two-four-seven

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

RELIGION

So I guess I haven't made a serious post in this thing in a long time and after reading John's blog, I felt the urge to write something real serious, like so serious that it would make Sirius satellite radio jealous. Here it goes.

Growing up as a kid I was first introduced to religion through the likes of a regular old Christian Church. But the sad part is that the only thing I remember from those days are the 1) the playground behind the church and 2) wearing formal attire every weekend that made me feel really uncomfortable. I guess after a year or so, I eventually stopped going. That was mainly because of the fact that my dad's side is heavily Christian where as my mom's side of the family is HEAVILY Buddhist. I mean heavily as in pretty damn heavily like you got a blue whale sitting on a scale heavy. And since those times, I really lived a religion free life for probably a good 12 years of my life up until my junior year of high school. I guess as I got re-introduced to religion as a 17 year old, I was at first really happy and then slowly I began to realize how messed up things were within a church or a youth group.

After attending church for probably a good year or so from late sophomore year to junior year, I slowly began to understand why 95% of the kids woke up every damn Sunday at 10AM. Because most of their best friends had to do the same. The thing that I realized was that these kids grew up together, like I would have if I had stayed at my first church. When you have a bunch of friends that you've known since you were 5-6 years old, I'm pretty damn sure that you would be pretty close with a lot of them so I can't blame them for being at a place for the wrong reasons. After attempting to find some sort of "spirituality" during those times, I became more and more frustrated with the entire system and I came to a conclusion that religion isn't something that should be brought upon you, but instead, you should bring it upon yourself.

As ridiculous as this might sound to some of you church goers, I came to a rough conclusion that the whole religion thing is a bunch of nonsense. When you're a child and you're being force-fed information regarding the Bible and Christianity, what in the world else are you going to believe when you grow up? I mean, what if someone were to come and tell us that humans are supposed to walk on two legs and an arm? None of us would take that as fact and would just brush it off because of the fact that we've been trained since the beginning of our lives to walk on two legs. Its a weird analogy but it makes sense to me. Going through all of the thinking and wondering about religion, I'd have to say that I have the most respect and understanding for what John went through in order to find his way with Christ. I saw that guy putting in a lot of effort and time researching and studying the numerous religions that are out there, and I honestly think that is the way people should go about things such as religion in their lives. How is it that one could be so content when they haven't tried or experienced anything else?

This post wasn't meant to sound like a bash or anything, its just me expressing how I feel about the whole thing called religion. And although I've been content with my life in every shape and form, I still wonder what it could be like with the r-word incorporated within it. I don't know, maybe something will happen in my life that will make me realize what I need to do.

P.S. Top's real name is Choi Seung Hyun
P.P.S. Seung-Ri's real name is Lee Seung Hyun

4 comments:

Sarah Keem said...

well said.
top top top top. MMMM MMMMM CHOI SEUNG HYUN CHOI SEUNG HYUN <33333

kc said...

I think what most people tend to get tangled up in is...the other people. Yes, church as an agent of socialization is a community. That's what man made it. But don't forget that behind the community, the politics, the people...there's God. It's a pity that it takes so much clawing and digging at the infrastructure of the church today to find that essence of God, of Love, but if you really dig deep enough, it's definitely there.

i'll make my own post soon.

mmyoung said...

I hate calling Christianity a religion because the word "religion" itself entails politics and power tripping. I 'd rather call Christianity a personal relationship with God that overrules what people think/see/assume. Nobody's perfect, including churches and church-goers, which is why sometimes they lose sight of what's really important. yadig

Anonymous said...

Try "The Reason for God" by Timothy Keller

I bought the book recently and haven't started reading it yet, but I think it'd be fun to talk about it if you do decide to read it.

I didn't grow up in the church, but I can say that from living my life I KNOW that Christ is real and that He saved me from every crack and hole in my life.

"I was at first really happy and then slowly I began to realize how messed up things were within a church or a youth group."
That's just the brutal honesty of what is the world today. People mess things up. We're naturally sinners and taint everything in sight even without clear intention.

Then again, all of our intentions are for ourselves so maybe we really do know what we're doing. We're selfish.

I'm not even close to what Christ was, but I thrive to be as loving, holy, and faithful as He is.

I liked this entry :) A challenge is good. I challenged a lot before I accepted Him.

Apathy is worse.

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