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In Reply to: On: Not having God or religion after the family: who relates? posted by goth88 on November 17, 2002 at 16:08:44:
I will never deny my basic Christian faith, but I am way past limiting myself to learning from one source. What I have learned will never allow me to fit into a church, or church lifestyle anymore. Churches give me nothing. All the bible thumping gives me nothing. even less mainstream Christians give me nothing. But my basic belief and interpretation of what God means to me, and how the bible helped me get where I am will remain. I cannot throw out the baby with the bath water. Learning Christian values (and what they aren't thanks to the F.) helped me move on to bigger and better things that I would never have learned had I stayed stuck in Christian mass-mentality, Christian groupthink and fundamentalism.
I wince when filling a form and I have to choose "Christian" for lack of alternative choices, because that is not all that I am, yet I will not be able to choose anything else, unless they have other choices like "Ecclectic" or "Free-thinker" or "Spiritual." And even all those labels come with their own limitations and I risk being misunderstood. When people ask, I say I have a unique faith, and Christianity helped me get where I am. People are really just trying to to see where you fit and put you in a box. I wish people would make more room for individuality.
It's not a popular thing to say here, but I am tired of the way some people idealize and idolize the "word." To me that is like idol worship, and worship of the interpretation of particular teachers and masters, worship of their words rather than the true living spirit. Sure, we can use help from other people who have been on a spiritual journey, but that's just to get you started so you can go on your own journey.
Please don't attack me for this, it is my opinion, and I have a right to it. I don't need to be preached at or told anything. I'd pretty much be happy if my post was ignored.
