Wednesday, August 5, 2009
Even though I have been going to an Episcopal church with my boyfriend on Sundays that I'm down visiting (and he doesn't have to work) I'm not really feeling any differently towards the whole church experience. I was not raised going to church and so it never became a habit of mine. In fact, the very first time I set foot in a church of any kind was at the behest of my boyfriend. Growing up, my mother would read some stories to us out of the Bible but I always took them as stories, not tales which should be taken seriously. My mother influenced my believing in some kind of higher power but she never forced a particular religious ideology on either my younger sister or myself. I have always been so thankful for having the mother that I do, one who allows their children the freedom to make their own decisions about personal matters like religion. I was always able to grow up in a home and not be afraid to make up my own mind on how I felt about religion, spirituality and the nature of God. I'm very lucky in that way.
Church to me is very unimportant. In the years that I have now visited Baptist, Methodist, AME, Unitarian Universalist and now Episcopalian churches, I have realized how very unnecessary those visits are. If you are truly a spiritual person, then I see no reason that the ultimate declaration and expression of your faith should be confined within the walls of a building. Yes, I am fully aware of those people who do bring their faith into all areas of their life, most religious people I've met though are not like that. The biggest gap between church life and home life that I've ever witnessed would have to be with the Baptists. I cannot tell you how many "good Christian" girls & boys that go to a Baptist church I've seen that are unwed and underaged parents, who go out clubbing and drinking all hours of the night, who sleep with everything that moves, cheat on their significant others, who gossip and speak negatively of others, then go to church on Sundays so that they are even able to look at themselves in the mirror anymore. To people who live their lives selfishly and constantly make poor decisions it seems that church more or less serves as a band-aid for what ails them rather than some kind of deep meaningful relationship with their deity.
I see myself as a good person who makes an attempt to live the best life that I know how. I am polite and try to treat everyone with the same respect that I would expect. I don't cheat on my boyfriend, drink heavily, use drugs, or use people. I want to be able to make the slightest impact on the world in a positive way. I think that I'm a good person with a very strong sense of morality and yet I'm able to accomplish all of that without the presence of religion. I may be spiritual, but I have yet to find an actual religion that I can firmly attach myself to - frankly, I doubt that I ever will. I guess one point that I'm trying to make is that if I can do these things then I find myself wondering why others can't as well. I guess some people just need something else they see as stronger & more powerful than themselves to hold on to. I'm not putting people down for this need, I don't necessarily view them as "weaker" for having it (I'm not that arrogant), but it's not a viewpoint that I can support or ascribe to personally.
Essentially, I view religion and church attendance as being completely unnecessary to living a happy and fulfilled life. You can be happy, have a strong morality, and be a good person without either one of those things. Too often, I find that most people go to church for the social aspect of it; there they have friends, people who they can talk to, where they can make network for their jobs, and a place where they can participate in activities and feel important or at the very least accepted. Church offers many a cushion to fall back onto when bad things happen. In that respect, church can be a good thing as it can serve as a safety net and a source of aid for those in need. I just fail to see the spiritual importance of church when it starts to behave more as a social networking locale rather than a focused spiritual location. I would certainly be a lot more pleased if people would simply admit the real reasons why a number of them attended church in the first place rather than hide behind an image of a deep spiritual nature...
~♥~
