My early childhood was spent in basic rebellion of the church by my parents. My grandfather was a well respected United Methodist Minister, but my parents did not care for some of the standard “church” teachings. So…my dad and mom taught us at home…Kind of like homeschooling, but for church…
In High School, one of my teachers at school asked the class to what church they go…I was the only one who would admit I didn’t go to church (mid seventies…Most people in the South would not admit they didn’t go to church!), which startled her, and led to a barrage of fellow students trying to “save my soul” thoughout the remainder of high school. Never mind that I didn’t drink, smoke, curse and sleep around. I was respectful, minded authority figures (for the most part 😉 ) and in general, caused very little trouble…yet I was the one in need of saving…
Dad and mom thought that if siblings and I were to make an informed decision regarding religion, we would have to be exposed to it formally, so we joined a church. To be sure, there were things, even when I was 17 years old, that made absolutely no sense to me, but I stayed the course, mostly because, in my mind, “society demanded it.” I drifted in and out of church for a long time, married and had children. My husband was not impressed with the United Methodist teachings and insisted we go to a Baptist church, so we changed denominations.
To make an unnecessarily long story shorter, the Baptist church, while I went through the motions, just didn’t cut it for me either. I found it very difficult to think that, from a Christian perspective, all other religions are inferior or somehow bad. After all, Christianity was, in the scheme of things, a relatively new religion.
It has been my experience that, while the bible holds MANY great teachings, many are also condescending and suppressive. It was not until I moved away from my hometown and didn’t feel the need to “impress” people coming into my life that my spirituality took the most amazing turn…and I started understanding the teachings in the Bible in a whole different way. My readings of spiritual things became very diverse and I realized there are many really great teachings out there that make much more sense and put together with what I now understand the bible to say, make for a whole better sense of self and spirituality.
In church, things like energy medicine and meditation, altered states, as well as other religions, and, depending where you attend, other Christina religions, are “evil,” of the “devil.”
I Corinthians 12 tells us right off the bat that there are many gifts…given by the One spirit, and that the “manifestation of the spirit” is given to all for the betterment of all. These gifts are wisdom, knowledge, faith, healing, the ability to work miracles, prophecy, the ability to discern spirits, speaking in tongues and the interpretation of same…then it goes on to say the body is one with many members and in the diversity of the body lies its strength. Those are very powerful words! So, how is it that we can say that God does not approve of people different from ourselves, if all is FROM God, to begin with? There are many ways to follow our Divine Creator…MANY…
Today, I challenge you to think about what you have been taught all your life about religion and spirituality. Who’s to say exactly what path is THE path to Our Magnificent Creator? Let’s remember that religion is “man-made,” while spirituality is Divine Magnificence, God unfettered, if you will. Remember, also, that man wrote the religious teachings of the world, inspired or not (and we KNOW how things can be manipulated using words and ideas!!!)…Who among us was around “from the beginning” before the invent of writing to witness for ourselves the splendor of creation? Just a little food for thought!
One Sacred Soul 