I blogged about a friend of mine a couple of years ago. We were good friends in High School, and then went our separate ways. When we met up again on Facebook, I was over here in the US, and he had recently become a baptist minister.
I made some snarky comments about him at the time, but I've change my opinion. Sure I don't believe in God, but he does, and when I look at how he's devoted his life to helping people, and how they react to him, I realize that he's incredibly generous, caring and devoted to his beliefs.
He tried to get me to reconsider Mormonism a few years ago... I was mid-disaffection at the time, and while he kept asking for a chance to talk to me about my beliefs, everytime I'd invite him to chat, the invitation would go unanswered.
I figured that out of all my friends, he would be most happy with my disaffection, and so I sent him a letter last week.
He didn't take the news quite as well as I would have hoped. He was kind of glad, but he peeked at my facebook profile, and it would almost seem as though being a Humanist is worse than being a Mormon.
I don't know if he quite gets humanism though, but that aside... His letter to me was very honest and I could definitely feel a measure of love from him. I appreciated that. He's a good guy.
There was however one thing he said which kind of got my hackles up...
Let me start with a story:
I'm a programmer, and so I write code for a living. Generally people like what I do, but occasionally it comes under some criticism. I was in a situation yesterday, where I had been instructed to write some code, and told that I had no freedom to go beyond the specs I had been given. So I wrote to the specs. Nothing more, nothing less.
I had to present it to a group of people, and... Apparently they aren't big fans of the specs they gave me. It was funny in a way, but at the same time... The resultant code is something I created, and even though the criticism wasn't about my code, it was still involved in the discussion, and so some negative feelings were definitely present.
Let's switch gears... So if you believe in God, you believe that he's this supreme creator and that he created us. Some people believe that we are actually his kids, and others believe we are just creatures of his making.
Back to the letter...
My friend talked about knowing the root by the fruit - or as I would have put it... By their fruits ye shall know them.
That was kind of what got me questioning the Church. Most of the top leaders are complete pigs. Just a bunch of greedy, power hungry dicks. I struggled to reconcile that with a belief that they were called of God.
Hey wait - I've got another blog post brewing which deals with sexism in our language... dick is male in origin and has a negative connotation - Interesting!
Anyway... So the whole know it by the fruit thing, really rings true for me.
He made a comment about how humanism was based on man, and as he was sure I would agree, mankind was pretty rotten.
Actually I don't think I could disagree more.
Now... If I were God, and I'd created something, and a select group of those creatures started dissing my creation, I think I'd take issue with it.
Christians are huge on dissing mankind though. We're all evil sinners, wretches if you will. Pure evil and useless except to praise God.
That is one area where Mormons kind of get it right - we are Gods in embryo, except while they teach that (Or don't teach it, if you ask Gordy!). They don't really live it... For if they did, there would be as much guilt in Mormonism. And that was also my prime complaint when I left Church employment. They teach about mankind being the offspring of God, and yet treat their employees like utter crap.
I don't know much about Islam or other religions, but there seems to be a fair amount of self loathing in them as well, along with a general contempt for non-believers.
Seriously... Any Church worthy of my interest has to teach that we're all good people and that the religion is just something which makes us better.
AND THEY ACTUALLY HAVE TO LIVE IT TOO!!!
I think there may be one candidate out there, but... I don't know if I'm ready for anything just yet.
"Any Church worthy of my interest has to teach that we're all good people and that the religion is just something which makes us better."
ReplyDeleteI have a dear friend who picks and chooses from different religions for this exact reason. She is her own 'church'.
I can't imagine there is a validate candidate out there, I am coming to the slow conclusion that any religion that extends beyond the individual is too generalized. I can't imagine my spirituality being identical to anyone else. My relationship with my definition of God is too personal to fit into the frameworks of an organization.
ReplyDeleteI met with and closely identified with Buddhists for a while after my disaffection from Mormonism. I still dig Buddhism, but now I'm more like the previous two comments....I go to the desert when I need communion and I don't try to constrain myself within any one framework. These days sage brush strolls, sunrise awakenings, and sitting through sunsets gets me through just fine. Great post Koda...good stuff to think about!
ReplyDeleteI'm with you, I get sick of religion saying that humans are naturally evil and need religion to be decent. I don't buy it. I think you said your wife isn't into the UU church, but I love it. I hadn't been to any church (except for funerals) in about 3 years and thought I would maybe never go to another one. I really like the UU church though because it is a church without religion. It accepts anyone, no matter what their beliefs are. I like that. Maybe I can convert you. LOL.
ReplyDeleteThe Orthodox Church teaches that man is inherently good, they don't believe in the "born with sin" stuff. Considering how similar they appear to Catholics, I thought that was interesting.
ReplyDeleteGood points, although some ideas (for lack of a better word) deserve further examination. I'm not sure the Christian idea is man is only good for praising God, although you are correct that appears to be the end game. I still embrace the idea that we (mankind) are as filthy rags in the context of being compared to something that is perfect. However,supposed "intelligent" beings that we are, I'm not suggesting we're filthy rags. About all I can add to the God -vs- no god, is, there seems to be something inherently obvious to me there is something besides ourselves, call it the god of planet android 5 if you want, or a mystical brain rock on Haley's Comet, somethings a foot.
ReplyDeleteBut, all that is neither here or there. When it comes to mormonism, the leadership is fraught with self-centered dicks, who will lie to you if they think it might give them an upper hand, or give them the ability to sustain their moronic lifestyle.
I hear good things about the Unitarian Universalist faith.
ReplyDeleteI'm wondering what your possible option is? I have like the UU meetings I've been to so far...I just don't think I could ever get too involved like be a member and pay money, but that's where the community comes from...being super involved. Maybe one day when my son gets around four or five, we may consider it. But from what you were talking about before...I take issue with the fact that we are so horrible as human beings. I think we're pretty great overall. That's one of the many reasons I have a hard time with religion. They hijack people's own spirituality and then tell them how they are supposed to be and what relationship they're supposed to have and what they're not supposed to do. Too much us vs. them. I just want us to take care of each because it's good not because any god told us too. That's what humanism is about. People can be great and moral without a god.
ReplyDeleteLloyd, I usually don't follow up on folks who come over here trying to do a little self-promotion, but I thought you were someone else I know.
ReplyDeleteI visited your blog, and the first posting was talking about how if we're being abused by an employer, the best thing to do is to take the abuse, turn the other cheek, and in so doing win them over for Christ.
While I can definitely appreciate the intentions of such a post, it seems to fly directly in the face of the idea's I proposed above.
Seriously now... For the sake of argument, lets assume that there is a god, and lets assume that as taught by most religions with which I am familiar, that he is kind and loving and wants us all to be happy.
Why on earth would that God want us to submit ourselves to a person, whom might best be described as an asshole, all to help glorify him?
That is the very problem with religion...
Submission and ceding control to corrupt men.
If there is a god, and he would like me to submit myself and my free will to him, all he has to do is prove his existence to me. As yet, I'm not aware of any cases in which he's been able to prove that to anyone.