Now before you all go jumping on your high horses about why I'm being "unchristian" or something along those lines, I am putting this disclaimer. This does not constitute that I do not believe in God or Jesus, but it simply states that I don't like religion in an organized manner. Allow me to explain myself fully before you bring out the torches and pitchforks to burn me at the stake for hypocrisy.
To understand my dislike of organized religion, you have to understand a little bit about me first. When I was 16-years-old, I witnessed one of the greatest travesties of religion and the supposed followers of Jesus that I have ever known. My parents divorced the year following my 16th birthday after my father was convicted of indecency with a child and admitted to my mother that he was guilty all along. After this happened, my mother chose to take myself and my brothers and leave our father, filing for divorce about a month later once she had all the paperwork and funds together. Instead of supporting us, the church that I grew up in turned their backs on us and would not help my mother because they didn't consider her divorcing my father to be "Biblical". (Though she had that right YEARS ago when he cheated on her.) Not once did any member of this said church call my mother to check on us kids or see if we needed anything now that my mother was a single parent to three teenage children receiving no government assistance or child support. They all considered themselves to be people of Jesus, but yet they did not follow the simplest command of Jesus to help others who are in need because they were too proud to admit that my mother was right in divorcing the man who had done so much damage to so many peoples' lives.
Fast forward seven years to the present and you will find an enlightened version of my sixteen-year-old self. In the past few years, I have gone to many different churches and experimented with different religions, including Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic. But I've come to the conclusion for myself that organized religion isn't what was intended for God's people. All churches have really done is taken what was meant to be a guide for life and deconstructed and manipulated the word to say what they want it to say. The mantra I grew up with was similar to "Don't do this, you'll go to hell. Tattoos are for Devil worshipers. Cursing is unacceptable. Homosexuality is the Devil's handiwork and they are all going to hell. This church is the only church you can get into Heaven with." and so on. But as I've explored religion and spirituality for myself without someone shoving it down my throat, I've come to realize that most of those things are just not true. Yes, there are things you will be condemned for, like murder and things like that. But I've taken a different path and view on other things, like tattoos and homosexuality. I believe that everyone is the way that they are because they were born that way. And tattoos are meant to be a celebration of something you believe in or feel strongly about. (Or, in some cases, just something stupid you want to put on your body because it's funny.) But I honestly don't believe that God would condemn you for decorating your body or because of who you fall in love with.
I also don't believe that He will condemn anyone for being the "wrong" religion. Honestly, who does have it right? There are so many denominations in the world today that we can't honestly tell who is the "right" choice. None of them date back 2000 years to when Jesus said "upon this rock, I will build my church." The oldest "organized" church that follows the teachings of Jesus Christ are the Catholic church, but they only date back 900 years or so. For that reason, among many others, I have decided that I will not claim any one set religion, but instead embrace my own spirituality. Am I opposed to going to church? Not at all. In fact, I enjoy going to many different churches to experience the fellowship of God's people, but I will never permanently establish myself in one or the other. Instead, I intend to do as Jesus did and make my own church within myself. He traveled the world, teaching to others and didn't confine himself to one building. Why shouldn't I do the same and not stick myself in one organized religion for the rest of my life? Being Jesus to others out in the real world where it counts is more important to me than pretending every Sunday and Wednesday in a building.
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