COMMENTERRY—

No Enthusiasm for Organized Religion

After a childhood which included baptism and confirmation as a Lutheran in the Christian faith I slowly drifted away from the church.

Along with that choice, though, I remember keeping a careful eye on the potential consequences of such an heretic decision.

Will such a choice really condem me to an eternity of damnation? Would I face purgatory after death until I came to my senses?

Serious questions indeed. But, does it make sense, then, that believers of other faiths would automatically face such tribulations simply because they do not march to the doctrinal tunes of Christianity?

What about Hindus or Jews, or Yezidis for that matter? What about countless populations who lived and died before Christianity even arrived on this Earth? How could they be penalized for failing to believe what I was taught?

I have long noticed the organized religions tend to advocate a generally similar path through life; one of peace and hope and love and goodwill to fellow man or comforting words of similar effect.

I also have noticed a common thread of hypocrisy among those religions.

For example, while preaching “Peace” and “Love” at home, the Crusades were actually wars based on the prevalent Church of the time seeking to expand its area throughout what is now generally known as the Middle-East.

Christianity arrived in the US colonies because of religious persecution on the European continent. Simply being a "heretic" there was a capital offense through those early ages.

Muslims and Jews have been fighting over Palestine since Biblical times.

In a more contemporary setting, Protestants and Catholics have tended to kill each other in Northern Ireland.

Even more recently, how about the sordid affairs common in TV evangelism or the aberrant sexual behavior that appears to be prevalent in the Catholic priesthood?

Not to mention today’s radical Muslims and their jihad; a homicidal holy war against the rest of us human infidels.

Then, an odd thing happened to me recently. While doing the blog piece on the local Unitarian Universalist Church I began to feel a warm tinge of Christian curiosity.

But that door promptly slammed closed.

It appears they relish their freedom to practice the religious style of their choice under the First Ammendment of our Constitution, but, with no respect whatsoever for our Constitutional protections under the Second one.

Bricks and mortar churches? No thanks.

A walk in the woods with my dog while pondering the cosmos remains more than ample balm for my wayward spirituality.

MY BACKYARD CATHEDRAL--