Speaking of Faith

I do not consider myself a religious person-spiritual, yes, but not religious. Even as a child, my opinions about organized religion would be like the moon: waxing and waning. I did not understand how a loving god who gave his only son could dismiss other people who did not even know his name.

So, today I went to an Episcopal Church for Palm Sunday. It was rather calming to step in and be seeped up by the ritualistic patterns. Parishioners knew what songs to sing, when to pray, when to sit, and when to be open and loving to one another. It was a community that was formed once a week, and then dissipated until they needed one another again. Love, or at least a form of it, existed among them.

Sadly, I knew, though, that they knew of the only way to be saved and if you did not know and practice that way, you would not go to heaven.


Now I'm having an internal debate. I can not prescribe to a belief where a loving god can only love one type of people. I have so many friends who I love and do not believe what I do. I want to know that when I die at a late age, I can join them and we can be happy and loving people together. I also want to prescribe to a religious belief. I want to know that the ritualistic elements of religion, community, love, knowledge that there is something, someone greater than yourself is a very calming element in my life.

Someday I want this to be a possibility: a formation of a religion based on love for one another, forgiveness, and acceptance the differences in culture bring us closer together and not farther apart.