Our BetterMost Community > The Polling Place
What is your religion?
henrypie:
I answered "other."
Strong atheist till age 20 -- went to Oxford and fell in love (I mean with a person -- but secondarily with the city of course) -- not coincidentally I'm sure, I had a powerful realization of what it meant to believe... at least for me... and felt that I had entered a jeweled chamber which I had only ever been able to see from the outside. It was unutterably, achingly lovely. I was an enthusiastic Christian (Episcopal-Lutheran; nothing else looks or sounds as appetizing to me) for a few years; now I'm a jaded, smart-alecky paid singer in the very church in which I was baptized almost ten years ago and I still take communion, and pray for forgiveness from ?? for my hypocrisy as my faith crumbles and I'm not working to put it back together -- just letting the feelings come through me as they will.
A big part of the reason I take communion is because, while I trust it would be okay with the pastor if I stopped, I would feel acutely uncomfortable. A lot of people for whom I am a beacon, a guide, would have question marks in their thought-bubbles, and that would be a distraction from what I do, which is make music. Eventually maybe I'll think of it as out-and-out acting, in the theatrical event that is Sunday morning, and Wednesday evenings as it happens.
My faith has been downgraded to hope.
Ellemeno:
Hey henrypie, when I somehow find myself in some sort of communion-celebrating church, which is rare, I am happy to walk up there with my little hands folded just so and receive it. It's just so communal. Just because I don't believe that it's somebody's body and blood, I think it's still okay for me to do. (And really, if people really believe it IS the body and blood of Christ, why the hell are they putting it in their mouths and swallowing it? Ugh.)
I love the parts in church when we get to say stuff like, "And also with you," and try to ignore the glorification of the gory stuff. But I only seem to get to a church once or twice a year, usually for someone's special event.
delalluvia:
--- Quote from: Ellemeno on June 07, 2006, 02:38:10 pm ---Hey henrypie, when I somehow find myself in some sort of communion-celebrating church, which is rare, I am happy to walk up there with my little hands folded just so and receive it. It's just so communal. Just because I don't believe that it's somebody's body and blood, I think it's still okay for me to do.
--- End quote ---
Oh, I don't. Communion is holy, a sacrament and supposed to mean something very deeply spiritual - asking the god for forgiveness, actually experiencing a miracle inside your body, washing away of sin, etc.
If I don't worship or honor their god, I can't bring myself to participate so I just sit it out.
--- Quote ---(And really, if people really believe it IS the body and blood of Christ, why the hell are they putting it in their mouths and swallowing it? Ugh.)
--- End quote ---
It transmorgrifies or whatever inside their bodies. Yeah, the literal idea of what's supposed to happen is yucky. As a young Catholic relative of mine said, "Yeah I take the Lord Jesus into my body. But I poop him out, too." O0
henrypie:
That's transubstantiate, dela, not transmogrify. Hee hee.
I had a weird experience in the eighth grade with my science teacher whom I worshipped. I had recently heard of transubstantiation and asked him, thinking it must be a now-debunked notion like alchemy, if it were "still believed in." He said "Absolutely. I believe in it."
About ten years later he was fired for inappropriate behavior with a student.
Of course he was!
Giancarlo:
I'm a definite atheist. Recently my atheism has strengthened after seeing the relentless attacks by conservative fundamentalists and seeing how they don't have a point.
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