We don’t talk about religion with company.

It’s a good thing this isn’t a polite company kind of site, because I want to talk about some of the things I’ve been hearing all my life (as a person in the U.S.) and with regards to Christianity. Keep your faith, but notice the words. Let’s put a very intentional end to division and separateness.  This does have to involve religion.  We can get rid of the idea that we should never talk about our origin.

This is about discerning something we call true from something that has become extremely convoluted and less pure. Questioning isn’t the same thing as disbelief, nor blasphemy. Questioning religious doctrine doesn’t have to make God or an afterlife less real. Sometimes, it’s just seeking truth vs. agenda (that has been passed down through the ages).

If you go to church, I think it is important to be picky about where you go. Children can be influenced in a way you may not be intending.  If you don’t think sexual orientation matters, see yourself as accepting of people who appear different and, if you truly think all people are equal, consider the mixed messages given at some churches. Sometimes, we just go somewhere close, or because family and friends go to a certain location.  We have so little time, why not be picky about how we spend our time off.

It’s not that the individual churches are purposely disempowering people.  It’s that the old ways of being are carrying over to the next generation- where one person speaks the truth for everyone and the practices of equality, empowerment and acceptance aren’t always the examples. I live in a neighborhood where I can easily walk to four churches.  In my neighborhood, people also preach at a  junior high school and at a few of the elementary schools.  Yes, it’s legal in this country…I looked it up.  Separation of church and state? As long as rent is paid…

In every conversation I have had about religion, I was told I had one kind of interpretation, while the other person insisted on teaching me another view and how his church was different.  I wait, then I hear it…. more reasons for why I cannot know truth on my own, why one religion is higher than another. This equates to division among one people…and I wonder why we discuss our origin in a place that we also give money to.  Why can’t we do this in a space that encourages conversation and doesn’t need anything in return? This could be done anywhere.

Throughout history, religion was tied to politics. Wars have been waged in the name of religion.   Why and how did this start?

I think it’s time for us to have a voice in “the messages”.

The disempowering messages that can be heard in some places of worship:

• Answers come from outside of us (even though we supposedly come from “God” and wouldn’t that mean we are not separate from him? Look to your heart-Catholics know the images of Jesus and the heart.  In some of these images he is even pointing to the heart. To me, that’s where answers can be found, from the heart.)
• Messages about judgement or us vs. them- we will go to a place called Heaven and they won’t. We fight to protect (but we don’t even know what is going on truly, in war. As a mom, I just cannot see how a creator would agree with brothers and sisters killing each other because we can’t share, or because we disagree, or choose different clothes, or fail to realize that our perceptions are limited.  We are still killing each other in 2018.
• Ideas of suffering and it being deserved or necessary.
• Some churches teach to suspend logic in the name of faith (like stop knowing something to trust my words?) (I like trusting in something that seems impossible but, for hope, not to be in fear.)
• Struggle in life, to be happy after you die. (why?)
• “I need for him to do this. I can’t do it on my own.”
• “I pray for this and for that.” “All things are possible through God.” Do we have capable bodies and minds, and hearts for a reason?
• “I am unworthy. I’ve done so many “bad” things.” (So have most people. We live and learn and evole).  In a conversation I was in, a lady was truly concerned about a loved one who was dying.  “I think she is saved.  I don’t know.”  A piece of me ached, because I knew there was nothing I could say or do…but, how did this happen?  How did we begin to see ourselves as unacceptable, unlovable?  As I see it, none of us made the rules- we try so hard anyway, to trust this world is as it should be…

Is religion supposed to bring people up, answer questions, bring people together?

Does it, normally?

What I have seen is that some people turn to religion out of desperation with the feeling of defeat. So, they look to something else to hold them up, emotionally.  This is the very thought process that keeps many people standing still.  “I can’t do it” being the chains.

Some people just try to fit in with their surroundings.  “I want to be seen as good.” “I want to be accepted.”

I know this isn’t true for everyone.  Some people really love their church and feel a sense of belonging.  I think that is great! If you vibe with a church then, you are where you should be…

Imagine if the people within a given church knew they could do “it” on their own.  Imagine if “it” wasn’t about spreading the word of the church, but about happiness and transformation (of the INDIVIDUAL).

I don’t identify with any religion (or philosophy) because I don’t think God is as we describe him in any religious texts (when read in its entirety).

My God is loving, accepting, and a part of everyone no matter the politics, geography, sexuality, and an equal opportunity God.  An entity who doesn’t “save” because there is no need.  God is an unconditional love for all people that allows us the freedom to be as we see fit, no questions asked.

The truth is something that exists within everyone.

Namaste (the God in me bows to the God in you).