June 10th, 2011 at 07:42pm
I will let my daughter grow as I did. My family is compacted primarily of Christians, my mother was baptized without consent, etc. So, when my sister and I were born my mother stepped away from that whole forced baptismal ritualistic stuff and told us "Find your own path". My sister took on the beautiful religions of Paganism, Wicca and Buddhism, creating her own strand of Wicca that is absolutely stunning and I have taken on harsh realistic thought processes that involve spirits, "mythology" and the fact we are all our own Gods; we create our own beliefs, rights, choices and rules. We are our own person - our own diety.
For me personally, forcing a child into religion is horrible. In my family it's created nothing but extreme frustration and doubt while my sister and I know exactly what happens [in our own views] and we don't have to question anything anymore because we found a path that suits us just fine.
No. I don't believe in some dude in the clouds condemning my every move, but I also believe in an afterlife - a summerland. Spirits are recycled and reincarnation begins. Such is my belief.
Anyway. There are a couple things I disagree with in your journal. The first being the word "religious". I absolutely despise that word. I myself am a Christian and when people ask me if I'm "religious" it just rubs me the wrong way. I don't feel forced into this religion even though I was brought up in the church. I don't feel like Christianity is some kind of cult where strict rules must be followed or else you are condemned to a thousand years of torture or whatever. In fact, one of my ex-boyfriends told me "I don't think I've ever met a Christian cooler than you" because I don't throw the self-righteous bullshit around like some Christians. I'm not some godhatesfags member. I'm accepting of everyone, support gay marriage and gay rights, and don't shove my beliefs down everyone's throat. I'm probably more like Christ than half the Christians that go off to church on Sunday and then come home and act completely different than they tell people. I'm an actual Christian because I strive to be like Christ, and that includes the acceptance and understanding of everyone. That is what Christianity means to me.
Also today I was watching a documentary about the Rapture and they said all the "righteous" people would be caught up which pissed me off, because none of us are righteous. It's even in the freaking Bible. Le sigh.
So. The point I'm trying to make here is that the way you've painted religion may be right in some cases, but it's wrong in others. My view of the world and the end times and everything else isn't "sugarcoated", as you say. I was given my own choice on whether I wanted to be saved or not, and let me tell you that Christianity is NOT a flowery, nothing-bad-ever-happens religion. So there's no sugarcoating involved. Yes, I do have more hope than atheists and the like because I believe that I'll go to Heaven after I die, but there's also always the doubt. Which is healthy in religion because you do have to be open. I find myself sometimes going "Er...what if it doesn't happen and Christianity is all a lie?" But the most I can do is hope it's not and wait for things to take their natural turns.
/tl;dr