My other entry in Blog Against Theocracy:
Apr. 6th, 2007 03:01 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rens_sanctuaryThis entry addresses the right to worship OR NOT. What follows are my personal experiences and opinions which I welcome you to disagree with.
There are many places in the United States where you can be a Buddhist, a Pagan, an Agnostic, even a Zoroastrian and people will accept you. These places are most likely to be on either the east or west coast. For those of us who are not lucky enough to reside in either of those locations, finding others who believe as we do is difficult. Factor in familial pressure, and it can make life very stressful indeed.
I did not ask to forgo my Roman Catholic upbringing. I knew I did not think, as is required by the Roman Catholic Church, that the bread and wine ACTUALLY became the body and blood of Jesus Christ when the priest consecrates these items, in a process called the Eucharist. It took me several years to realize I did not have to simply go through the motions, I could actually reject this theology in favor of Agnosticism. Oh I tried to be Christian, but I found that I did not believe Jesus Christ actually lived; he was a story I was told, and yes he could do some really cool and amazing things, but that was as far as it went. A piece of bread is a piece of bread to me, and does not become something it is not even after being prayed upon. In short, I was simply too logical to believe things that no longer added up to me.
Despite all of this, I still believe there is something out there. I cannot classify it; nor do I want to try. But it is there perhaps interacting, but certainly watching us. Whatever it is, it does not come with instructions, rules, or accepted behaviors attached. Why should there be anymore rules than there already are, anyway? Just for some God to control how I act? To me, that makes as much sense as what I was told when I was younger, "Because I'm the mother and I said so." And what happens when I grow up? What happens when that no longer holds any merit?
There are many places in the United States where you can be a Buddhist, a Pagan, an Agnostic, even a Zoroastrian and people will accept you. These places are most likely to be on either the east or west coast. For those of us who are not lucky enough to reside in either of those locations, finding others who believe as we do is difficult. Factor in familial pressure, and it can make life very stressful indeed.
I did not ask to forgo my Roman Catholic upbringing. I knew I did not think, as is required by the Roman Catholic Church, that the bread and wine ACTUALLY became the body and blood of Jesus Christ when the priest consecrates these items, in a process called the Eucharist. It took me several years to realize I did not have to simply go through the motions, I could actually reject this theology in favor of Agnosticism. Oh I tried to be Christian, but I found that I did not believe Jesus Christ actually lived; he was a story I was told, and yes he could do some really cool and amazing things, but that was as far as it went. A piece of bread is a piece of bread to me, and does not become something it is not even after being prayed upon. In short, I was simply too logical to believe things that no longer added up to me.
Despite all of this, I still believe there is something out there. I cannot classify it; nor do I want to try. But it is there perhaps interacting, but certainly watching us. Whatever it is, it does not come with instructions, rules, or accepted behaviors attached. Why should there be anymore rules than there already are, anyway? Just for some God to control how I act? To me, that makes as much sense as what I was told when I was younger, "Because I'm the mother and I said so." And what happens when I grow up? What happens when that no longer holds any merit?
