(no subject)
Oct. 18th, 2006 12:15 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
xaaraReligion (and especially very religious people) can be so frustrating.
I'm sitting in Union South, listening to a born-again Christian who was raised traditional Methodist describe his vision of Bascom Hill covered in praying students. He sits across from a boy in a red Wisconsin hoodie and they talk about prayer, about the power of prayer. Born-again wants to have a place on campus where people can go and say "My dad just died; I need prayer now" and get it.
And I want to go over and say:
I pray every single moment I am awake. Each of my poems is a prayer, a tiny boat of hope or despair set out drifting across the sea. I make eye contact with a stranger and smile, and that is a prayer. My professor says something in class that makes me think, makes me dissect and wonder. And that is a prayer. Everything we do when we are alive is a prayer; every time we move or blink, it is a prayer.
We don't need the words, the Our Fathers and Hail Marys, we don't need the books and the beads and the songs. We just need to keep breathing. Just one. More. Day.
Born-again has no idea what he's talking about. He thinks faith only comes in one form, thinks it means knowing the rituals. And yeah, the rituals are nice, and I love going to mass every once and a while, but come on. If there is a God, he doesn't care more about the people who kneel and light candles than he cares about the people who don't believe in him. God doesn't like Christians and hate everyone else. If there's a heaven, or an afterlife, or reincarnation, it's not only for the people who pray. That's so amazingly narrow-minded, self-centered, and pretentious. How do you get off telling me that your relationship with God is better than mine? Because you had a vision of students praying on Bascom Hill? Because you like hanging with the local pastors? People have been arguing about this ever since the beginning of organized religion; you, sir, are not a prophet or a messiah or even a saint. You are a small man from Colorado in a plaid flannel shirt, and you make my stomach turn.
I'm sitting in Union South, listening to a born-again Christian who was raised traditional Methodist describe his vision of Bascom Hill covered in praying students. He sits across from a boy in a red Wisconsin hoodie and they talk about prayer, about the power of prayer. Born-again wants to have a place on campus where people can go and say "My dad just died; I need prayer now" and get it.
And I want to go over and say:
I pray every single moment I am awake. Each of my poems is a prayer, a tiny boat of hope or despair set out drifting across the sea. I make eye contact with a stranger and smile, and that is a prayer. My professor says something in class that makes me think, makes me dissect and wonder. And that is a prayer. Everything we do when we are alive is a prayer; every time we move or blink, it is a prayer.
We don't need the words, the Our Fathers and Hail Marys, we don't need the books and the beads and the songs. We just need to keep breathing. Just one. More. Day.
Born-again has no idea what he's talking about. He thinks faith only comes in one form, thinks it means knowing the rituals. And yeah, the rituals are nice, and I love going to mass every once and a while, but come on. If there is a God, he doesn't care more about the people who kneel and light candles than he cares about the people who don't believe in him. God doesn't like Christians and hate everyone else. If there's a heaven, or an afterlife, or reincarnation, it's not only for the people who pray. That's so amazingly narrow-minded, self-centered, and pretentious. How do you get off telling me that your relationship with God is better than mine? Because you had a vision of students praying on Bascom Hill? Because you like hanging with the local pastors? People have been arguing about this ever since the beginning of organized religion; you, sir, are not a prophet or a messiah or even a saint. You are a small man from Colorado in a plaid flannel shirt, and you make my stomach turn.
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
(no subject)
Date: 2006-10-19 02:10 am (UTC)