted to place on me, most of which stemmed from the religious beliefs of my childhood. I came to see that the dogmatic teachings of religion are not the same as spiritual truths. I began to realize that there is no one right way to God and that religion is an individual choice. I came to recognize that the religions of our world are based on the interpretations of those who create any given sect, religion or practice. I began to understand that there are both light and deception in every religion and that awareness provides me with the capacity to see the good in all of it. Separating religion from spirituality gave me the ability to develop a deep respect for every spiritual master who has graced planet earth. And I came to see that although religion is not for me I can still have a deep and intensely rewarding connection to Spirit.
My path to freedom culminated in a magnificent journey into love and light in oneness with what I know within myself as Creator. I now perceive what many call God as pure unconditional love; without reservation and without judgment. One that sees us all in absolute equality. I have overcome the belief that polygamy leads to eternal exaltation, that I am worth less than men, and that I am not intended for happiness. I have let go the many irrational expectations and limitations that existed in my childhood way of life. I am free from the fear-based dogmatic rituals of my youth and I have transcended the beliefs that once held me in spiritual prison. Because of my own spiritual liberation, I now see those who live in fear through the eyes of compassion as I recognize how easily we are all controlled by our beliefs. And, I recognize that we are all on individual journeys of self-discovery as we each follow our own path in our own personal evolution.
Overcoming polygamy and other such nonsense was not an easy journey but one well worth the effort. The reward that comes with absolute freedom to be who I really am within myself and live in my truth is immeasurable. My journey into freedom culminated in a book about the process of overcoming my childhood beliefs. That book entitled “Transcending Fear” is currently available on Amazon Kindle and is scheduled for full release in early 2012 with availability in bookstores worldwide.
