Friday, September 3, 2010

Climbing Mountains

My feelings about organized religion are decidedly mixed. Though going to church was never my favorite activity, I'm glad to have grown up in a (more or less) religious home. Growing up with religion taught me "good" and "bad" was much bigger than Mom and Dad.

Organized religion provides a variety of social functions. One of the more critical functions is helping people see themselves in a larger context. Religion offers a pathway to becoming a better person and a guide for finding meaning and purpose in life.

I'm all for becoming a better person. Most of us have enough flaws and imperfections to stay on the self-improvement road for a lifetime. Lord knows I do.

Organized religion abandoned me in my hour of greatest need. I'm not bitter. I consider it a blessing. My faith survived and in fact grew stronger. Walking where I walked and coming out unscathed is a miracle. Everyone who knew me then knows it, too.

With this miracle came the gift of detachment. I'm not any religion now. They are all "them" to me.

For many years all I saw was the ugly underside of religious bigotry and extremism. "Kill a queer for Christ" was the predominant image thirty years ago. In more recent years I've come to know religious people with more tolerant views whose faith and good acts inspire me. Thank God.

Others leave me shaking my head in wonder. They wear religion like a badge of honor but show little in the way of loving neighbors or compassion for the poor. They think everyone on welfare or food stamps is a drug-using, baby-making slacker who doesn't want a job. Christ.

I have a relationship with my Higher Power that wasn't possible before. We've cut out the middle man. Turns out, the middle man was twisting things around to suit his own purposes. Nasty humans.

Several religions profess to be the one true way. Follow the prescribed path or paradise will be denied for all eternity. It's our way or the highway to hell. Take your choice.

My Higher Power wants you to know there are many, many paths to the mountain top. None are easy. There are no super highways, expressways or shortcuts. There are guides but for the most part, you must blaze your own trail.

Trust me. If there was an easy way I would have found out. Just another reason I remain...

The Crotchety Old Man

2 comments:

CathyB said...

CathyB again. I hope something jars my memory so I remember that stupid password.

I have long said that 'organized religion' is the worst thing that ever happened to faith and a personal relationship with God. My pastor was a bit taken aback when i shared that with him in our crazy Sunday School class. I think it is true, though. I was raised by very narrow-minded parents, and for a time was a very narrow-minded person myself. Since growing up and having to wear big-girl panties and discovering that life doesn't come to us wrapped in a pretty little box with explicit instructions, I have learned that *being right* isn't what it's all about. Yes, I have a personal relationship with God, and I personally believe that faith in Jesus is the *only way to God*... but after that, everybody is pretty much on their own. I have preached to my mama that the road to destruction may be wide, and the gates to heaven may be narrow, within those gates there's room for lots of paths, and we all don't walk the same one. "Sin" is whatever separates us from God, and it is not for ME to decide what those sins are. The Bible clearly points out some that are not disputable... but by the same token the Bible also clearly states other *things* that we don't want to hear. I told my pastor just this Sunday that telling someone they should believe something just "because the Bible says so" is silly. Someone can tell me I should "believe something because the Koran says it" is equally as ridiculous. That book means nothing to me and I choose not to give credence to anything it says (good or bad), because I personally use the Bible as a guiding point. I would probably get kicked out of my very Baptist church if someone heard me say this, but I do not believe the Bible is literal. Is it the word of God? IMO, yes. Does every word in it apply to me (or anyone?) No, I don't see how it possibly can because of so many contradictions. When people in different factions of religion try to make up the rules for everybody else, that's where trouble starts. I don't know what the answers are, or who is *right or wrong* and it doesn't matter. i don't have to know. I just know that God loves me, and God loves you, just the same as He loves everyone else. If there is a problem with how we live our lives, then (IMO) it is up to God, not other religious folks, to work it out with us personally. Maybe I'm not as good a "christian" as people in the religious world think I should be. I don't knock on doors and thumb my Bible at anyone. I'm just as happy to be friends with a gay man as I am a straight man, an alcoholic as a teetotaller, etc. When we make it about us, and not about God, or our relationship with him, is when we get too busy sticking our noses in other people's stuff.

and that's about all i have to say about that. (well, we know THAT's not true... but that's all I have time for today.)

now i'm off to buy me some of those herbs that help you remember things. If i can remember what it is called. Have a great weekend!!
CathyB

CathyB said...

CathyB again. I hope something jars my memory so I remember that stupid password.

I have long said that 'organized religion' is the worst thing that ever happened to faith and a personal relationship with God. My pastor was a bit taken aback when i shared that with him in our crazy Sunday School class. I think it is true, though. I was raised by very narrow-minded parents, and for a time was a very narrow-minded person myself. Since growing up and having to wear big-girl panties and discovering that life doesn't come to us wrapped in a pretty little box with explicit instructions, I have learned that *being right* isn't what it's all about. Yes, I have a personal relationship with God, and I personally believe that faith in Jesus is the *only way to God*... but after that, everybody is pretty much on their own. I have preached to my mama that the road to destruction may be wide, and the gates to heaven may be narrow, within those gates there's room for lots of paths, and we all don't walk the same one. "Sin" is whatever separates us from God, and it is not for ME to decide what those sins are. The Bible clearly points out some that are not disputable... but by the same token the Bible also clearly states other *things* that we don't want to hear. I told my pastor just this Sunday that telling someone they should believe something just "because the Bible says so" is silly. Someone can tell me I should "believe something because the Koran says it" is equally as ridiculous. That book means nothing to me and I choose not to give credence to anything it says (good or bad), because I personally use the Bible as a guiding point. I would probably get kicked out of my very Baptist church if someone heard me say this, but I do not believe the Bible is literal. Is it the word of God? IMO, yes. Does every word in it apply to me (or anyone?) No, I don't see how it possibly can because of so many contradictions. When people in different factions of religion try to make up the rules for everybody else, that's where trouble starts. I don't know what the answers are, or who is *right or wrong* and it doesn't matter. i don't have to know. I just know that God loves me, and God loves you, just the same as He loves everyone else. If there is a problem with how we live our lives, then (IMO) it is up to God, not other religious folks, to work it out with us personally. Maybe I'm not as good a "christian" as people in the religious world think I should be. I don't knock on doors and thumb my Bible at anyone. I'm just as happy to be friends with a gay man as I am a straight man, an alcoholic as a teetotaller, etc. When we make it about us, and not about God, or our relationship with him, is when we get too busy sticking our noses in other people's stuff.

and that's about all i have to say about that. (well, we know THAT's not true... but that's all I have time for today.)

now i'm off to buy me some of those herbs that help you remember things. If i can remember what it is called. Have a great weekend!!
CathyB

 
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