Time for a Little Religion: Born Again Christian, Atheist, Then ??? [Post #7]

Okay, I’ve covered briefly my chronological life in blogs 3 through 6. Nothing controversial about that, just pretty objective.  Now it is time to get into controversial subjects.  Yes, we’ve all been warned to stay away from religion and politics in polite conversation, etc., but well, a blog does get into these areas sometimes.  I’m hoping to stay away from politics, there’s enough of that elsewhere in the world and on the internet.  But religion, well, that’s a factor in my life that’s always been of some significance, whether good or bad.  So, we will take a quick tour of my spiritual journey, if you will.  We’ll start at the beginning.

When I was a child, my family made us go to church, even though we were not a religious family, as I saw it.  I really did not understand why we were made to go, but I guess that was pretty much the norm back then when couples had children, even rather “secular” couples.  We did say grace before meals and I was taught the bedtime prayer, “now I lay me down to sleep.”  But that was about it for religion in our family.  My dad did like our minister because he talked football a lot, but he was not big on religion, really (my father, not the minister).  My father did use God’s name and Jesus’s name, but not in a sacred way, if you get my drift. (Unfortunately, I picked up this habit from him and haven’t quite rid myself of it yet).

In high school I had what you could call a “born again Christian” experience.  A coming to God and Jesus was good for me at that time as I was having problems living with my family and a spiritual/religious dimension in my life helped a lot.  I do not regret that experience at all at that time.

After high school I went away to college, to a Christian college in Seattle where I had three friends from my high school days.  It was a new life for me, being away from home.  I got involved with a group of friends there, good people.  They were charismatic Christians, which means they were really on fire in a religious sense during that chaotic time. It was the 1960’s, a wild time of the Vietnam War, the Kennedy assassination, Martin Luther King’s assassination, Malcolm X, Bobby Kennedy, Kent State killings, etc.  Sometimes I am amazed that we lived through such an insane time.

There were drugs, there were the Jesus freaks, Woodstock, all of that.  But I ran around with my “spiritual” friends and it probably helped me survive being in such a group.  We had good times hanging out together and going to church.  

When college was over I continued on to a theological seminary.  I was there for one year and I learned a lot.  I got to study deeper  the interesting subjects of church history, theology, ethics, etc.  I remember being told that what we learned in seminary we do not want to tell our congregations  when we become ministers because it may damage or destroy people’s faith.  Like I said, I learned a lot.

I left seminary, got a job with an airline and did the career stuff.  Life was rolling along pretty well.  For a while.  At some point, I began experiencing a “crisis of faith.”  I challenged my religious beliefs with deep study and deep reflection and thought.  I guess real life was beginning to affect me and my spiritual assumptions.  Not an unusual experience for some people.

I do realize, and I do know a lot of people that never seem to waver in their religious beliefs since they were children, indoctrinated into whatever church or religion they were brought up in.  But this was not my situation. I went from no faith to a fundamental, conservative Christian faith, to theological study and on to the dog-eat-dog real world of cruelty and awful people and situations in the world.  I could not put it all together.  So, I decided I was, after all, an atheist.

Well, this was an unexpected turn in my life.  But one I took seriously.  When I decide something, I really make a decision and commitment.  So, I joined the American Atheist’s Association, based in Austin, Texas.  It was headed my Madalyn Murray O’Hair, a very famous atheist activist.  I even attended one of their annual conventions and got to be with her and her family (pictures were posted on Facebook a while back).

The convention I attended was a very interesting experience.  I met a lot of people who felt like I did about religion at that time, but something began to gnaw at me.  I realized a lot of these people were very bitter, unhappy people.  I realized that atheism is really just another “religion.”  They have their strong, set beliefs and they hate anyone who does not agree with them.  In fact, they really hate agnostics who question whether there is a God or not, as they see agnostics as weak people unable to be strong and stand up and be atheists like they are.

So, I learned a lot being with those atheists and it caused me to reevaluate where I really stood on this religious/spiritual thing.  As I thought it over, I realized I have always felt there was “something else” in life, something in the invisible world of the unseen forces or energy active in life.  Maybe it wasn’t the childhood concept of God that I (and most children) had at one time early in life.  Even the concept I had of “God” in college.  Maybe I had to grow up my concept of God or whatever was active in life behind the scenes, in the invisible, unseen world of the spiritual dimension.

I studied a lot on religious and spiritual subjects.  I began checking out churches again.  I discovered a branch of religion and even Christianity called “new thought,” not “new age,” but new thought.  It was a much better match for me than the standard,  conservative, mainline, fundamental protestant Christian church.  I found the Unity Movement (Unity churches) and Religious Science churches fit me better than anything else.  I find Science of Mind (the teaching of the Religious Science church) and Unity teachings are my best expressions of my spiritual experience now.

That is a brief trip through my spiritual journeying of my life.  Recently I sat down to draw up my most simple definition of my beliefs. It turns out it is very similar to Jesus’ statement of his theology (if we can call it that).  He said the ten commandments from the Hebrew Bible can be condensed into two commandments, to Love God and to Love your neighbor as yourself.  I came up with a seven word religion that really is it for me: Trust God and Love and F the rest.  That really covers everything if you think about it, as I see it.