my religious rant.

I know I’m probably going to get a lot of hate mail for what I’m about to say here, but it’s something I’ve wanted to say for a long time now. I’ve grown up around Catholicism. I’ve gone to Catholic school for my entire life; I’ve received all of my sacraments, etc. For some reason, though, I never quite felt that I fit in in Church. I understand the good of it. I understand how it can help people. I appreciate the way it tries to teach the right messages to children. I’ve always felt, however, that somehow all those people I saw around me in Church, dressed up in their best ‘Sunday clothes’, were missing the point a little bit. My problem was that I could never figure out what the real point is. A while ago I discovered that point. You see, the argument about whether God, Jesus, Allah, Raman or any other oracle exists really doesn’t matter. The real ideal of religion is the message, not the medium. Everyone has gotten so caught up in the act of worship of figures, that they’ve forgotten to actually listen to the messages and take them to heart. The point of being Catholic shouldn’t be to be able to wear a cross around your neck and be able to recite the rosary by heart. The idea should be to read the teachings of Jesus and use them as a guide, not a dictation, but a guide of how to live your life. One of the religions I respect most is Sikhism, and I’ll tell you why. The Sikh religion used to be like a lot of other major religions. They had religious leaders much like we have priests, and they also had a heirarchy system much like the Vatican. That was until a Guru (their version of a pope) named Gobind Singh realized that his people were missing the point.

You see his people would blindly listen to and recite everything their religious leaders would tell them, but they wouldn’t find the inner meaning of any of the teachings. So he decided that he would remove all religious leadership and declare himself the last in the line of Gurus. The messages were all there, he said, in the Adi Granth (read Bible). Having leaders and idols around was only causing people to ignore them. That kind of thinking is what I wish would somehow be bred in Christianity. In his song “Imagine”, John Lennon wrote, “Imagine there’s no heaven.” What he’s trying to say is, stop drifing through life thinking that you’ll someday die and end up in a paradise in the sky. Make this your heaven. You can’t be certain heaven really exists, but this world does exist. The Kingdom of God isn’t somewhere beyond our perception, it’s right under our nose. We just have to realize it. I think it’s time to stop putting our faith in the invisible and start putting it in each other. Stop worshipping the medium and start listening to the message.

I have faith in you.

i think you have a really good point and ne one that sends you hate mail for your beliefs should be asked if they would like the same if someone doesn’t exactly believe in what you do becuase everyone has their own point of view and in this world there are so many possibilities that no one should be told they are *wrong* so keep your faith on high…i gotta go now so bye…

klintis

June 11, 2003

I wear my cross because I love Jesus. “The greatest thing you can ever do is to give up your life for a friend.” It says it right there in the Bible. I think that warrants a little respect for J.C. I want to punch myself right now for calling him J.C. Remind me to do that tomorrow.

i don’t know what to say. if it wasn’t for Jesus and God their wouldn’t be any readings and the bible. Jesus rocks!!!!! God rocks!!!! i love them both. and to know that you love them you wear a cross or you wear your best clothing to show respect too. people should listen to the readings alot more but people should pay attention to the head of the Church. they should know why they are listen

ing to the readings. that is all.

Just to comment on the last few lines that you wrote, “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” 2 Corinthians 4:18 “Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see.” Hebrews 11:1 Having faith in something you can see is easy, but that’s not what faith’s about.

Well, I’m certainly not going to send you hate mail, but I do disagree with you in a few respects. (I’m Catholic too, btw.) I think the essential message of Christianity IS the divinity of Christ – not *just* to live life in a particular way (though that’s certainly involved) but to seek a particular relationship with a particular person.

Now, I think you’re right that people can get caught up in the externals and miss the whole point. That’s always a real danger. But the internal message of Christianity inevitably points directly to Jesus – in the end, He IS the message, the “Word of God” expressed in flesh and blood. “Nobody comes to the Father except through me.” Muslims do not in any way worship Mohammed, btw.

What? I know that. I didn’t even mention Mohammad, so that’s an interesting interjection. They talk about Jesus in the Qu’ran more than they do Mohammad. I once saw a woman on Jeopardy who, instead of saying ‘Islam’, answered ‘Mohammadism’…and they said it was correct. I wanted to scream.

April 11, 2018

Wow. My second post was a religious rant. I guess I couldn’t wait to get out of Catholic school.

For what it’s worth, I am a completely unabashed atheist as an adult. I hold much disdain for organized religion, but I understand why some of my friends chose a different path. I can still love you, just don’t ask me for my opinion on religious matters or you’ll get it.