I was raised a lukewarm United Methodist, by a mother who was a lukewarm United Methodist. As I have become an adult, I've realized that my mother's faith was shattered by the tragic death of an older sister when she was barely in her teens. You may ask why myself and my two sisters were taken back to church at a young age. It is just what one does in the Bible Belt, and sadly many parents go through the motions or use church as a glorified babysitting service. I think the intentions of both my parents were good. I think they wanted to raise myself and my two sisters as moral beings.
As a teenager, I rejected religion as many adolescents do. I then spent nearly a decade as a Unitarian Universalist, until I came to view them as hopeless post-modernists, often with the same bitterness, spite, and bile I held.
I am 40 now. I became a Friend at 28, and reevaluated my initial resentment at organized religion, finding great value and wisdom in religion, particularly the Bible. Since then, I have tried to be tolerant of how Spirit manifests itself in others, particularly in my own Meeting. But again, I must stress that the sort of intolerance I've found in others is deeply discouraging. I know a former Catholic who has gone as far as to have her baptism and communion revoked.
Religion is not the root of all evil. While it is true that I was dragged along to a Southern Baptist church when I was at the most potent point of finding my own identity, these people visited me in the hospital in my many stays. They will almost certainly not vote the way I will in a matter of days, but they honor the value of community and tending one's flock, virtues which more liberal faiths tend to shirk.
We can learn a ton from their example.
Religion is not the root of all evil. While it is true that I was dragged along to a Southern Baptist church when I was at the most potent point of finding my own identity, these people visited me in the hospital in my many stays. They will almost certainly not vote the way I will in a matter of days, but they honor the value of community and tending one's flock, virtues which more liberal faiths tend to shirk.
We can learn a ton from their example.
