This is scary to post because it's going to tick some people off, but here goes.
(I don't *want* to offend, but this is an issue I've had with many different religious orientations, not just Christianity. I hope you will hear me out and I trust that you will come to your own conclusions intelligently; my intention is to explain my own feelings with full knowledge that I will change nobody's mind).
First I should say that I do believe there is a god of some kind, and that I've rejected Catholicism, and I respect a lot of traditions and myths as necessary and beautiful - they foster family and social connections and can lead to spiritual growth and joy. I deeply believe in the Golden Rule (which shows up as a thread in most cultures). I feel that people should be allowed to practice their own religions in peace as long as
1) they harm no one (define harm? well... does it hurt? did you bleed? did you have a choice? Were you coerced?)
2) and do not try to impose their religions on others. Since some religions have conversion and population expansion built-in as part of the plan, this is a real problem for me, since our planet is imploding under the weight of our never-ending greed for resources).
I think that everyone, even the most "fundamental" believer, picks and chooses what they will believe and what makes sense to them. The possible exception would be those few who are beaten or brainwashed into parroting whatever they are told. Whether they believe what they espouse is questionable. But they will, by the nature of their own abuse, turn around and abuse others, and blame it on their religion. Or they may reject the doctrine outright and go do something different, if they can escape alive.
Religious texts contain varied and often conflicting information. This is how we get one group focusing on transubstantiation, one group focusing on converting others, one group focusing on the interpretation of individual letters / words / phrases / passages. Cast your seed on the ground or take multiple wives? Beat your wife and screw your slaves or follow the golden rule? Take an eye or turn the cheek? Did Jesus have blue eyes or brown, or did he even exist at all, and if so, was he an avatar or just a nice guy who got nailed to a board? Free choice, God's will, fate, or random acts? Do what you will - or harm no one? Is the wine sacred or profane? "Yes, God hates you, the Upanishads told me so. Now make your virgins plow naked in the moonlight for three nights and maybe I'll send you a rainstorm." This really happened. In India. This summer.
http://preview.tinyurl.com/mchy7a
Damn right I'm judgmental about it. I bet somebody enjoyed the show, a few "useless" daughters got married off, and I'm sure that when rain comes (as someday it will) they'll congratulate themselves on a job well done.
I think it's hypocritical to blame one's judgments on one's religion instead of taking responsibility for them. I think it's a way to pass the buck in favor of one's own unexamined fears and prejudices. We support this or we refute that, based not on what a book tells us or what a god tells us, but what we choose to believe will give us a better outcome (heaven, rain, true love, success in battle, parking spaces...).
If it's God's will, why did God will that others would believe ideas diametrically opposed to our own? To make us more stalwart? In that case, do we choose to be more stalwart, or are we little Pavlovian dogs barking at infidels? Did God just decide that anyone who disagrees with us is accursed?
We say we can't help believing what we believe. If we have free will, don't we choose what we are looking for, what we focus on? Consciously, we pin our beliefs and ideas partially on whatever religion or faith or lack of it we have, but the truth is that it's backwards: we keep or drop a religious belief based on what feels right to us. So it *is* possible for me to be a hypocrite if I say "hate the sin but love the sinner" - when I am the one deciding what the sin is, not god. For instance: I like certain kinds of sex. In some cultures, it is considered sinful for people to have sex except for procreation. Sinful. Evil. I am a sinner. I also love the sin. In fact I don't think it's a sin at all (between consenting adult humans), and I bet 99.9% of the people reading this list don't either. But the gray areas of what I do with my own parts, and others' parts, make for a world of judgments. Sex is not a cardboard box, but many want to treat it that way: Slot A can only work with Tab B. Can slot A accept tab B instead of tab A? It might not be structurally practical, but in some cultures, that's a sin. Then we go to having two Slot A's in the same toolbox, being all slotty with each other. That's a really sinny sin. With regard to New Testament Christianity, the "sin" of homosexuality was never even mentioned in the gospels (unless it was removed; there was a lot snipped out - and believe me, if he'd spoken negatively about it, they would have left it in). Jesus obviously talked about a lot more than was recorded in the Gospels. If, in the thousands of words he must have said, he never even bothered to address it or make it an important talking point, maybe it's because in his infinite love and wisdom, it was a non-issue. Maybe he didn't care because homosexuality isn't a sin. Loving thy neighbor: good. Casting the first stone: sin.
If I commit "sins" according to a given doctrine, and expect to be accepted for it, while I simultaneously hold another perceived "sinner" in judgment simply for wanting to be who they are, that's not devout or unconditionally loving. That's hypocritical. I'm doing it right now, damn me, because I really don't want to be judgmental but I really am. I'm judgmental toward people who want to deprive others of the right to marry for love "because I'm a christian and homosexuality is a sin". I'm really mad that people use religion to "prove" they are on higher moral ground, when they're just using the religious equivalent of "because I said so" and hiding behind religion so people will "respect their beliefs". But I have no way to prove that my moral ground is actually higher than theirs. Which makes ME smug and self-righteous. What a mindfuck. oh, dear. I bet that's a sin in somebody's book. Mmm, nice slippery mind... where was I?
Maybe humanity really is doomed. But, if God wanted to save humanity, wouldn't he send a bunch of really nice people who DON'T automatically make babies when they have sex?
I know if I have to sit through anymore apocalyptic movie trailers I'm gonna just shoot myself. So I'm gonna go pretend the end is not near and have an ice cream cone. Just don't watch me lick it, that's a sin in some places.
For what it's worth, it's my two - or three - bits.
grins
Alana
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