I often think about Religion, it’s impact on the world and it’s impact on me as an individual. There may not be another subject that I feel so at odds about than this one. This year has exacerbated my angst about Religion as I watch a majority of the evangelical christian community support a man whose character is so at odds with the way Christ framed the way to live and treat others. Once again, like history repeating itself endlessly, religion was used to influence people to make a political choice. Today if you “belong” to certain religious communities in the United States there is incredible pressure to vote and believe along Republican party lines. When politics and religion join hands there are bodies left behind the road they walk. Religion appeals to a deep place inside of us, a sacred space, where our minds and hearts simply obey. The power of linking religion and politics takes this obedience to God and directs it towards a political party or a political figure.
Religion can be used for harm or good. It can be used to influence and pressure people in positive and negative ways. I have seen the positive power in my community where people of Faith come together to help the homeless, the hungry, the disenfranchised. The values of kindness, hope, patience, self control, respect, grace, mercy, forgiveness are ones I believe in. I want to be influenced and reminded of them by clergy and others of Faith.
However, I am deeply opposed to religious leaders and religious people who seek to define what it means to be have Faith in terms of politics. I am opposed to those who through religion speak with a “higher calling” to control others’ lives through legislation and seek to override the freedom of others with their own code of ethics. It is oppression.
*Rome, taken by my husband*
These are topics that have swirled in my mind since childhood. And to think adults thought they had this figured out..I knew they were lying.
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Absolutely….
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I call people like that the fake-faithful.
As I have travelled on Life’s Road, gaining wisdom along the way, I have found that religious (vs spiritual) people violate nearly every virtue that I’ve come to understand pleases God.
Most don’t practice Stillness, Humility, Meditation, Gratitude, or Connection with Nature. …On a daily.
These are the 3 dimensional ways that I connect with God most intensely.
They are so one dimensional. Their religion is outward, sometimes in your face. They follow scripture, rules, and making a good intention for show, or ‘fah sho’. They often never experience elevating their spirit to higher peaceful vibrations.
It’s fine with me as long as they don’t judge. But most times they do. Kevy
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Thank you for your thoughts, Kevy!
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Exactly..maddening to see such evil done in the name of religion. Not a new theme.
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Yes, unfortunately, it is not a new theme.
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Led here by your comments on dianeravith.net. I enjoy your writing.
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Thanks so much for stopping by and thank you! I appreciate your kind words:)
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I have a friend who married a man when she was young. They had a great life together, or so she thought. He brought home a great paycheck and traveled a lot. They adopted one girl, and soon had two more. Things looked good. They attended a church where she felt welcome and all was well, until one day he came home and announced that he was leaving her.
Eventually she married an Englishman. He was rejected by the church, because he was a biologist, and so accepted evolution as a scientific reality. She rejected the church after all those years, but not God, just that church. her new English husband, the retrobate, took her everywhere she wanted to go and loved her like he had never thought he could love. And then one day she discovered she was carrying a virus she caught from the first husband. She died a few years later, robbed of life by a man who professed Christianity, but practiced sin.
The best that we can do is to try to live like a person of Christ. Most people will only experience Christ through us. We better act like we consider other portions of humanity more important that we are. Otherwise, who can ever read the Christ in us?
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Roy, I love your story, your thoughts and sentiments. I heartily, deeply agree. ‘We better act like we consider portions of humanity more important than we are, otherwise who can ever read the Christ in us.’Yes.
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