Are you religious?

[KLN]

Not religious at all. Too much hokey-pokey out there.

[Shawn]

I come from a family of Irish Catholics, and though I do believe in God and his teachings, I do not believe in the church itself. Its monetary minded and not spiritually minded, in my opinion.

Plus, being told I'm burning in hell for being gay doesn't help with my views, either.

[AbFabGL4ever7]

I'm not religous, but I was raised as a Jehovahs Witness. Some of their views I still apply to my everyday life, but the rest is all garbage. I stopped attending services at 13 or 14 because of the conflicts of who I was and their views didn't make a perfect match. Plus going to services 3 times a week, plus going door to door at 7 am on a saturday would make any kid run for the hills.

Although most of my family are still faithful servants to Jehovah, I do make time to help my mom with certain things like preparing food for the brothers and sisters who worked so hard in renovating their place of worship which is called a Kingdom Hall.

My mother was always complaining how me and my siblings should come back. We felt bad because besides her brother and his wife being there she felt like she lost a huge battle.

So my sister got her kids together, my brother donned a suit for the first time in ages, and me and my boyfriend dressed to impress. We were 15 minutes late, but the look on my mom's face put tears in our eyes cause I hadn't seen her smile and glow like that since I graduated high school.

Although I knew I was in trouble because I brought Will with me, but I didn't care what they thought. After it was over all of the people who had known me from infancy wanted to know what I was up to and who the beautiful guy I had brought. I knew I didn't want to humiliate my mother in front of her friends, but once again she surprised me and told them Will was my boyfriend and she couldn't be more proud of us. Even though it raised a few eyebrows it didn't faze them. My man had each women eating out of the palm of his hand. Charming them with his british accent and baby blues. That really put me at ease. They still don't approve of the gay "lifestyle", but they don't hate on us and U won't see them picketing with signs at functions either.

That experience made me very aware of the different religions and their tolerance or intolerance for the abnormal and unknown.

With that being said I see religion as a foundation for one's identity and where their views and beliefs can be accepted in place where people have the same views.

But if their is one thing that I can say about Jehovah's witness' is that they don't use their faith for politcal reasons at all. There is no shrines, statues, crosses, popes, priests, nuns, altar boys, choir boys, and confessionals or other pointless bullish. U hear about every other religion under the sun on the news and CNN which should make u wonder. I know it makes me wonder.

So now I just watch the history channel, read books, and let my mom read her lessons just for that spirital food that is oh so needed in this day in age. It keeps me grounded.

A lot of people think that a certain religion is going to save them, but I feel if u have faith and apply it to your everyday life u are at least acknowleding that u appreciate everything your creator has blessed u with.

[DevotedToAMC]

I was joking-see Bree's signature for my line on Tom Cruise and The Vatican

[WTGH]

Why the door-to-door visits?

I've always wondered about those...

[SoapDevotee88]

Two peers in my class are of the same religion and they said that they are not allowed to celebrate birthdays and that they cannot give gifts, be it for christmas or any other occasion. Why is that? Also, they are very anti-gay and I come from central NJ a good 10 minutes from NYC...so it doesn't get much more liberal than here. it shocked me that you said that your church was so approving, because they have also told stories about were people were BANNED from the church for not conforming to the "system." I also knew a girl in middle school whose grandparents were Jehovahs and they gave her an angel doll but with the wings and halo cut off. She said it was because they don't believe in angels....i thought how about buying a doll that isnt an agnel and leave that one alone. How does that religion work and why are there so many rules? I just want to understand it better. If I offended anyone I apologize but I have had some uneasy encounters.

Personally, I am not what you can call religous. I go to church every once in a while...usually on major days like Palm Sunday, Easter, and Christmas and perhaps a few Sundays during the year. But I haven't gone on a regular Sunday in about a year. O and I am Roman Catholic.

[Hartless]

I'm Catholic, I'm not devout and I'm very liberal (for example, I'm not going to say abortion is murder, I would just never do it myself). I definately believe in God and most of the teachings, but I do recognize the faults of Catholism, I'm not blind to them. I know it ain't perfect but I still believe.

I also keep remembering, you can't be mad at God and not believe in him, so...

[Jinxed Soul]

Not religious. While I was young, my parents began to go against very many of the practices and beliefs that people of my religion hold. As a result, that lack of religious belief rubbed off on me. I know very little about my religion, can hardly speak the language, and cannot read and write the language at all.

[AbFabGL4ever7]

Jehovah Witness' don't celebrate any holidays at all because they are all pagan. John the Baptist was beheaded and his head was given as a birthday present to the king's wife. There are only two birthdays mentioned in the bible and in both accounts something horrific happened. They do celebrate Jesus' death because he died as a ransom sacrafice so all peoples can gain everlasting life. Christmas is a bogus holiday because Jesus wasn't born in december. He was born around april. I mean u don't tend to sheep in the dead of winter do you?

They don't need a special holiday to give gifts, they do it regardless. And Yes they do believe in Angels.

As far as Anti-Gay, no they arn't. U just can't practice it because it is an abomination. There are plenty of gays within the religion they just don't practice it, So they become celibete.

As far as being banned from the church that isn't true. If u do something wrong within the church and the elders find out that is grounds for disfellowship. Which means no one in the congregation can associate with you, but u can still attend services. Once u have proven that u are back on the right track u will be reinstated and everything will go back to normal.

Now as far as my situation of being gay they didn't approve, but they accepted it. I don't attend, so it doesn't affect me. And even if I did and I was disfellowship because of it that isn't gonna stop me from getting the spirital food.

Jehovah witness' are the most organized religion out there. Not only is the bible read front to back, but there are also books that help u understand the bible in more depth. They are the closest I can think of to the actual preaching stratagies of Jesus. The whole congregation goes door to door unlike Mormans (no offense) who send two clean cut boys on bikes to preach the book of morman which is supposed to be a companion to the bible, but I have never seen them whip out the bible to get their point across. Plus I heard that if u become a morman u have to give 10% of your earnings to the church which is just bullish if true.

But to me faith is faith no matter what religion u belong to as long as it isn't satanic.

[Toadstool]

"As far as Anti-Gay, no they arn't. U just can't practice it because it is an abomination. There are plenty of gays within the religion they just don't practice it, So they become celibete."

To me that's anti-gay.

[Jinxed Soul]

I had this one friend in highschool and she was a Jehovah's witness. I didn't know her all that well. Not knowing how religious she was, I gave her a Christmas card one year like I did with all my other friends. Well, she ripped it up and threw it in the garbage right in front of me. I wasn't offended or anything, but it was at that time that I learned a little bit about her religion. She told me that being a Jehovah's witness, they cannot celebrate any holidays whatsoever, other than specific ones that tie into their religion. If they are caught taking part in any other holidays, they can be banned from the church for a short period of time. With the whole gay matter, I heard it's frowned upon.

[Toadstool]

As it is with most religions. I didn't mean to single out the JW's with my previous comment.

[WTGH]

Not only mormons.

My aunt recently became a Christian/Evangelic ( ) and has to give 10% of her salary to the church

[Jinxed Soul]

Seriously? WOW

[rxcats]

I was raised Reform Jewish. My father's side is Jewish from back as far as we know. My mom converted to Judiasm before marrying my father; she was raised Baptist, so I had two Baptist grandparents. I strongly identify ethnically/culturally with being a Jew, but am an atheist. I don't think I ever really believed in God. I did not admit it until I was a teenager because I did think it was acceptible. I have a nephew who is just like me. He is only 11 years old now and still "goes through the motions" with religious stuff. I see him rolling his eyes though...just like he did with the "tooth fairy" story. I think some people just have less of an ability to believe in things like that.