On a serious note…

I’ve never been very religious or considered myself so. I was raised in a southern Baptist church and encouraged and coached to believe in Christ. I have been baptised. I have read the Bible. I don’t know that I can buy in or believe in that with all of my being. I certainly don’t like to be associated with most of the people who call themselves christians.

I’ve been in the church scene and know how absolutely judgemental that can be. My wife endeavoured to find a church she felt comfortable in a few years back. Since I am normally working on Sunday, she went by herself, taking our kids with her. She felt as though she was being sized up and categorized immediately upon hitting the doors. Single mom. Two kids. Poor thing. I have visited other churches and the zealous eagerness that permeates each smiling face is more than off-putting, it’s overwhelming.

It’s one thing to believe in something, it’s another thing entirely to judge someone less or try to pressure someone to believe “your way” just because they are of a differing opinion. I have had friends who I just stopped talking to because every time I came around them, that is all they wanted to talk to me about. Your religion can and should be an important part of who you are, but letting it be everything you are… Nothing should consume you that totally and wholly, especially something that is as easy to misconstrue as religious doctrine. Just the fact that the Bible has been translated through several different languages is enough to worry me, much less having someone on a pulpit telling me what he thinks it means.

I don’t say all this to criticize people who follow Jesus or any other religion. I encourage everyone to use the mind that they were given to find their own path. I myself am a bit agnostic. I feel I am cognizant enough to recognize that everything didn’t happen as some sort of domino effect and that we aren’t left alone to our own devices. I have seen too much and witnessed to many strange and wonderful things to feel otherwise. I believe there is some guiding force, some higher power. I personally call this presence God. I worship God in my own way and pray to him on my own time.

Think for yourself and believe what you feel is the truth. That’s the choice we were given to make.. don’t let someone else impact your choice.