I grew up as a Lutheran, went to a Lutheran school, and received what I think is a pretty good Christian foundation. My mom would dress me in fancy hair bows and shinny shoes, and off we’d go. I had my share of “bug” juice and cookies at Vacation Bible School. I made some good friends and had some good times. Maybe life kicked me around one too many times-- I don’t know-- but I began to ponder the religious beliefs I had been taught to have. There are just too many things that I can no longer believe.
While I believe Jesus was “a” messiah, I just can’t believe that the Creator would only focus on one geographic area, and forget about the rest of the world. I can’t accept that only those people who happened see, hear or learn of Jesus will be “saved.” I believe if the Creator provided a Savior for one people, then people in other parts of the world would not be forgotten. Also, studying world history, the book we know as the Bible changed hands several different times. How many times has (hu)man be confronted with an opportunity to “alter or falsify documents” that (s)he didn’t take advantage of? From Constantine to whoever is the brains behind the newer publications of the Bible. Perhaps the entire book is the manifestation of someone’s creative urge. I also believe there are other ancient texts that have been confiscated (or even destroyed) that would have provide more answers to questions, that would have made our lives better, that have been withheld from us.
What I have come to believe is that the Creator is in me, and I in It. I think the bible and the entire concept of church has been used to control and maintain a cheap labor force for the elite. I think the church, historically, suppresses, oppresses and blocks us from tapping into our true divine natures. I believe that everything we need is inside of us (provided by the Creator), but we’ve been lied to and made to believe that we are powerless.
MagentaMoon posted on Oct 08, 2006
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Comments
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curmudgeon said on Oct 08, 2006....
What the heck do pretty bows and shiny shoes have to do with being Christian??? I sincerely doubt what you have described as a Christian education is what Martin Luther had in mind. You need to go back and read your bible again as an adult.
It's rediculous how many people are brought up in a Church, go through this questioning/rebellious period and never come back to studying what they've been taught as an adult. They learn child-level Christianity, associate it with having to behave in class and performing in the same Christmas and Easter pageants year after year and think that that's all there is to it.
If you actually cared to learn about the Bible, you would see that it is chock full of stories of real people in real life situations making real life choices. Cheating on one's wife? Betrayal? Desertion of a good friend? Political intrigue and backstabbing? Choosing friend over family? Fighting against oppression and injustice? Counseling against greed, envy, avarice and anger? A vision for a better world? It's all in there if you seek it.
Remember, you can choose not to interpret it literally. You can also choose to believe that God speaks to all people and still think of yourself as a Christian, if that's what you want.
Obviously you're on some kind of spiritual journey, but please don't think that your blanket generalizations and platitudes about "elitist control" are anything close to the truth. The Bible is a stark look at all the choices humans have made in the past and continue to make even today. The one question that rings throughout is - how are we going to choose? We are not powerless to make that choice.
Go ahead, read the "heretical" writings, compare them to what was compiled in the KJV or NRS or NIV and see what else these other stories really offer you. Right now you don't seem to know what you're talking about.
You don't necessarily need to belong to a church to learn the Bible or practice Christianity. But neither do you need to put Christianity or organized religion down just because you don't wear hair bows and shiny shoes anymore.
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harriedpsychmajor said on Oct 17, 2006....
Wow, I can't help but think there's some bias in that comment.
All I can really say is this: Whatever Jesus can teach us, Aristotle has taught us hundreds of years beforehand, in a more secular manner. What I take from the Bible is basically to be nice and do everything in moderation. While it's a nice thought, it fails to explain why this isn't always apparent in a person. Pick up a copy of Nicomachean Ethics and the secular perspective on Christian morals becomes more apparent. So I guess you can say Jesus was the first self-help guru, because he took principles found in Greek philosophers and watered them down for the audience. I won't even get into the corruption and avarice found in the institution of the church; that's more a political realm of thought, and I'm questioning the overall validity of the teachings.
Then take the teachings of the Buddha. I think this is the most sound of belief systems, especially because the Buddha was a prophet, not a god. The moral teachings of Buddhism continue to be relevant to today's society, and its perspectives on materialism offers a stern look on American society and its propensity towards luxury.
I think you're on to something, MagentaMoon. Being raised through one religious/societal perspective can prove detrimental to a person's overall lookout on life, and exploring other avenues to enlightenment is an important component of one's life.
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Fifthwing said on Oct 21, 2006....
Thank God you were raised with a fundamental basis, being it Christianity or otherwise. I was raised with none. Not even an importance of education. Religion is just another side to education. Theology. It's importance is no less than that of math and reading. But what it does for your life now and later may be the significant truth.
Curmudgen is right, and I enjoy reading when people know what they are talking about. I too, am Lutheran, (Started going to church at the age of eighteen.) and have found it to be the most promising of all religions I've studied.
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tlj2442 said on Oct 27, 2006....
I know where you are comming from. I was rasied Baptist (southern). When I became a teenager I lost alot of may fatih and family drifted away from the church and God. By the time I was sixteen I was lost. I spent twenty seven years mad at God and lost. Until one day at the age of 42 I found out that I was pregnant and all alone and God was calling me back into His arms. People are right God is not for everyone but I feel he is speaking to you. You may not think so but he is. None of us knows what God has instore for us.I believe what you are lacking is Faith. I can sit hear and quote scripture after scripture but right now it probably would not do me any good though I will teach you how to pray. You just might need to talk to God yourself. One day pick up your bible and read Matthew 6: 5-15. Start there and then remember these steps 1. Adoration-- praise God. 2. Confession -- confess your sins in reatail not wholesale to God. 3. Thanksgiving --- give thanks to God for all that you have. 4. Supplication--- a petition for oneself or intercession for others. (ACTS). -
rhmagee said on Oct 28, 2006....
I agree with you MagentaMoon, I was of a Roman Catholic upbringing and did not appreciate them trying to convince me that the only way to God was through Christ! I don't believe that Jews are going to Hell because they believe in Jehovah, or Buddhists for believing in a godless Buddha, etc., these are mere different choices of names given to the same concept of something to grow better towards! That is God I think! And yes He is our everything! Whether you consider our creation to be just a freak probability then he is even that! For what has been without beginning and always shall be for the endless time is the nothing but God the creator of all things! He is not the sun, he made the sun, he is not man, he made man, he is not a lesser god, he made the lesser gods, he is not any lesser beingness then what can be considered all entirety! Our need for a more fatherly like God who will hold our hand through our lifetimes is nearly imaginary!
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