Tag Archives: Religion

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Dylanisms: Religion

As I learned from the first post about Dylanisms (see: www.bluishoblivion.com ), people like to hear funny “kids say the darndest things” stories. It’s true, children are a wealth of source of hilarious commentary. My life would be very boring if I didn’t have him. I laugh because he’s an adult in a miniature child’s body. As a fourth grader, he still gets mistaken as a kindergartener. He has learned to take this in stride and make up for his size by having a very large personality. And Dylan is nothing if not full of personality.

We’ve been watching The Bible, not because we’re a particularly religious family but as a family that enjoys “historical” miniseries. I use “historical” very very loosely here, because as I said we’re not a particularly religious family. Dylan opted to watch because Dylan  likes anything that most children don’t. Maybe he took an interest because of what he learns at CCD I thought. No, he just liked watching Samson “Hulk Smash” things.

This led my husband to start asking basic questions about religion, which Dylan couldn’t answer. My husband looked at me and said “well that’s $25 well spent. What do we send them there to learn if he doesn’t learn anything.” I laughed, and told him I sent him there because I had to, he has to. My husband glared at me, but realized there was no point in arguing. Eventually Bethlehem came up and I was hoping this would be our redeeming moment. Here’s what happened:

Me: “So who was born in Bethlehem?”

Dylan: “Um… I don’t know. Who?”

My husband chuckled and glared at me again. Me: “Seriously? Think Christmas”

Dylan: “Ooo I know this. Santa!”

My husband and I crack up laughing. Me: “I see your point about our wasted money”

Well if nothing else, I pay $25 a year for my son to be babysat for an hour a week. Moral of the story: For the price of cable and watching The Bible, I could save money from sending him to Catechism classes. One could state that God is sending our house a message, because this morning Dylan woke up with a bad cough, stuffy nose, and a fever. Well played.

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Have a Little Faith?

In my entire  life, I never saw a purpose for religion. I went through the motions as a kid, attending CCD classes every year by no choice of my own, getting my first communion and confirmation. It wasn’t a choice, and I hated every second of it. It made me feel like we were supposed to have religion in our lives, it wasn’t something we chose. Eventually, I chose to read about religions on a spiritual or intellectual level, not as a journey of discovery. My bookshelves eventually became covered in Wiccan books. At first I’ll admit it was to see the reactions on my family’s face as they saw my interest grow in “the devil’s art”. It was a fascination though, and I found them to be interesting. No, I’m not a Wiccan. I don’t prefer to follow or celebrate any religion. I won’t call myself an Atheist though, I’m definitely not that. I hate labels, but if I had to label myself into a religious belief I would classify myself as Agnostic.

It wasn’t until I had my first son though, that I found comfort in at least taking a shot in the dark by asking whatever would listen in my head to watch over my son. Now, I still do that for both of my boys. I wouldn’t call it a prayer, I don’t say “God, take care of them”. I say “please make sure my boys are safe while they sleep”. I feel a little ashamed admitting this, especially as I definitely admit a distaste for organized religions as a whole. I do believe we need to instill some sort of belief system in our children if for no other reason than to open them up for the choice to have a religion in their life. I’ve baptized both my sons, and my oldest has attended CCD every year since he became of age to and he has had his first communion. I believe strongly that, if nothing else, I should let him decide for himself when he’s an adult to do whatever he wants in that department but he should get all the “starter” stuff done while he’s young. Which I suppose is exactly what my parents did despite my hating every second of it.

Now I have the looming fear of my son’s surgery coming up, as I wait for my appointment card to come in to schedule his next appointment with the surgeon in 3 months, with a tentative 5 month wait until his surgery. I don’t normally admit fear, I suck it up and hope that I retained my laid-back “no worries” demeanor while I’m really biting all my nails nervously in my head. In the car with my husband, I heard myself ask a question I’ve never considered. (My youngest son is named for my grandfather, side note that is relevant here.) “Do you think that if my grandfather is out there, that he’d watch over Georgie during his surgery?” I never considered the possibility that there was anyone watching from the afterlife. I assumed that once someone dies, the only afterlife for them is decay, maggots and dirt. It’s a cold and depressing way to think about death, but that’s the only way I’ve thought of it until that moment the question slipped out of my lips. My husband, ever the kind person, indulged me. “I think so”, while discussing a scientific view of matter never dying, it just simply changes form and that it’s possible. I felt better, a little bit.

This isn’t the first time I’ve ever needed something to believe in. But I think everyone at some point in their lives decide they need something to cling onto when you feel like you need a little extra strength. I think that’s why religion exists. I don’t remember the last time I prayed, I really prayed. I’ve said prayers in church like you’re supposed to. I’ve had kind thoughts for people I knew needed them. But I don’t remember every saying “Dear God, could you give me a little hand here?” Sometimes you really just need to have a little faith because you don’t know if you can get through it.

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The Church of The Fallen Soldier

I appreciate soldiers for everything they do for us as Americans. They fight wars, risk their lives for us to have the freedom to speak as we will. As a writer, and a very opinionated one at that, I love that I have the right to say whatever I want, when I want to. Essentially, they fight so I have the right to be a mouthyand I love that right. Thank you soldiers and the constitution for allowing me to live like a jerk.

I can’t help but to think of this when I read that the Westboro Church group went to a wake for a hometown soldier dying in a car crash. I’m glad they were able to celebrate their right of speech to protest a soldier’s wake. We live in a country where their voices are allowed to be heard, no matter how crazy we might think they are. Wait, I think I may have passed the right of freedom of speech here and crossed into slander. I’ll have my legal team look into this. In my humble opinion though, if they have the right to protest because they don’t like gay people and think they are the cause of everything wrong in the world, I have the right to protest how incredibly radical and nutty they are. Totally my opinion though, slander is serious business.

This makes me think of the recent uproar over the American’s burning the Koran. Our media downplays it as “oopsie, look what I did”, when if they had burned a stack of our bibles, we’d bomb the crap out of them. Why does one group of people have more right than another? Why can the Westboro Baptist Church have the right to insult people based on things they morally oppose, but I could hypothetically get in trouble for slander for pointing out that they are a little too radical to exist? In fact why do we pass off all Muslims as radicals, when right here in our own country, we have the Westboro Baptist Church? Are all Christians now radical terrorists? Again, just my humble opinion. This is all my opinion and nothing to do with any facts other than they did mention our hometown soldier as someone to protest.

I don’t have a problem if someone doesn’t agree with my point of view. If everyone agreed, the world would be a very boring place. I care that people frolic around with their ideals but no one else can argue with them. I don’t care that Rick Santorum doesn’t believe in birth control; I care that he thinks because he doesn’t, they shouldn’t exist. I lied; I do care that a religious person hates people based on sexual orientation, race or religion. I care because I remember my good ol’ days in Catechism classes and I remember they told me God didn’t make mistakes and he loved all his children, and these people must’ve skipped those years in their religious education. If there was a God out there, I’m pretty sure he’d care more that you were a good person than who you slept with at night.

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Why We Don’t (Or Shouldn’t) Trust the News

I’ll start this post with a simple note: I’m not saying that one news organization is worse than any other news organization. As a general rule, I don’t trust any of them. They are a business more than an informative source that appeals solely to the audience that watches them rather than educating the viewers of what is actually going on. By keeping their own angles and biases, they keep their audiences which allow for them to make more money. It’s no different from watching anything else on television. Personally, I feel that any American should be appalled that we need to read ten different articles and watch 3 different stories on the television on the same topic to get a feel for some sort of truth. We the viewers are not well-informed, and we should be angered that these organizations allow us to follow brainlessly. Democrat or Republican or the people who are too ill-informed to decide what they are should figure out a better solution, because the businesses won’t.

With that entirely separate rant completed, I hope the point gets across what I’m about to write isn’t there to “pick on” Fox News, it’s just the news that is watched in my household and watched in awe that I saw incorrect “facts” said aloud and passed off as correct. Nothing seems to infuriate me more than watching people who are looked to for information spout out information that isn’t quite true, or even in one case is viewed as ignorant and hateful. I don’t know what’s worse, the idea the governmental organizations reciting propaganda on both sides so we trust neither or a person on a news organization people trust saying something that could easily be construed as hate propaganda.

The first issue I had occurred last week, when a guest stated that it was unfair for Catholics to pay into insurance companies that practice against their beliefs and especially the abortion pill. My first issue with this statement was he was referring to the Plan B pill, which isn’t an abortion pill, as last I checked abortion occurred after conception where the Plan B is used before conception to prevent it. I suppose that’s a minor mistake, but one that could matter when inciting the masses. The other issue was more minor, when he was saying how Catholics shouldn’t have to be forced to pay into insurance plans that offer services that they are morally opposed. I’m pretty sure Catholics help pay into my health plan, and I get all those services they are offended by. I fail to see the difference, but I suppose you could just say I’m a blind, uneducated liberal.

That wasn’t what I took the greatest offense in. Last night, I saw a member on a panel say that Islam and the Qur’an doesn’t promote peace in their religion. The quote was something along the lines of “The Qur’an doesn’t mention peace”. My religion professor at my Catholic College would be proud of my listening in anger at this. I had a flashback to his classes on Islam, and now regret not talking the field trip to the mosque, because I would’ve been able to instantly say with certainty that this was a false statement. Luckily I’m a dork that kept all my college text books, including my books on religion. These books are The World’s Religions by Huston Smith and The Major Religions by T. Patrick Burke. In reading those texts and browsing the internet (Homeland Security, I’m not a terrorist, I just wanted to be informed.), I discovered that I was right. There are several mentions of not only peace, but tolerance of others who believe in different religions. This commentator’s flaw was not only did she lack information before spreading them to the masses, she allowed herself to fall victim to stereotyping a religion based on extremists. Someone of her standing, who has a power to influence others, should have thought before saying something that I, an American who grew up Catholic, even found in poor taste and hateful. I grew up with a strong belief that I instill in my son: people shouldn’t be judged based on their differences, whether it be religious or lifestyle or race. To classify a whole religion as violent terrorist organization is what is ruining American ideals. If a Muslim had said the same about the Christians, this wouldn’t have been allowed to be said and there would be a tremendous outrage.

I apologize for a post longer and more serious than my others. I lack any patience with people in a strong position of influence to use it for their own agendas. I reiterate my point that this wasn’t an attack on Fox News as I’m sure if I watched any of the other news channels, I would find similarly false and biased agendas. Maybe I should, to prove a point that journalists need to go back to the days when journalistic integrity mattered, not how many people can we get to shovel money at us. I will admit, part of me takes the most offense of this coming from a channel that touts a “Fair and Balanced” agenda. This saddens me, since once I used to want to be a journalist. I learned quickly that I’m too opinionated to give a fair opinion on a topic, so I felt that it was against the morals of journalism to go into with a biased point of view. Maybe we need more people like me that realized if I couldn’t be fair; to find something that suits us more.

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The Church of Bacon

The Church of Bacon

In glazing over the entertainment news, I saw giant headlines announcing that the Duggar family miscarried their 20th baby. My personal feelings on their ideals escaped me; no one should go through that. It did start my odd thought processes of religion, and though I promised myself I wouldn’t write about religion again I couldn’t help it. I will always write about what’s on my mind. The family started their baby machine after they felt their first miscarriage was a sign from God that they were wrong to use birth control. This isn’t the point of my post, but it’s a great introduction. Okay, in rereading it perhaps it’s more mediocre than great but bear with me.

What I mean to discuss is I keep hearing religious people pointing out how “infallible” God is. Ok, as you’ve seen already I’m uncertain how I even stand on the idea of a God. But, for a second let’s pretend my many years of CCD has stuck and I’m a firm believer. Now with this idea of an infallible God, that would lead me to think that he wouldn’t make any mistakes logically. So to take that one step further, that means everyone was made different for a reason. That means different religions and sexual orientations doesn’t make a person a mistake, so therefore shouldn’t be treated as lesser people. Gay marriage shouldn’t be “anti-God”, because God made gay people and we all know by this logic that God is never wrong. All those wars fought for religion may seem pointless, because God created different religions for his people to practice, and of course God is infallible. Right? Sure, you could argue that it’s not God’s mistake, it’s human error. But didn’t he make us in his image?

It’s no wonder I gave up on organized religion, it doesn’t make sense to me. I don’t understand how you can tell me that this person is evil for this reason and this person is good for that reason and then tell me we were born the way God intended, but then tell me I’m different therefore I’m a mistake. It makes me want to drink all their wine to try to understand the thought process ahead of mass, because I wonder if you have to be drunk to understand it. You know who lets you drink in the afterlife?

That’s a group worth standing behind: the Norse. Let’s die and go to a tavern-like banquet hall when you die? Oh yeah, I think I choose you. Throw in all the bacon I can eat guilt free, and I’ll love you more than you know. Bacon and beer, that’s worth fighting for. Plus, if Thor looks anything like he did in the movie that’d be an extra bonus. Maybe I should be more realistic. If I created a Church of Bacon, where you could be whatever you wanted to be as long as you kept us with bacon. Get enough of a mob mentality and anyone can start a religion or a religious movement.

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Let’s Get Some Donations Today!

I don’t attend church, big shock. I pay my share to them to send my son to CCD, because every kid needs something to believe in, some morals to learn. I’m not entirely ok with the idea, but it couldn’t hurt him, and he thinks well enough on his own to make his own call on this. I’m opposed to the idea of the organized religion part. As I’m sure you understood when I pretty much mocked organized religion in an earlier post.

As a result of this, every year I get flyers for the “Annual Catholic Appeal”. Pretty much, they want your money to do charity work. I approve of charity work, I think everyone should donate at least some time or money into a cause you believe in or to help others out that need it. Let’s be honest though, people pay a ridiculous amount of money for Catholic schooling for their kid, and teachers don’t make that much money. What happens to that overflow, shouldn’t that go to the charities those yearly donations beg us for? Of course it doesn’t.

When I do attend church and toss money into the collection, I really wonder if that money ever makes it to people in need. When I see a nun pull out a Blackberry, I’m assured that I’m right in wondering what happens to our donations to the church. They preach to us about charity and kindness, but I don’t understand where they actually do this help. I’ve known churches to turn their back on people who couldn’t afford to put money in for donations or to unwed mothers who just want to baptize their child. But hell, let’s donate money for them.

Then, I see on the news that the Catholic Church just bought the Crystal Cathedral for 57.5 million dollars. They need money from us, because they are too poor to help the needy. But they can afford a 57.5 million dollar cathedral? I dislike this idea, and it strengthens my belief that organized religion is a sham to get money from people. It’s good to see they haven’t evolved too far from the times where they would sell off forgiveness for sins if you paid enough for it.

This isn’t a discussion of whether I’m a sad, Godless soul. I’m a ginger; I’m told I don’t have a soul to begin with. It’s a discussion that the church is just like those companies that demand us to bail them out while paying for their CEO’s to go on a yacht tour with our money. The Occupy Wall Street people are blind if their only cause is student loans, though I can’t say I’m even sure what they want except attention or being sprayed in the face with tear gas. The problem isn’t just student loans robbing people; the problem is everyone is robbing us, especially those in the business of “helping” others.

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Which God is Your God?

They say two topics start the biggest arguments: religion and politics. Since I’ve already posted about my view on politics, it seemed fair to make a post about religion. I’ll warn that it’s going to make you laugh and feel bad while doing it or completely make you look at me like I’m a godless amoral person, which you’ll probably be right on. Instead of thinking too much about how I’ll be looked at afterwards, I’ll just dive right on in.

Anytime someone says to me “What would Jesus do?”  I usually have the same general response:  “Why would I do what Jesus did? He landed himself nailed to a cross to come back as a zombie 3 days later.” This is usually followed by a comment about the zombies he’s created. I wouldn’t label myself an Atheist though; I don’t like the idea of not believing in anything. If I had to, I would cross my beliefs in Agnosticism with a dash of Paganism. I don’t like labels though, so I usually just don’t associate myself with any organized religion. I believe that I’m far more spiritual in thought than I ever will be sticking myself with a “group” I don’t fully believe in. (Sound like my talk on politics?)

I don’t have a problem with organized religion. I don’t feel like people need to go to church and waste 45 minutes to 2 hours of their life listening to an old guy out of touch with his community preaching about morals. If there was a God, I’m certain that he’d have more concern over more important matters than whether you attend a mass every week. In fact, I’m pretty certain if he did exist, he’d have a lot more to care about than most matters that don’t involve harming another person or thing. Likewise, I feel if he did exist, he wouldn’t like the squabbles or wars that have existed or now exist to fight over which God is better. I also don’t think if he existed, he would want people to feel isolated and hated as a result of race, gender, religion, and sexual orientation. I would hope he wouldn’t care; otherwise I don’t think I’d want to believe in him anyways.

I grew up in a Catholic family. I was a good little Irish Catholic that attended my CCD every week, though I complained the entire time doing it. When it came time for my confirmation, I admit I made a mockery of it. In fact, my confirmation name was “Brigid”, the patron saint of Ireland who was also the patron saint of reformed prostitutes and unwed mothers. (I think the joke ended up being on me a year later.) Denis Leary once made a joke that the Catholic religion still stands as a result of spite. “If I had to suffer through it, my kids do too.” Inspired by that statement, my son attends CCD every week as I did, but it’s important to know that I do feel every kid deserves a shot to make up his own mind about personal matters like this.

My problem with religion is the same problem I have with politics. People fight over the main principles. One side is better than the other, though in the case of religion you have probably thousands of religions fighting over who’s right. Wars are fought over this all the time, and acts are terrorism as a result of differing beliefs is all too common. You could say my biggest problem with religion is extremists, but that’s my biggest problem of any kind. Realistically, I know that people will never agree on the “best” God. I don’t think there is a “best” God. I do hope someday, more tolerance will exist across all differences.

I think everyone needs something to believe in. I think if we lack a belief in anything, the world would be full of lonely, miserable people. When tragedy happens, sometimes people need something more. I think as people age, they don’t want to be depressed at the thought that soon they’ll be nothing more than ashes or a corpse decomposing in the ground. I know I’m happy learning about other religions, and realizing at the core, they are all exactly the same: they want people who “do good”. I also know I’ll proudly wear my pentacle tattoo, and I’ll proudly wear my Celtic cross. I don’t think I need to associate with any one religion to be a good person.