When one dies, I believe that person is no more the one known in life on earth. I never really understood spiritualism until I looked it up. Spiritualism is beyond my ability to comprehend. However, religion should be as separate from the church as we ask it to be in our Constitution...separation between church and state. There is good reason for that. We do NOT all believe the same about God, Christ, Allah, Joseph Smith or any of the hundreds of religious leaders on this earth currently. The religious right has gone too far.
The priest that refused to honor his commitment to perform a service for a dead woman in commemoration of her life, or give communion to her lesbian daughter is unconscionable. The pedophlic priests who tormented youth of both sexes for generations is not a call to honor the church for its handling and long term denial of the problem or its seriousness nor to respect the church.. Before contraception was legal, and nuns were the only women around, the House of the Good Shepherd was full of pregnant nuns whose children were given up for adoption. The fathers? Nuns did not have great contact outside the church, did they? The fallacy of celibate priests went on for years and there may still be a few do not have sex with the opposite sex. Whether they masturbate or Nature takes her course by giving them wet dreams, or whether they are asexual, I doubt someone will make it a Master's thesis and research the subject.
If believing in the church's teachings is a comfort to people, that is good. For those of us who find no comfort in deceit and manipulation through fear of something which cannot be proven...afterlife in Paradise (even if you deny a good life on earth), may never be realized. Life after death is not a concept for which I am willing to change my way of life on earth. I believe in the Golden Rule and I hurt no one intentionally. I do not live life in fear of the Almighty. If I have sinned, I would atone but refuse to atone for sins committed by Eve in the Garden of Eden. I do not believe we are all born sinners though some of us may become so as we live. However we live our lives, we need not fear that church attendance should be our judge. It is who we are in life, how we behave and treat others, how we value and respect others for whom they choose to be or are, and whether we share ourselves as part of a community with other human beings that counts. Until someone actually comes back from beyond in an after life that I might change my views. In this life, ask yourself, are you the shepherd or the sheep? As in life, there are more sheep than shepherds, you know.
One can believe in God and Christ and never set foot in a church. I doubt God will make an issue of it.
The priest that refused to honor his commitment to perform a service for a dead woman in commemoration of her life, or give communion to her lesbian daughter is unconscionable. The pedophlic priests who tormented youth of both sexes for generations is not a call to honor the church for its handling and long term denial of the problem or its seriousness nor to respect the church.. Before contraception was legal, and nuns were the only women around, the House of the Good Shepherd was full of pregnant nuns whose children were given up for adoption. The fathers? Nuns did not have great contact outside the church, did they? The fallacy of celibate priests went on for years and there may still be a few do not have sex with the opposite sex. Whether they masturbate or Nature takes her course by giving them wet dreams, or whether they are asexual, I doubt someone will make it a Master's thesis and research the subject.
If believing in the church's teachings is a comfort to people, that is good. For those of us who find no comfort in deceit and manipulation through fear of something which cannot be proven...afterlife in Paradise (even if you deny a good life on earth), may never be realized. Life after death is not a concept for which I am willing to change my way of life on earth. I believe in the Golden Rule and I hurt no one intentionally. I do not live life in fear of the Almighty. If I have sinned, I would atone but refuse to atone for sins committed by Eve in the Garden of Eden. I do not believe we are all born sinners though some of us may become so as we live. However we live our lives, we need not fear that church attendance should be our judge. It is who we are in life, how we behave and treat others, how we value and respect others for whom they choose to be or are, and whether we share ourselves as part of a community with other human beings that counts. Until someone actually comes back from beyond in an after life that I might change my views. In this life, ask yourself, are you the shepherd or the sheep? As in life, there are more sheep than shepherds, you know.
One can believe in God and Christ and never set foot in a church. I doubt God will make an issue of it.
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