I often call myself a witch and a pantheist. On occasion, I’ve been known to wear a crucifix and quote the bible. People sometimes write me off as a flake or a charlatan because I’m not exclusive and militant about religion. Let’s talk about that.
I believe in one all-powerful, omni-sentient and omni-present God. I believe that this God encompasses all of existence, and that the human mind cannot comprehend it entirely. God does not have a gender or an image except that which we individually assign to it, because it is easier for us to relate to something that looks like us than something which has no form.
I do not believe that the Bible is the word of God. While it does hold very good and wholesome parables, it also contains some very unwholesome and not so good messages. If people sat down and read the Bible from cover to cover, they would realize this. Unfortunately, most people look at the Bible as too challenging or not worth the time to read like a novel. All that pesky Old Testament stuff gets a little tedious, after all. When I was about 13 I got baptized, and decided then and there I’d better read this book for myself.
Every denomination, every religion, every separate cell-group of Bible readers, thumpers, and believers are based on another individual’s interpretation of the Bible. They are hand-fed a few verses at a time, a lesson here and there every Sunday. This does not promote an honest and complete knowledge of the Bible, nor does it uphold the integrity of the book itself. Most history buffs realize that the rigid Evangelical belief that this book is God’s sacred word, protected from tampering by his holy guidance, is baloney.
Men have been in control of this compilation of “holy” texts for far too long. Whatever the book may have been, once upon a time, it is no longer. This doesn’t mean I hate the Bible, or God, or Christians at large. Some of the most beautiful people (inside and out) I’ve known have been Christians. Some have been Pagan, and some have been Buddhists… you get the picture.
Ultimately, I believe that a person’s relationship with Divinity is personal and should be kept that way. It is not my place, or anyone else’s, to tell someone what kind of relationship they should have with God. It is not my place to tell them what name to use, what image to adopt, or how to go about worshipping.
It’s really not an issue how you worship or when or why. What matters is that you have respect for life, human and otherwise, and that you believe in something that’s greater than yourself. True compassion, kindness, and empathy are my proof that God exists. If you disagree, that’s fine too. But don’t labor under the assumption that you’re saving anyone from ignorance by convincing them to agree with you. The same goes for Christians -you weren’t put on this earth to be fishers of men or to save the heathens from a lake of fire.
You were put here to love, or to follow the example set by a man 2,000 years ago who preached love. So get to loving one another, dammit, and stop killing each other over a point of view. No two will ever be the same.
