Hello again. This morning I am going to clarify my religious views and how I feel about most others.
I was raised Lutheran, and for most of my life was very mindful of the tenants of my religion and of the general Christian religious system. But then there were a series of events that have led me to have a dislike of organized religious practices in general. First thing happened when I was 17, I was away at Basic Training when I received a letter from my mother telling me that our pastor was leaving our church, and was in fact being asked to step down by members of the congregation. My mind raced as to find an answer, and by the time I finished the letter I had found it. Several of the older families in the Church felt that pastor was doing things incorrectly because he was using an older, more traditional form of service, which I quite enjoyed. So these older families made claims that he was going against the churches wishes by not using a more up to date, and more lax form of worship. Well the larger Church sided with them and Pastor was removed, mind you I was a voting member of the church at this point and unable to voice my opinion on the matter from halfway across the country, I felt betrayed by the worldly church, Here was a married man with two great daughters and grandchildren, who took up the call to serve God after he had been married for years, had his two children, worked his way through the seminary, and the Church abandoned him. That flew in right in the face of my sense of respect and honor.
I returned from basic training and continued to go to this church because it was a nonnegotiable thing with my parents, I was not ready to fend for myself completely at 17. Over the next couple years, I attended less frequently as school, work and my stubbornness started to kick in more. I read the Bible quite often and studied it extensively during that time, and many of the paramount things I had been taught as a child were still there, but others were not. I studied history and saw what people do in the name of religion, wars, murder, rape, kidnapping. I started to research religions of all kinds to find one that shared my beliefs, and found none. And then, a couple months prior to my deployment I read an article by a member of my parents Church about worship and it opened my eyes to the possibility of being, spiritual, not religious.
Spiritual, but not religious, what does that mean? To me it means that I practice the ideals and tenants that I feel God has placed me here to practice and show to the world, there by honoring him and his Son. I believe in hard work and loyalty to friends and those you claim as family, even if you don't like them. I believe in the gift of our free will, to do as we please, but be mindful there may be consequences for your actions. I believe in the evolutionary process through intelligent design, in other words God started the Big Bang and watched it and corrected what needed to be so he would get the results he wanted, us. I believe that sex and all things sexual is ok, as long as it involves consenting, informed individuals who take necessary precautions to ensure their safety. I believe in magic, and in our ability to use it to benefit others and ourselves, not the abuse of it for purely selfish means. I believe in treating others the way you want to be treated and doing everything for the glory of God. We should honor God and his Son for repairing our word of honor with them, which Adam and Eve, who I believe were the first human beings God spoke to, broke their word and gained knowledge they were not ready to have.
Now on to my views of other religions, to include Christianity.
First I want to touch on Leveyan Satanism, because a post on Fetlife brought it up. Anton Levey and his followers quite often are seen as devil worshipers, but they are not, they are worshipers of themselves. The Satanist I have had the "pleasure" of meeting was one of the most selfish. egotistical people I have ever met. The followers of this "religion" are taught quite often, self first and only. They feel that it should be about me, me, and me again. I personally feel that this leads down paths that end in pain and sorrow.
Islam is next, just because it is a hot button topic still. Islam is a branch of the Judea-Christian religions, It took the the parts it like from Judaism and early Christian beliefs and applied them to the Arab sociopolitical world. Several principals from this religion are often misconstrued, by both sides. The term "Jihad" or holy war, is often taken quite literally, as it would have been when the religion was first entering into an area long dominated by the worship of old deities like Baal. Today, it should mean a practice of keeping the practices of ones beliefs despite others objections. Now, I abhor the view this religion puts on women, always have. I feel that women should have as much choice as the men, in everything.
Buddhism, which is a religion, and yet I feel it should not be classified as such. Buddhism, how I understand it, is the process of reaching enlightenment through pacifism, meditation, and self-sacrifice. I feel that it is at best a lifestyle philosophy, at worst and excuse to worship a mortal man.
Paganism, with all its many different gods and goddesses from all over the world. You worship whichever one you like and screw the rest it seems. You pick the deity you want based off your ideals. I really don't have much of an opinion on that, just don't.
Judaism, I admittedly do not know very much about. What I do know is I feel that many of their concepts are based in the time when certain things were most definitely a death sentence and the laws were made to keep as many people alive as possible.
Now to Christianity, as a whole. I follow many basic concepts of the Christian faiths, but I disagree with many as well. Christianity seems to have been transformed from the love filled, peace spreading faith, to one of if your not with us, you are against us and you must burn for it. There seems to be a growing trend in Christian churches to forget many of their basic teachings in favor of anger and hate when something secular happens they don't like.
I feel that anyone is able to worship as they choose, because we will never know who is right until the world ends, in other words human beings dieing out. And that is today's nonsensical rant.
