Another Sunday, another forced trip to church. You’d think at 21 I’d be able to choose for myself whether or not I choose to attend religious services. But alas, I have to go whether I’m at my grandma’s or at my parent’s. They all are under the impression that if they force me to go, eventually I’ll “find God” and be saved and baptized and join the church and be a good little Christian. I hate to tell them, but that isn’t going to happen the way they think it will.
A good portion of my family is Christian, along with most of my friends. I have no problem with them being Christians, except when religion is being pushed on me. I’m just saying that I have some qualms with Christianity, especially when it comes to the organized religion aspect of it, which will have to be dealt with before I ever go up in front of a room of people and publicly declare myself to be a follower of Jesus. I’m honestly not sure if that public declaration will ever come.
While watching the actions of so-called “Christians”, at times I’m actually glad that I don’t consider myself Christian. Basically from what I’ve encountered, if you aren’t like them or aren’t active in the church, they look down on you. I’ve been sneered at countless times at both churches that I’ve regularly attended, usually by the little old ladies. I know my grandma has been told that I wear black too often, which I really can’t help because my suit is black and the only dress pants and skirt I own are both black. But it’s not just the way I’ve been treated. According to the Bible, Christians are supposed to be like Jesus. They are supposed to be caring and kind to ALL, including non-Christians. Yet I constantly see “Christians” bashing other groups of people, especially homosexuals.
I understand that there argument is that the Bible states that homosexuality is wrong. This is true. But in that very same chapter of the Bible (Leviticus to be exact) it talks about other things you should not do that everyone seems to now ignore (except the Jewish). Pigs are unclean animals and we aren’t supposed to eat them. Tell me, how many of you eat pork or ham? Did you know that women are considered unclean during their period and men are considered unclean after an emission of semen? Anyone who touches them during their period of uncleanness becomes unclean themselves. Giving birth was also considered unclean. Do you know what being unclean means? It means that you are not acceptable in God’s eyes. So my period and any future sex or childbirths will make me unacceptable in God’s eyes for a period of time?
I know that someone is going to bring up something about the difference between the old and new testaments and how Jesus died for our sins. But the way I see it, if the Old Testament wasn’t important, it wouldn’t still be in print today. It wouldn’t be featured in most Bibles. Plus quite a bit of the New Testament is based on the Old Testaments teachings. It is just as important as the New Testament (no matter what anyone else might think this is my opinion) so if you are going to point out one sin, let’s point out all of them. I also have a problem with people saying that if you are of a different religion, you are going to hell. The Jewish religion is the religion that Christianity came from. Jesus was a Jew after all. You’re telling me that they are going to hell? There has got to be a reason why we have so many different religions. It can’t be just a matter of, believe this way or spend eternity suffering. Couldn’t it be possible that just having faith in a supreme being will take you far enough?
Finally, I have a problem with the role of women as presented in the Bible and in the church. Women are seen as submissive and subservient to men. I get the whole, woman was made from man’s rib story. Why does that make men better? If you think about it, maybe men were the rough draft. Then there’s the argument about Eve caused Adam to sin. Well, lots of people believe in free will. Adam chose to eat the fruit, just as Eve did. They BOTH ignored God’s directive and ate it anyway. How does that make man better than woman? Men were allowed to have multiple wives; they ruled the household. Heck it even says that women are supposed to serve their husbands and obey them. My question is why? Are you telling me that just because they have a penis I should listen to them? Men and women have different strengths and weaknesses, but ultimately they are similar. Anatomically different yes, but otherwise pretty similar. So really, someone please explain to me why I’m supposed to submit to a person with a penis just because I lack one.
You can’t tell me things have changed that much since the Bible was first written. Organized religion is still dominated by males. There are way more male preachers and deacons than female preachers and deaconesses. The traditional wedding vows still have the woman say she will obey the man, but the man does not have to make the same promise. I wouldn’t have as much of a problem if the man also promised to obey the woman, but the way it is, it’s a one sided unfair promise. Women nowadays don’t need a man to provide for them. We can think for ourselves. So why are we allowing ourselves to be ruled by men when we go to organized religious services every Sunday? I don’t know if I’ll ever “find God”, but I won’t do it while being forced to go. I’m much more likely to do it talking with open minded people and discussing my qualms.
Just in case anyone was wondering, this was spurred cause we filled out surveys about the services today in church. I was pretty harsh, I’ll admit. But I was honest. They don’t do much for me, and frankly they don’t do much for anyone my age (which explains why there are less than 10 people around my age attending church). Maybe they should add some newer Christian music. That’s the one thing that has ever gotten me close to “finding God”.
