“No Religion, Just Relationships”. A local church sign. The same church now has a sign that says “Religion: A Mirage. Jesus: Real.”
I will admit to having the occasional issue with organized religion. Who doesn’t? However, any church that says “there’s no religion here” cannot be trusted. They’re trying waay too hard to convince “the unchurched” that they’re a safe bet, therefore they are
not safe at all.
Every once in awhile, stuff like
this reminds me of what kind of a position I’m putting myself in. It sort of reminds me that the thing I want to make work, I can never make work as long as I continue to forget that “normal” people don’t want to hear it. I think these people forgot that too. All of it sounds really bizarre to the mainstream religious types. Let me tell you, I often regret being so open and honest about my newer and/or stranger beliefs, because I realized half the people I’m talking to can’t understand what I’m talking about and tend to write me off as a little unbalanced.
I try to be cynical and expect the worst from my own religion, and yet they continue to shock me anyway. So knowing what I know of Christianity, I’d just automatically assume any Jewish group would react equally badly to the same type of announcement. When a Jewish person tells me that wouldn’t happen, I want desperately to believe them but it never turns out true. Just like when they say it’s okay to be really interested in Judaism when you’re not Jewish or that it’s okay to not be Jewish period and it turns out that it’s not okay after all. I don't have to elaborate again on my various pet peeves with neo paganism or Christianity.
Somehow, just by trying to follow my gut, I ended up trapped between three groups of people who don’t like each other so much.