Religion Vs Spirituality By JB

 

I have just started another blog where all the spirituality posts should go but feel this one is better suited here.

I had just finished putting up another profile photo on my facebook when I decided to do a little research on this subject. Most of my friends on facebook except for friends from school are spiritual, peace loving people or the paranormal people.

I like finding a picture that suits my profile. Since I'm into hauntings and the like I usually choose a mythical creature such as a dragon and on occasion I choose an abstract art piece or an animal. I decided on a bird, a black raven, this time.

One of the things living in a relatively small community filled with churches and religious people is according to them there is no path to God other than the one they say is right which is coming to church, repenting of your sins and accepting Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour. There is nothing inherently wrong with their view except nost christians feeled compelled to convert others to their faith.

I will be the first to admit I am a christian, I believe in God and Jesus Christ. I go to church although I don't agree with all their teachings. Some I d o and some I don't. I consider myself a spiritual person and have become more so especially after I was in a bad car accident. That is what developed, really developed, my interest in hauntings and ghosts and the possibility of other dimensions or rather parallel dimensions.

When my mother got sick I started to research other religions, faiths, witchcraft, astrology,psychic phenomena, etc. After the accident I felt compelled to find out as much as I could and especially about hauntings and what really happens to people after they die. Unfortunately, what anyone says is pure speculation as no one has died and come back to tell about it.

After my mother died I believe wholeheartedly she tried to communicate with me. It was over a phone line which I recently found out deceased loved ones can attempt communication via this channel. I truly believe what I experienced was genuine and from my mother.

In an article I read it says religion is a path to God. And so is spirituality. Both are true. But is religion a path to love? The pure unadulterated love not from two people but the essence of love from God. The love I've described before. The love and harmony you see when you walk out your front door and see a bird, a tree growing, the nature around you, the peace that comes from seeing God's beauty. Yet most people hardly notice the things around them. They hardly notice that God is all around them in the trees, the animals, the nature, the peace that comes from it. They don't know that is God. God showing His love for His people every single day.

The churches teach that the path to God can only be found within their hallowed halls. Peace can only be found by coming to church every week and converting others to christianity. Love is giving, Giving to God they say. But as my mother would have said, " How do they give it to God? Do they put the money in an envelope and mail it to Him? And if they could do this, what need would God have of our earthly money?" Of course the answer is simple and my mother knew it. You can't give to God and God doesn't want our money, he has no need for it.

To put it bluntly love is not giving money to God. First off money can't be received by God. When you give money it's to the church and you have no idea who it goes to help. It might help someone truly needy and on other hand it might just go in the pocket of someone in the church. You have no way of knowing.

And their idea of needy in the community are only those that come to their church so if you asked for help from a church you weren't a member of you would receive no help. The word member in a church is an important word, it qualifies you to decide who becomes the pastor, to pass judgment on others and offers you the ability to do whatever you want without fear of judgment from others and the higher up you are in the church meaning the more money you give or the higher your status is in the community gives everyone permission to overlook your sins. As a matter of fact it's a requirement that your sins be overlooked and if you happen to be in the real status quo of your church meaning you are a lawyer, doctor, judge, law enforcement or you just have a pile of money you are automatically forgiven without care for how bad your sin/crime is.

Being a well respected member of your church doesn't equal love. Telling others they are going to die and go to Hell if they don't accept Jesus as their saviour is not love. I realize that christians feel it is their obligation to get people into church and right with God. They are only doing what centuries have been teaching them to do. But it's all under the same guise, the guise of getting people saved when in reality it's money they are after.

How often do you see the churches pushing to get the homeless into church, those that are the most in need of love. The homeless have been beaten down by everyone, society, their family, friends, everyone around them. They have been completely and utterly overlooked because society fears so much as talking to a homeless person because society has taught them to fear the homeless and ignore them and treat them like street trash. The reason is simple. If they are homeless they've done something to get there. They are drunks, addicts, lowlife's, etc. They are dismissed by the churches as lost causes. People that are too far gone to receive any help. They passed judgment when no man is allowed to pass judgment on another human being. Yet there are those like the judge in our church that feels it's his God given right to pass judgment on others because he has cleaned up his house as he put it. "Let anyone who is without sin cast the first stone". I guess he didn't read that passage.

Judgment is not love and not one of use has the power or the ability to pass judgment on anyone regardless of what they've done. That is a hard concept for some especially those that love to condemn others. There are alot of those out there.

The church passes judgment on a homeless person without even knowing that person. They assume he is a drunk or something similar and therefore not in need. One, they have no money to give. That's the first point you need to understand. The church thrives on people giving money and if suddenly no one gave, the church would collapse. This is not a viable option to the church.

The church has been big business for thousands of years and will continue to be until people wake up and realize that salvation is not the main goal of the church even though they tout that it is. This is for their own conscience. To make people believe they want to help them when in reality they want their money.

I'm not here to bash the church. My goal is to make people realize that church is a business that wants to make money. There is nothing wrong with making money but it is the way the church goes about it. They pound on the pulpit instilling fear into the congregants that they are going to Hell if they don't accept Jesus Christ as their saviour and once they've accomplished that mission they tell them they must come to church every week and give an offering and must not at any time go against the church unless they want to be banned and harassed and run out of the community. Because as a church member you must follow their teachings and accept them as your own without waiver.

I am not here to make anyone believe he/she is wrong for his/her beliefs but to awaken your senses and let people know religion is not the only path to spirituality. If church is that path then blessings be with you.