God Is Not A Magician, And Jesus is Not a Zombie.

If I could be serious for a moment, which I never seem to be on this blog. I do have some serious opinions, but if I mention this to anybody it's really not going to mean anything.

As I've said, I consider myself a fairly religious christian individual, in spite of my regular frustrated cries of "Jesus Christ!" and "God damn!" or "What the hell....?"(these are all flaws that I've been trying to work on, but they're also fairly deepseated habits that I feel bad about everytime it happens).

I believe that God created the world. This is what I believe in. I have no hatred for people who disagree with me, though I do get ruffled feathers if someone shows contempt to my beliefs.

But I need to clear things up for people who think they understand christianity, but don't.

The story is that mankind condemned themselves to death/hell when they ate the apple from the tree of knowledge - the tree God said not to eat from. God said they could eat from any tree except that one. They ate the apple, and before that moment they had no understanding of wrong. Wrong did not exist, they were literally living in a heaven on earth. But when they ate the apple, they saw the possibilities of where wrong could happen. They noticed they were naked and for the first time in their lives, they felt shame. God punished them, but they knew He would. They had condemned themselves, you see, to sin.

Now, the hard part of that piece of the story is that God is eternal. He knew that they would eat from the tree. So, why did he let them? What was the point?

Because, goodness and love, truly committed goodness and love, cannot exist without a knowledge of their opposites.

Mankind condemned themselves to this.

But, God loves the people. He had animals, but he made people with souls, and he loves them because they are his children. So, he told his prophets that he would send a saviour to save people from their sin. And two thousand years later, Jesus, his son, was sent to save us. He taught the people what the church was doing wrong - (ahem, and two thousand years later the church is still discriminating against gay people) and hung out with..... the "wrong crowd" I guess, because God loves EVERYBODY. The sinners and the saints.

And then, as God said he would, Jesus saved mankind, because he died on the cross. The punishment for sin is death. Jesus died. He didn't only die for the people before him, but for everyone who would live for eternity. He felt the weight of every sin that was commited by every person who ever existed or would exist ever. That is why he cries out "God, why have you forsaken me?" Because he felt the separation from God. He took the sins from us and laid it on himself.

Then he rose from the dead and continued to teach three days later. Because God is cool like that.

And it's because Jesus died that we as people are offered eternal life in heaven with God - because heaven is for people without sin. And if Jesus took away our sin, then we can get there, but only if we believe/accept that that did happen.

I'm not stating this as fact, just saying that this is the actual story that christians subscribe to, and this is how it works. Because lots of people seem to get the wrong impression about what christianity is about.

It's about the values. God FORGIVES everyone. God LOVES everyone. Are you seeing a continuation from my philosophy post? It's about believing that there is always someone who loves you, and there is always someone who is there to help you and save you.

It is NOT about discriminating against other people because of their life choices. It is NOT about starting arguments about how the world started, or calling other people idiots or any of that crap that goes on. That is a wrong interpretation of the Bible that for some reason many people recount as truth.

This is what I believe. Again, I'm not saying it as fact, but it's what I believe and I respect you if you believe something different. I have no reason not to.

I mention it because last summer I was experiencing a lot of doubt in my religion. It seemed to me just as hokey and ridiculous as it does to lots of people. But the speaker (Strider) said something that really brought me back to belief.

"If people are just animals, like other animals, then that means that we have no real purpose." And I believe that. If we were not created to be something different, then what is our purpose? We don't have one.

I do believe that every person has a purpose. If you take religion out of this for a second, I still believe that every person has a purpose. We have ambitions and thoughts and talents. We were all meant to become something, but we can decide what that is. We. Are. Meant. To become. SOMETHING. Everyone is. Which is why I feel it is such a waste when people decide to throw themselves and all their potential away. But that's a different thing altogether.

I need to believe everyone has a purpose. I need to believe people have individual purposes. My life has been dedicated to the idea that I have an individual purpose and I need to follow that purpose with all my heart, even before I became religious. THAT is why it struck such a chord with me, and that is why my doubt, while not completely disappearing, did decrease significantly.

And I like to fancifully think that God was telling Strider what to say then. Because it did strike me. Hard. It spoke to me on a much more fundamental level of self. That doesn't happen to me everyday - it hardly happens at all, I think too much and I've usually thought what people are saying before. Not this time. I was actually stunned for a minute. But I agreed immediately.

People think they understand christianity - the ones who sneer at it snidely and say things in a contemptuous tone of voice - but they don't. Heck, I've been christian for at least three years, and I learn things all the time.

And even if it isn't true - even if there is nothing, and we're all random groups of particles floating in a random universe with no purpose at all, even if everything that ever happened in history happened for no reason at all, just by chance, I still prefer to believe in God. Not because of the rules - as I've said, even if I break them, Jesus has taken my sins away. But because it gives me hope. It fills me with love for people. It makes me happy. Religion is supposed to be a source of love, peace, hope, fulfillment. It's a philosophy, surely, but it's also a kind of sanctuary. And the fact that others have gone and butchered this idea, making it a source of hatred and rage, disgusts me. Because that's not what religion is supposed to be about, and they are misinterpreting it in the most idiotic way I can possibly think of. The life lessons christianity teaches are actually valuable. But you need to transpose some of the scripture, especially the angry Old Testament, to modern times, that's all.

What frustrates me is that people see religion in political news and think they understand it. But religion is not supposed to about politics (which is why I don't subscribe to the catholic church - there are a lot of politics involved in who becomes the Pope, who is supposedly the closest one to God, although anyone can be extremely close to God in my opinion). And you need to actually hear what a religion is actually about in order to judge it truly.

I write this because the misinterpretation or christianity frustrates me, and the misunderstanding of it. I'm tired of it.

I'm done now.

Peace.

If I Could Be Serious For Just a Moment

From what I hear of american news (all my information on that comes from Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert), there's a restaurant in the U.S called Chik-Fil-A that has actually come out saying that they are against gays and gay marriage.

This is the most hateful, awful thing I have ever heard in my life.

And perhaps it might seem ridiculous to get upset at a fast food restaurant, but this article does an extremely good job explaining why it really isn't that ridiculous at all.

Here's what I find absolutely ludicrous about the whole thing - these people are discriminating against homosexuals in the name of God, and Jesus.

I like to think of myself as a fairly religious, christian individual, and the fact that people are being so horrifically homophobic "in the name of God" actually insults me to my core. And no, I am not a homosexual. It's still insulting to be justifying hatred in the name of my religion, which taught to love, and only love.

When did Jesus ever teach ANYTHING against homosexuality? If anyone can find a passage in the Bible where Jesus is saying to deny anyone of their rights because they are homosexual, I would like to see it please.

But you won't find it because that passage doesn't exist. And if it did, perhaps it would change my mind. But not on the issue of supporting gays, or gay marriage. It would perhaps change my mind about being christian at all.

I am aware of the fact that in the Old Testament, God said many times that a man having intercourse with another man is a sin.

We are also not allowed to use God's name in vain. We are also not allowed to disobey our parents. According to the Old Testament, if a woman's husband dies she must then marry his brother. I know what I'm talking about, I've read the Old Testament myself, and much of the New Testament. Most of these rules have been broken in these times. So why is homosexuality being hounded on?

Christianity is not a justification of hatred. Jesus taught to love each and every person, regardless of any differences. To do unto others as you would have them do unto you. In my room there's a quote from the book of John, somewhere in chapter 15, where he says to love each and every person as He, Jesus, loved them all. And Jesus does not hate gays. Jesus does not know how to hate. Any christian who knows anything about christianity should know this much.

And it is absolutely ridiculous and makes me incredibly angry that people go marching around with signs saying that the reason people are dying is because gay marriage is allowed - in SOME states. You cannot take something so tragic and tie it with something so utterly unrelated and turn it into hatred. It doesn't work, it makes you people look like total idiots. Can't you take a second and think about what you're doing? Think about, not even in the view of what christianity is really about, but just in general? Imagine being one of these poor people, who cannot help who they are, being discriminated against, oppressed, and threatened just because of who they are?

Homophobia is the same as racism. The only difference is who you're oppressing.

It disgusts me.

They are HUMAN. Nothing more and nothing less. My neighbours - lesbians. They are extremely kind people. One has worked with my brother, who is autistic, and helped him. They bring troubled people into their house to help them for a while. They are some of the kindest people I have ever met, and to think that some people hate these women just because of their sexuality - I'm speechless.

My great aunt - lesbian. She and her partner are wonderful people, who come to family reunions to laugh and have fun with family. They like to take photographs as a hobby.

My cousin - lesbian. She is a well-meaning individual who goes to comic-con, likes Star Trek, Doctor Who, Sherlock, Firefly, etc. I have had some of my best summer memories with her, staying up late watching Batman movies or really bad horror movies like Night of the Lepus and Kingdom of the Spiders. No, it never felt weird, a straight girl hanging out with a lesbian. Why should it? They're people.

Why am I telling you all this? To give names and faces to the people you are oppressing. To demonstrate that it's not just a faceless throng you have chosen to hate - these people have passions, have friends, have hobbies. They have faces and they have lives. Their sexuality, though part of their identity, does not define them.

So think about that - it's not just one thing you're against when you go outside and say that gays should die. It's not just homosexuality you are threatening/oppressing. These are people. Whole people. They are of the same species.

And if I may branch off from that point for a second - I think I've made that point pretty clearly - why are religions influencing politics? It shouldn't be. As I said, I'm a fairly religious christian, but why should one religion be influencing what becomes law, what becomes illegal/legal?

Answer: It shouldn't be.

You don't see muslims making it law for women to cover their heads in scarves. There's nothing wrong if you believe they should, but the freedom to not do that still exists.

So why does "christianity" influence what should be a completely unbiased decision based on what the people - and ALL the people - need/want?

I saw someone asking the same question - not even asking the question, saying without question that religion should not be influencing what becomes law. What he said was, and I quote: "Religious bigotry does not equal federal law." And a comment on this statement says, and once again, I quote: "But religious bigotry MUST equal federal law, or else gay people would be allowed to marry."

The deliberate ignorance of that commenter just blows me away. I was actually stunned at the utter stupidity of a comment like that. I don't have words to describe how much that comment angers me. Think what you like, have your own opinions, sure, but don't openly hate. Don't hate at all. These people did nothing to you, they did nothing to deserve your hatred, and Jesus said that even if they did, you should forgive them. We are bullying these people, oppressing them even. We are supposed to be above this. We, of the twenty first century, having admitted our wrongs about the racism and sexism of not too terribly long ago, are supposed to be above any further discrimination.

Don't kid yourselves. Homophobia is discrimination.

I hope I've made you think at least.

Peace, love, tolerance and acceptance.

MeganH