When I post about religion at all, it's usually to criticize something that came about as a result as a church-related incident or to poke fun at some religion-related fiasco that particularly hit my funny bone. I don't write or speak of my real faith often. Perhaps it's because I don't have all that much of it.
I'm Catholic from birth, but what are the odds that there's one right religion on the face of the Earth and I just happened to be born into it? I know the odds are not great. Still I go through the motions. Sometimes that's all I'm doing is going through the motions. I think the only time I believe there really might be an answer in religion is when I hear a song that strikes me.
Most of the time I just don't know.
Growing up, about the only thing I ever liked about religion was the music. As I got older, I appreciated it more. I could see why people like going to church. It can be a source of social stimulation. A good minister can be insightful and interesting. I was raised Presbyterian, which is very Scottish.
ReplyDeleteWe don't attend church now because after my husband's experiences with Mormonism, he has no desire to engage in organized religion again. I wouldn't mind going to church if I found one that had good music and a good minister. I don't like mega churches, which seem to be everywhere in Texas. I think Bill believes more in a higher power than I do, though. He knows more about the Bible, even though I probably attended many more church services than he ever did.
My dad was in the choir and my mom was usually the church organist, so church was never a family thing for us.
Before the evangelical movement took over much of Protestantism (and I don't think the evangelicals, who used to refer to themselves as "Protestant Evnagelicals," even consider themselves Protestants any longer, which shows just how ignorant of religious history so many of them are; where would they be without Martin luther, or whatever other person who undoubtedly would have come along and done something very similar to create a branch of Christianity that was neither catholic nor Eastern Orthodox?) if a religious family was not Catholic, they were the denomination of whatever reformer who came after Martin Luther to the region of their ancestors. Calvin was the reformr of the Netherlands and Scotland, so the Scottish tended to be Presbyterian and the Dutch tended to be Christian Reformed or Reformed Christian or even Dutch reformed -- whatever they were calling themselves in their neck of the woods. Congregationalists were mainly Withrop followers, I believe, and were the original separatists who became the pilgrims, although I believe most of Congregationalists, except for maybe part of New England, have merged with a branch of the Reformed Church and are now the United Church of Christ, so that denomination claims both Calvin and winthrop as its reformers. The Methodists in England had John Wesley.I'm not sure what was his particular beef with the Church of England.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that is ironic in a way to me is that I'm somewhat critical of the LDS church because of its originis under the founding of joseph Smith, yet I have no problem with the Episcopal Church, whish has its roots in th Church of england, which started because Henry VIII wasn't allowed to marry and dispose of wives at will under Catholic doctrine. that is somewhat hypocritical of me.
I supppose I could take the angle that it's not where a church got its start but, rather, what direction it has taken since then, that matters. Furthermore, Henry VII, charlatan though he may have been, and that's one of the nicer things that could be said about him, didn't claim to have God or Jesus or an angel with golden plates appear to him. He was merely [over]exercising his power as ruling monarch.
It's ironic to me that the Queen Mother (Elizabeth's mum)until fairly late in life refused to allow any divorced person to be in her presence, yet her religion got its start because the King Henry VIII wasn't allowed to marry and divorce (or have his wives beheaded) at will by the Catholic Church, which was at the time the state church.
Religion is a funny thing.
My mom's best friend minored in comparative religions. She said that in the Appalachian region in the 1800's, religion was a hige class distinction. This was before the Baptists had gottenmuch of a stronghold in the area. Prebyteriansim was very much "high church," which Methodism was "low church. Catholicism at that time, except for certain regions, was primarily an urban thing, probably because the Catholic immigrants were not, for the most part, agrarian at that point in time once they hit the U. S. That changed a bit in the 20th century with major Italian, Azorean, and Basque influx.