To Whom It May Concern

Spirituality v.s. Religious

I'm a christian. I say this without fear of reprisal or being eaten by lions in some roman era death game, but I imagine still that it comes as a shock to some. I have some views that certainly would conflict with the widely recognized idea of what christians think, that is true. I am a non practicing Southern Baptist, but in reality I probably most closely fall into a more moderate Protestent church than the Southern Baptists. But deep inside I am a deeply spiritual person. I am NOT, however, religious, for in my mind there is a massive difference between being spiritual and being religious.

Religion twists spirituality around to seek out the most basic greedy principles, no different than the ethics of major companies you see nowadays, except that the church hides it behind supposedly spiritual ideals. The Roman Catholic religion is the worst at this. Now, before the outcry begins, before someone says "what right do you have to chastise a religion you know nothing about???" let me tell you, I was Catholic for the first 12 years of my life. I even attended a Catholic school from kindgarten to the 5th grade, a school with nuns!!! NUNS I SAY!!! (I was even spanked by the nuns for not getting my math homework done, slapped on another occasion for supposedly lying to my teacher when it was Roger Reichart who did what I got slapped for, someday I'll get him back for that) I went thru all the fun rituals that Catholic children go thru, 1st communion, all that, but I was never an alter boy, and given the current situation of the Catholic church, maybe that part isn't something so bad to miss out on, eh?

The Catholic church wants thier members to have large families. Why? Because more family members means more people in the church, this translates to more money, more money means more power, now that is hardly spiritual now is it? More like greedy and power hungry. I am flabbergasted when I see the pope come into this country and he is revered and people run up and kiss his feet and he sits up there on his throne like a representation of God himself, a description that some people have actually had the audacity to state, in the order of "a man closer to God than anyone". Bullshit, total and complete bullshit, no man is closer to God than any other man, it all depends on your personal relationship with Him, not how you can get closer to the Lord thru priests and other wacked out wierdos dressed in white. Sometimes I can't for the life of me see much difference between a group of catholic bishops and a bunch of KKK members. Well, as far as looks go. Yes, I know, they are very different in many ways and I shouldn't make that analogy, but by looks alone there is quite a similarity.

Another ridiculous idea the Catholic church started and continues to this day is 'confession'. Now tell me, why is it that you have to go before a priest to confess your sins, so that he can chastise you soundly and give you 50 hail marys? If you are really seeking forgiveness for wrongdoings, go and make whatever you did wrong RIGHT, and ask the Lord for forgiveness yourself, there is no reason to get someone else involved in your dirty laundry, other than the person(s) you hurt to begin with. What's worse is the idea that a person goes to a Catholic confessional and leaves feeling guilt free without having taken care of the problem, 'oh, I confessed my sins so I am all better.' Yah, nice try. Skip the priest and ask the person you wronged for forgiveness. Sure, it's a lot harder to do but you will have a REAL feeling of accomplishment and a truly free concience.

The hail mary is another strange concept. Let's take a look at what the first commandment states, the very first, numero uno commandmento: Thou shalt hold no false gods before God. There are other versions but basically what that is saying is that you shall not worship anyone other than the Lord himself, be that thru Him or in a christian's case, his son Jesus Christ. So what exactly are people doing when they are worshipping a human, a woman who was not free from sin (despite what some people think, she was human and made human mistakes just like we all do). I had one Catholic tell me that "praying to Mary is to ask for divine intervention'. Okay, lets break that down for a moment, divine intervention. Divine = Godly, Intervention = To come between, now, basically what that is saying is that you are asking for something to get between you and God, what sort of nonsense is this? I'm sure there are other arguments to why people pray to Mary, if you have better ones, go ahead and click on YOUR RESPONSES to the left of this post.

I am letting myself get away from the basic idea of this post. My beliefs are simple, I believe that Jesus is the way into heaven, that by allowing him into my heart I can achieve eternal life. This, however, is only part of the spirituality sense that I subscribe to, a big part to be sure, but only a part. I believe that you live your life in such a way that you do not do things that harm others. Yah, I swear, I touch myself innapropriately, I have bad thoughts from time to time when I see a hot brunette walking along in the mall while I'm shopping for who knows what, but I try and live in such a way that nothing bad that I do will have an affect on anyone else. Yes, from time to time things I have done have hurt others, and I have to try hard to make amends for those things that I do and that I will do, I am not perfect, but I do try to live my life in such a way as to not harm others.

Another part of the 'religious' aspect of things that I can't really get into is the whole idea that you get all dolled up and drive the fanciest clean car you can to church, and then everyone sits around and watches everyone else come into the parking lot, then come into church, whispering about what so and so is wearing, or why so and so didn't show up to church, and how terrible that is, oh goodness what a bad thing to miss a church service!!! Yah bite me, you should be able to come to church in work clothes wearing cowboy boots covered in dirt. It's not about what is on the outside, it's about what is on the inside, this is just another reason why I cannot STAND going to organized religious gatherings, this better than thou attitude that seems to just ooze from the masses inside of a lot of churches, inside of basically every church I've tried to be a part of. I feel bad from time to time for missing so much church, but to be quite honest I don't feel like I'm condemned to hell by any means, in fact, I feel quite the opposite.

If you sit and read what I've written here and you have a big problem with my idea of not going to church, or anything else I've said, then maybe you should be taking a closer look at yourself and quit judging me. I will be putting up a post about that at a later time actually, but always remember, he who is without sin may cast the first stone, and always remember that I'm liable to catch that rock and throw it right back at you...