My truth on religion

I am not going to sit here and pretend that I am a bible scholar of any kind. In fact, I do not know everything and I sit humbly before God, knowing that I may not always know Him fully but He loves me anyway. I was raised Catholic, I recite the rosary on occasion but I seldom attend church. 

Why is that you may ask? To cut a long story short, while I do believe in God, Jesus Christ and the Holy spirit, I believe all religions to some extent has failed society. I can only speak from a Christian perspective but I am sure there may be some Hindu, Muslim men and women who feel the same way.

Many religious individuals seem to promote the idea of God as a tyrant, bully and narcissist who wants to be the centre of attention and anything enjoyable is sinful.

Young Adult

The words of The Holy Bible and the teachings of the Church (all Christian denominations), I find to be contradictory. Everyone can quote Proverbs 13:24 "those who spare the rod hate their child but those who love them are diligent enough to discipline them"  but everyone conveniently forgets Ephesians 6:4 :"Fathers do not provoke your children to anger but bring them up with  discipline and instruction from the Lord." Taking both passages into consideration, I fail to comprehend why either of them have been interpreted to mean that as adults you can be mean spirited, you are always correct and you must exalt all supreme power and control. 

Excerpt taken from A Christian's Worldview 

"Few parents will bluntly declare that they're penalizing a child for his misbehavior. We should not be expressing our punishment in terms of vengeance. But when the veins are popping, the voice is escalating, and the parent towers intimidatingly over their children, the message is easily confused. You may have discipline in mind, but you need to be clear in their minds that you are imposing boundaries for their good because you love them...Let me begin by saying that I am not arguing against spankings your children. I happen to believe that a properly administered spanking can be an example of “the rod.” Spankings have their place, but they are not the be-all, end-all of discipline. In fact, no where in the whole of Scripture does God prescribe a specific form of discipline for children. He only emphasizes that discipline must embody certain characteristics and emanate from a legitimate authority figure who is acting with righteousness. The mere fact that a parent spanks does not mean his discipline has been “rod-like.” A spanking delivered impulsively in anger only communicates his anger. It does now do anything but cause resentment on the part of his child. This is what Paul was referring to when he exhorted the Ephesian fathers to not exasperate their children. Parents exasperates their children when their punishment is delivered impulsively and out of anger."

Frankly, I think many people become parents well before they were emotionally ready and use spanking as a form of  "discipline" because they are frustrated and angry. It is how they were socialized to deal with the situation, as such as the only means by which they can truly parent.

Regardless of age, mentally and emotionally, some parents are children themselves. They cannot handle not having their own way or appeased immediately so they lash out. Religion supports that when we interpret scriptures in these manners. Last year, I was following a local forum for teens and young adults. The feedback was that they felt unheard, unappreciated and that their opinions didn't matter when it came to their own lives. 

I recall being in secondary school when my teacher was organizing a trip for us to the cinema. My Pentecostal classmates weren't permitted to attend while the rest had many provisions. I thought to myself, if we believe in such as a wonderful and mighty God, why is it that the quote on quote heathens live carefree lives while the Christians, Hindus and the Muslims were always sheltered from the world as if harm would befall them at any moment. For people who believe in a potent entity, we are quite fearful.

We are often so concerned about our child reading Harry Porter books, reading murder mysteries because of spirits but less concerned about the abusive environments or the psychological damaged placed on them. I have seen many a child scarred by the abuse rendered at home than one who grew up liking Harry Porter or listening to Tupac.

http://christians-worldview.blogspot.com/2017/06/spare-rod-spoil-child-proverb-1324_13.html

Women

Ruth,  Elizabeth, The Virgin Mary are just a few examples of strong women in the bible yet Christianity often times doesn't do anything to create these types of women. The women were not only courageous but they had kindhearted men by their sides. Joseph, as seen in the Gospel of Matthew ( I happened to be born on St. Joseph's Day) wanted to quietly divorce Mary quietly so that she would not be exposed to shame and embarrassment of conceiving a baby out of adultery. He wanted to spare her any humiliation she would be rendered. It is in my opinion, the opposite of how many of our men behave. Women must be virtuous and ''pure" while men are allowed to sow their wild oats. We excuse abusive behavior and sexual immorality in men, which in contradiction to what the Lord wants. When King David impregnated Uriah the Hittite's wife Bathsheba and Uriah died battle he was punished. Yet men are often applauded for their sexual indiscretions and often excused.

Taken from https://www.biblestudytools.com/bible-study/explore-the-bible/5-essential-lessons-you-need-to-know-from-the-book-of-ruth.html

"God cares about men and women all the same. We are all one in His eyes. While most false religions that have been constructed over the centuries often elevate men and dishonor women, Christianity is the one religion that consistently honors men and women at the same level. There is no difference in His eyes."

Yes, women should be loyal to her husband but men must love their wives like Jesus loves the church. Oh how we forget. As we all know premarital sex is prohibited. That is a debate for another post. However, I often feel like both society and the church emphasizes that for women. How many women I know stayed "pure" before marriage, while their philandering husband sleeps around only for them to be given stds by this man. But oh yeah divorce is a big no no. So no matter how bad the situation gets you must stay with him, even if he shows no signs of changing and just possibly give you a death sentence, you must stay with Mr. Community penis.

Sex

Now this topic I can write a dissertation on. I will give a few examples of this. I don't believe in policing other people's bodies. What I do with my vagina is my concern. What you do with yours isn't my concern. There was this one incident when I went to confession. I was a university student at the time so my ID badge was around my neck. The priest looks at my badge. I did one of the most honest confessions I have ever done in my life. But instead of feeling God's love and forgiveness, all I could feel was a spirit of hate and damnation. He stated that every time I received communion without confession, I spit on the body of Christ and that I hated God. He would repeat this as well as my name after I confessed every sin. I don't want to disrespect the sanctity of confession but I will say it wasn't much compared to other people's. So much so he made me go through every one of the 10 commandments till he found one he thought I was guilty of. He told me things like watching a man with sexual feelings and he isn't your husband is lust and it is sinful. I came out of confession instead of feeling cleansed, I felt dirty and unworthy of God's love.

Of course there have been times, you hear God so loved the world He sent his only son. But most times God is usually mentioned when referencing retribution for our sinful ways. You know things like Trinidad and Tobago is experiencing floods because of the repeal of the buggery law. 

We judge and condemn others as if our houses are clean. So we sit thinking about who is having premarital sex or who is "shacking up" as we say in TT, and how sinful they are, paying no mind to the fact that we resent our spouses, we are bitter, angry, unfaithful. All those spirits can cause a marital bed to be defiled. So please continue judging happy unions because they didn't stand up and give lip service vows.

This goes into another incident I had when a leader of church told me that contraceptives are sinful. So I asked why? I got the response that sex without procreation is not part of God's plan. I proceeded to ask why God gave us biological parts that produce sexual stimulation. I was told that you can enjoy sex but procreation must be part of it. Being barren is a generational curse, someone in your ancestry must have had an abortion. Is that really how we want people to feel all the time as if they can't live their lives? It is only now that I am not ashamed of sex. If I met the right person and I decided I wanted to do so, I would.

Now, I don't want to come across as if I am tearing Christianity apart especially if I just so happen to encounter foolish individuals promoting false doctrine, that is why I have researched many of the points I made today. We are so fixated on these rules like birth control is sinful, tampons are sinful but things like lying, cheating, talking down to others etc, actions that cause lasting psychological pain goes unchecked and even excused.

 I will be doing part 2 of this series.