Quick Write #8 : Prejudice

Me Prejudice?
What is my one prejudice, bias, or assumption? That is a hard question. No one likes to admit to a flaw as large as prejudice, although we all have at least one. One of mine: Organized Religion. I am vehemently opinionated on this topic. I do not believe in, am quite perturbed by, and do not subscribe to any organized religion. That is not to say that I don’t believe in God. I do, I just believe that with something as important as your eternal soul, you should not blindly follow a shepherd or doctrine. You should be willing to “do the work”, have a personal relationship with God, and try to live a righteous life. This may seem prejudice, but I liken it to enlightenment and ascribe my perspective to a period in my life I call “The time I lost my faith”.

“The time I lost my faith” spanned a number of years and began with a religious battle waged in my own home. My husband, who I describe as a lost soul, became a devout Jehovah’s Witness despite my disapproval. I tried to keep an open mind and even accompanied him to one of their meetings. I felt as if I walked into the movie ‘The Stepford Wives’. The whole scene was quite bazaar and disturbing to me. I felt extremely uncomfortable and in the pit of my soul knew it was all wrong. I declined any further involvement but did not deny my husband of his need to belong to their organization. At least not until I was targeted as being “bad for his soul” by the church elders and told I would not be going to heaven because they are the one true religion and I did not subscribe to their propaganda. I declared war on the Jehovah’s Witnesses, and 12 years later I still desire to debate their beliefs whenever I see one. I am however not generally a vindictive woman so I bite my tongue and politely decline their little books design to “save my pathetic soul”. My war was for the soul that I was so bad for, my husband. Luckily I had help.

My cousin is a Missionary and she knew of a group that researches all religions and gives facts and unbiased research of the religion’s beliefs and history. I contacted them and they sent me information about the Jehovah’s Witness “religion”. The information it provided was startling to me, but I had also used other sources, including the Bible, which is what any good researcher would do. The doctrine they claimed as one of their main sources (the Bible) was one in which their teachings went against! They taught my husband that the Holy trinity consists of three separate gods! That’s polytheism to you and me! Yet, in the bible (Corinthians) it states “there is but one God…” One of my main arguments with my husband was “Why don’t you take a theology class, or do a little research on your own? Then you can make an informed decision. With something as important as your soul, don’t you think you should do a little research instead of being spoon fed by your brothers?” Just a little family reference all good cults use. His reasoning behind them having their own printing company and printing all the materials he needed to study from was to save him time and money. That’s convenient, but they can also feed you any line they want your to read and teach you exactly what serves their purposes. Another method of cults is to isolate and teach from their own doctrines deeming outside sources of information as false or misleading. This is also true of Christianity, which when I learned some important historical facts was a great eye opener for this free spirit.

I wonder how many Christians would believe that they celebrate a pagan holiday every year. Probably not many because after all we have been told the story of the nativity and that Jesus is the “reason for the season”. Ahhh yes and we all believe it because the church tells us to. It was during my “time that I lost my faith” that I learned the truth. In an effort to convert pagans in the early days Christian leaders “adopted” certain pagan celebrations and created a story that would make this acceptable to their followers and serve their purposes. Yes, it is true; Christmas is the pagan celebration of the winter solstice. In fact, how can December 25th be Christ’s birthday when Theologians have not been able to pinpoint his exact date of birth? And what of the bible? The bible that is the holy doctrine to so many is referred to by theologians as the canon. The canon refers to books that religious leaders discussed in depth to decide what was or was not divinely inspired or directly related to the life and work of God and Christ. They decided which books would be included in the Bible. The bible of today is the “approved” version that the leadership chose to allow. Censorship at its most diabolical, the fate of one’s soul left in the hands of church leaders. I believe in the Bible, as an incomplete reference to my faith. Do devout Christians know these facts and still choose to listen to the sermon? I guess maybe ignorance is bliss. Why worry about the sins you commit all week when you can go to church for an hour on Sunday and be totally forgiven? Hell yes, hand me my clean slate and I will put some dollars in your plate!

It was all quite disturbing to me and in the end I lost my battle. I let my husband go. God was not done however, that same year my father was taken from me by Leukemia of all things! Yes I cursed God and all the people who bent and twisted the faith to serve their purposes. I stopped praying, I never talked to God again. At least not until my faith in him was restored. How you may be wondering? My father restored my faith in God… after his death. It is a simple story really and could even be disregarded by the faithless. I sat on the beach in Hawaii, 3 am. My last night there and I wanted to say goodbye. We spread my father’s ashes a few days before. I was talking to him the way I had in life and I wanted him to hear me. I thought if there was a God and a heaven and life after death surely he would hear my words. I am unfortunately someone who demands proof of such things. In my attempt at not only reaching out to the soul of the man who I loved so dearly, but also to restore my faith in something spiritual I demanded proof that my father had heard me. I wanted a shooting star. Surely God has the entire universe at his command, is a little shooting star too much to ask? Give it to me… I need it. I need to know there is something greater out there. I waited somewhat impatiently and was about to give up, but then it happened. The biggest shooting star I had ever seen! Many would dismiss it as coincidence but regardless, it restored my faith. It also enlightened me to the fact that God can hear me when I talk directly to him, as I did to my father. I don’t need a go between after all! He can hear every word I say and to my dismay I have cursed him out many times, my bad. I am guessing he is cool with me though because he hasn’t struck me with lightning or anything. I think he accepts me with all my faults, thank you Lord.

So you see my flaw, my prejudice, is not merely an ignorant assumption of another person or group of people. I feel that I have justified my opinion with some basic research, and personal spiritual insight. I would never use my prejudice as an excuse to deny another’s freedoms. After all, free will is a God given gift. I will not however, stand for the hypocrisy in my own life. I do not want someone to spoon feed me like some dumb sheep. I want to learn from many sources and develop my own system of beliefs. The bible says, “A man is justified by works and not by faith alone.” (James) I try to not only have faith but also help others. I am far from saintly, and do not pretend to be Mother Theresa, but I have handed out food to the less fortunate, volunteered my time and surely there is more I could do. I will not however, blindly follow a shepherd in the hopes he will lead me to heaven for many have been led astray. This is my eternal soul and I want to keep it out of that hot netherworld. I’m not a fan of hot weather. My life, my soul, is a work in progress.