Jackie Stallworth - Choice of Topic 3

 As you may have been able to guess from my other blog posts, I have a lot of frustrations with religion. I think religion is an attempt to understand and connect with something bigger than yourself and answer the questions you have about life and the universe, and I think that's great for some people. I do want to make it clear that I have nothing against people who are religious and I think everyone should believe what they want to believe. However, in my experience, it leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

I grew up with a Catholic mother and a non-practicing Methodist father. Of course, because my mom was the only parent that was practicing a religion, we had to go to Catholic church almost every Sunday, and my sister and I were not given a choice of whether or not to do all the sacraments, we had to. One of the main reasons I don’t consider myself a Catholic anymore is the countless instances of sexual abuse, specifically child abuse, that were and are so prevalent in the church. Relating to my previous journal entry, I cannot stand when people do such deplorable actions and justify it with their religion. 

Another thing that comes to mind is the mass amount of cults and religious organizations that justify rape, abuse, sexism, racism, etc. with Bible verses that have been taken out of context or misinterpreted, or even sometimes they're taken way too literally. I feel like most, if not all, of the prejudice in the world, can be solved by “love thy neighbor” because it’s probably one of the only things in the bible that should be taken literally and is not. Don’t even get me started on those people that think religion should be a part of politics or that Jesus is white with blue eyes or that he would have been a conservative.

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