Talking about religion - Round 2!

[columbine]

Punks are usually gregarious and like to meet new people, but being nice to an emo will often confuse them into sheer immobility! Not always, though. I'm really talky and friendly with everybody, so I do meet the occasional emo kid (for me it's all one word, "emo kid," since it's a trend that wears off as people grow up) who appreciates being told that her earrings are gorgeous or his boots are really cool.

I'm with Cathy - totally solitary. We did have a leaderless group here in Boston for a while (New Moon - it's still thriving in New York, last I heard) but after a few years we just got people who wanted to show up once a month and get handed an emotional rush and nobody who wanted to present the next month's workshop & ritual, so we folded. Or "set," I guess, that being what the moon does!

I'm "eclectic" - my special Mother and Father are Brighid and Herne, but I'll appeal to just about anyone for help - there's even an angel (Azrael) who helps me with situations where I need to learn to let go. The way I see it, I don't have to understand how the Universe works or explain it to anybody else - I just need to act like the kind of Goddess I'd like to have in charge of my world. (But I should be gracious about lending books. )

Love, Columbine

[Anita Cholaine]

Organized religion just has never worked that well for me. I do believe in God, and that there is "life" after death, I cannot dismiss the existence of the other side, if that makes sense. But I don't believe that being a member of any certain religion is an automatic ticket to heaven, I think being a good person is the most important thing.

I couldn't agree more on this. Actually, one of the reasons why I stopped going to my church, is that I got tired of seeing so many people singing and praying out loud pretending to be the perfect Catholic. I know that lots of them are not good persons outside church. God knows what it is inside your heart better than anyone, no matter your religion.

[Sophist]

In any church there are going to be 'bad' people who seem like they are trying to come across as perfect examples of the sect. Yeah, some are just hypocrites. And some may be troubled people pouring themselves into the religion to try and help themselves gain the strength to cope with and correct the rest of their lives. In my estimation, it is really up to God to decide who falls into which category. I won't let trying to judge their worth determine my own involvement in the religion, or let trying to figure out their personal struggles distract me from trying to fix my own shortcomings. The way I see it, there's no such thing as a perfect Catholic, Jew, Mormon, Pentecostal, Muslim, or anything else. And any time you start expecting anyone else to be more perfect, you probably need to pause and take stock of your own issues.