Things That Bother Me -7
One of my earliest thoughts was why does the Christian religion use an instrument of extreme torture as its symbol? Sometime during my childhood I remembered a time I started to pick a rose for my little friend Joan and a thorn stuck deep into my finger! It hurt badly and I cried! The following Sunday my Sunday school teacher told our class about Jesus having nails driven through his hands and then left hanging by those nails until he died! Remembering how badly that thorn hurt in my finger, and then thinking about how bad those nails must hurt, again I cried! After that I always shudder to think about the crucifixion! Just to think someone could be that cruel It was hard for me to understand!
I kept thinking about someone driving nails through another person’s hands and then hanging that person on a cross by those nails until he died! Yet, everywhere I look at places referring to the Christian religion there is that cross! Even on the top of some churches for all to see! And many Christians even wear a cross on a chain around their neck! And often that cross has a poor soul hanging from those nails through his hands! It is beyond my understanding! It made me sick each time I thought about it for years! Each time I would look at that cross, it would not make me think of Jesus, it only made me think of those cruel people and the hurts they caused!
My next gripe has always been all the outrageous religious costumes church leaders feel they must wear! I always felt that if a person thought they needed different outfits to present God’s words. they must feel their interpretation of those words of God are very weak. I always related both robes and headdresses to the clowns in the circus! I often wondered if church people were wearing those outfits just to make people smile.
I’ll tell you a little bit more about my little friend Joan. She and I spent many hours talking about religion. One day as we walked past a church we saw a minister standing out front. She said something that every time I think about it, I smile. When Joan saw the minister she said “that place is full of dumb people. They come each Sunday to listen to a man preach of God, but he is not smart enough to know he has put his shirt on backwards!” Out of the mouths of children!
Next, I have always wondered, who was the one that determines what is right and what is wrong for all! And I’ve also wondered if that same right or wrong is the same for all! Often I’ve asked if that rule was made for me.
At an early age I started to realize that many who claim to be authorities delighted in trying to put me into a universal size box! Since I learned to receive unquestionable answer I have found those big stumbling rocks put there by mortals has turned into little grains of spiritual sand for me!
It also bothers me that we have more than a hundred different Christian churches in my town and they all think they need separate Christian buildings. They all preach out of the same book, and all say it is God’s words, but after attending many of these same Christian churches I wonder how so many different understandings can come out of the same book that most tell me that book is all God’s words! How can that be if each church can find a different meaning to those “God’s words.”
I guess that puts me back to square one trying to figure out who determines right or wrong for each of those churches, but also does anyone have a say about the speakers interpretation of those words? Am I the only one a little confused?
Next post July 20,2017
