Are you "In Denial?" YES!

Middle school was a very interesting period of my life.  At the time, I was living in La Verne, California, a sizable town a mere 40 minutes away from the bustling city of L.A.  Foothill Christian School, the private school I attended in Glendora, California, was a school that was very fearful and observant of God and Christ.  Every student was required to take Bible class throughout their entire middle school career, and attend chapel every single Friday near the end of the day.  Though there were some scholars that followed other religions--even atheism--the entire school was predominately Christian or Catholic.  I was raised in a Christian home myself, thus I fit right in.  Or not.

I've never seen a place bedraggled by so much contradiction in my life.  They advertised the Bible and Christianity like it was some commercial for beer or something.  The teachers drilled it into our heads that God was the only god in existence, Jesus was His son, and all who didn't believe in the Anointed One earned themselves a ticket to the fiery depths of Hell.  I can't recall at any time being encouraged to think for myself.  I can't really recall a time where the ideals of other religions were accepted or even considered/acknowledged, either.

My suspicions of the school being "corrupt" were confirmed when misfortunate things started happening to my teachers.  My Spanish teacher, Mrs. Nicely, got into a car accident and suffered from temporary memory loss.  My Math teacher, Ms. Smallwood, had issues with her blood and was out of the classroom often due to sickness.  My Science teacher, Mr. Dickey, went downright insane one day because he was bi polar and hadn't taken his medicine.  Along with this, a good number of the students fell captive to pop culture and the media, thus moving away from the teachings of Christianity shoved down their throats.  

Being in denial, for me, means not accepting something that's obviously true.  As for being "close-minded," it means that someone is not considering something that may in fact be acceptable.