Others use their religion to be bat-shit crazy. Or maybe it's the eyes that make her do it.
I like religions. I like reading about them, learning about them, studying them, talking about them, arguing about them and making fun of them. For the longest time I had decided I was going to make movies for a living until I took two religious studies classes with the incomparable Dr. Chris Brawley and completely changed my mind. The whole idea behind religions is that people, for thousands and thousands of years, have made entire belief systems and cultures surrounding these huge, undefinable beings. Why? We still don't know! Before we had a spoken language, we were grunting to each other about things we can't and won't ever truly get a grasp on. Is it evolutionary? Is it a biological reflex? Do fish have a god? The whole concept is fucking mind-blowing because it is the huge thing that spans generations and lands, people have died for it and fought wars over it and still, religion remains an undefined, intangible concept. It's simply fantastic!
How I feel about religion, but with more rainbows and whimsy.
I am telling you all of this because I am feeling really left out. When someone has Bible verses emblazoned across the heading of their blog I get a little scared and uncomfortable. It kind of feels like when you see two people mashing their faces together in public; like you see these people just going to town on each others gob as if they are saying "Hey. Look at this. You see this? See what we are doing? Yeah, we're gonna keep shoving this in your face. We don't care. We're above you. We're going to keep having awesome fun and completely shut out everyone else around us because they don't really count as people."
I tried to find the grossest one. This isn't it.
Clearly I'm not saying religious expression in public is disgusting. It's when people take their religion and shove it in your face. That's what I feel like when I see those blogs. Fine, have a bible verse on their, that's cool. It's a little dry but there are some pretty kick ass people in it. Just don't use it as a tool to include some people with the same idea and exclude others. That's what a smarter person might call "being closed-minded".
I have hard-core Christian friends. I have friends that laugh in the face of religion and call it a way to control people. I have friends that are agnostic and friends that are so confused about religion they don't know what to believe. I've been friends with Wiccans, Jews, Buddhists, Muslims, Hindus, and Pastafarians and I would never, ever even think about telling them to change their mind or force what I believe on them. You can't argue with someone that has a different religion than you because while you are thinking that they have it all wrong, they are thinking the same about you. Christians believe that Jesus commanded them to go and spread the religion, or as my priest says at the end of every mass, "the Good News." That's why the incredibly evangelical Christians think they are helping you and they are doing a good thing because while you are uncomfortable with it, they are being the best people they can be. Don't shoot them down, don't be crude or mean, be a decent human and say thanks because they are doing you a favor.
DON'T be her. Mostly because I don't think she's taken a shower in a while.
No I am not Christian. I was, however, raised Catholic, it just didn't happen to stick. I went to a small, tight-knit Catholic school where if you weren't a Catholic, you were like a rare animal. It was a fantastic school and quite honestly I am glad that I was able to go there. Yeah, it was a Catholic school, so students were taught the Catholic faith. But it wasn't like we were praying all day and reading the Bible. The school motto is "teach me goodness, discipline, and knowledge" and I did all that there. But that was the school. Church was a different thing for me. I liked the people I went to church with and the community I was a part of. I just never felt too religious. I don't think I ever really prayed or felt like I was being listened to if I tried to pray. It never bothered me until my family moved.
When I was twelve, my family moved to Charlotte and for the first time my siblings and I went to a public school. It was also the first time we had gone to separate schools: my brother in a high school, me in a middle school, and my little sister in an elementary school. I didn't have the benefit of my brother blazing any paths for me any more and it was completely uncharted territory. And here is what I figured out from going to public school: I didn't have to be Catholic and I don't think I ever was. My older brother started being argumentative with my parents about going to church and it had been my life-long lesson that when my brother makes my parents angry, do the opposite. I went to church with no problem, I was an altar-server almost every Sunday, I went to the relgious-ed classes, but I didn't feel a part of that church anymore. And then I noticed I wasn't identifying too much with the other people my age that were Catholic. They went about it differently like it was less a cultural thing and more of a something that happened to come up every Sunday. And then I began realizing I never felt too much like I was Catholic. The mass felt like a Pavlovian reaction to what the priest said or what kind of music was playing. I realized I never really prayed the way everyone said you were supposed to pray. And then I began learning the history of the Church and realized that Catholicism was started by a great guy but it was taken wildly out of proportion. Then some bitch-ass priest in training gave me the crap jobs on the altar and told me to pull my hair back because I looked too girly. It was my understanding we treat everyone equally but that was just what some crazy bearded middle-eastern guy in the desert said two-thousand years ago. That wasn't the final straw, I struggled with religion for a long time after, it was more like a turning-point.
Also I watched Dogma and read Lamb by Christopher Moore. That'll really turn you around
So I started looking in other places for answers. All this interest in new religions made me notice when other things came up about religion. It also took a while to get away from identifying myself as Catholic or Christian. And that wasn't easy. It upset my parents and my lack of religion is a well-guarded secret from the rest of my family, namely my grandmother, and now I mostly keep quiet about it around my family.
This turned into something completely different than I had originally planned. I was trying to make it more humorous rant but it turned into more of a confession. Sorry about that.That will be next. I promise. Also, I apologize for any offense but this is my opinion so be mad just don't be a little bitch about it
Promise you don't hate me?
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