Organized Religion:
In my opinion, organized religion has become an industry for which charismatic leaders use "needers" (people who know they need something in their lives, but haven't quite figured out what it is yet) for their own means, instead of those of Gods, and that "true believers" (someone that wants to worship God, and not just feel as though they belong to a group) are getting lost in the shuffle. I would like to consider myself a true believer, therefore I find myself confused every time I hear one type of church bashing another. (Are we all not put here for the same purpose, to serve Gods will in the best way we know how?) It is this confusion that has made me leery of joining any church in particular. (Am I joining the "right" church?)
However, I find that there is no shortage of people willing to talk about God. I enjoy the many discussions and learn quite a bit just from casual conversation. There are a lot of open minded people out there and they all have a different opinion of what the Bible is trying to tell us. I've found that by listening, then studying the Bible, God tells me what I need to know. I'm satisfied with that.
Now, I would like to talk about how I feel about organized religion. Mind you, this is just my observations. You may or may not agree with what I'm saying, I understand, accept and even welcome that. You have reasons to believe the way you do, and I have reasons to believe the way I do, some of which, I will point out. If you're reading this, it's because I feel comfortable enough with you to share a bit of myself, so please, be kind, and try to keep an open mind.
Downfalls of Organized Religion
It seems to me, that no two churches are alike, whether they are the same religion or not. Each has it own views of how we should be serving God. This alone is not so much the problem, as how they react to other churches. By this, I mean... how they interact with each other, or mainly, their lack of interaction. You have the different religions (such as Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and so forth) which is confusing enough, but then you have different churches, with different beliefs, within the same religion. All claiming to have the "right" beliefs, while every other church has the "wrong" beliefs (ever hear the pride in some ones voice as they say "Come to my church" and then proceed to give you directions?). If you ask me, shouldn't Any church do? As long as you're going, and learning what you need to learn, I'm happy. There seems to be a battle going on out there to get you into one particular church. I have to wonder if there's not a lot of preacher worship, rather than God whoosh, going on. And all this within the same religious group!
Different religious groups are a whole other story. They have been fighting (Churches? Fighting? Yes!) for thousands of years, and although the Bible does warn of this, you'd think that through growth in the Lord, we could get past this, at least in our own country. (While I was married, my husbands uncle invited us to his church, where he was the pastor. He asked me what religion I was, and when I told him that I was Protestant, he gave me a disgusted look, then said that it was OK, I could come to his church anyway. I have to wonder what he would have said, had I not been new to the family.) This is not an isolated incident, the people I interact with every day often ask what religion I am and depending on what I say, I can tell I’m being judged.
However, I find that there is no shortage of people willing to talk about God. I enjoy the many discussions and learn quite a bit just from casual conversation. There are a lot of open minded people out there and they all have a different opinion of what the Bible is trying to tell us. I've found that by listening, then studying the Bible, God tells me what I need to know. I'm satisfied with that.
Now, I would like to talk about how I feel about organized religion. Mind you, this is just my observations. You may or may not agree with what I'm saying, I understand, accept and even welcome that. You have reasons to believe the way you do, and I have reasons to believe the way I do, some of which, I will point out. If you're reading this, it's because I feel comfortable enough with you to share a bit of myself, so please, be kind, and try to keep an open mind.
Downfalls of Organized Religion
It seems to me, that no two churches are alike, whether they are the same religion or not. Each has it own views of how we should be serving God. This alone is not so much the problem, as how they react to other churches. By this, I mean... how they interact with each other, or mainly, their lack of interaction. You have the different religions (such as Catholic, Protestant, Baptist and so forth) which is confusing enough, but then you have different churches, with different beliefs, within the same religion. All claiming to have the "right" beliefs, while every other church has the "wrong" beliefs (ever hear the pride in some ones voice as they say "Come to my church" and then proceed to give you directions?). If you ask me, shouldn't Any church do? As long as you're going, and learning what you need to learn, I'm happy. There seems to be a battle going on out there to get you into one particular church. I have to wonder if there's not a lot of preacher worship, rather than God whoosh, going on. And all this within the same religious group!
Different religious groups are a whole other story. They have been fighting (Churches? Fighting? Yes!) for thousands of years, and although the Bible does warn of this, you'd think that through growth in the Lord, we could get past this, at least in our own country. (While I was married, my husbands uncle invited us to his church, where he was the pastor. He asked me what religion I was, and when I told him that I was Protestant, he gave me a disgusted look, then said that it was OK, I could come to his church anyway. I have to wonder what he would have said, had I not been new to the family.) This is not an isolated incident, the people I interact with every day often ask what religion I am and depending on what I say, I can tell I’m being judged.
posted by RT at 3:07 AM
2 Comments:
You should see when I tell people I'm Catholic!
Organized religion is better than no religion at all to be sure. Once man loses his faith in the supreme being then he has made himself the final arbitor of right and wrong, the sure path to ruin.
OK, this post is in response to Evil Sandmich statement of "Organized religion is better than no religion at all."
Is that true? I mean, if you believe in God, and you obey His laws, and you at least try to respect and do right by others, why exactly Do you need organized religion? If everyone in the world (and this is purely hypothetical, cause ya know it'll never happen) were to give up their particular teachings of religious beliefs and just listen to what God tells them, there wouldn't be any fighting or disrespect among individuals because everyone would be striving for the same goal in their own way. By listening to God tells them. And, most importantly, no one would feel left out or insignificant because they're not a part of "the group", whatever the group may be, because there are no groups.
And, if you're thinking that God would fade out of existence because religion does, I don't think that would happen. I think it would be just the opposite, kind of like the snowball effect. People will see how truly happy and free you are, and they would be attracted to that. That's when you get the chance to share and spread the word.
It just seems that ego is the basis of too many organized religions, and that's to be expected in a society were it's totally acceptable to be above your neighbor.
OK, my brain just went off in three different directions and I'm too tired to concentrate on just one, so I'm going to stop here and see I can get focused again. Hopefully this does sound like a bunch of useless dribble, lol.
PS: What's wrong with being Catholic???
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