Religion and Hypocrasy (a personal rant)

[Ms_Lilith]

So a friend of mine has begun going to a youth group, which makes her feel wonderful. I am honestly happy for her... she recently told me that she's invited God into her life, and I really couldn't be happier... she's been searching for this for her entire life... for this feeling of peace that she's finding right now. But there's something holding her back. She's got a fuck buddy or two on the go. She does drugs sometimes, and drinks way too often.

She refuses to admit that those things might be what's keeping her back, even though the religion that she's chosen is quite against all three of those things. She says she embraces all of the guidelines of the religion, but when I ask her about those three, she just gets mad and storms away. She KNOWS she's being a hypocrite, especially when she begins to rag on me for sleeping with my bf, even though I'm not part of any religion, and have no reason not to make love with him.

What is it with people who refuse to see their own hypocritical nature? Why not just accept some parts, some of the teachings of that religion, and then work out those aspects of your life which are contrary to teaching, either by living with what you're doing, and finding peace in it, or by obeying the 'rules' of the religion, and avoiding the guilt, etc?

I don't get it.

 

[marksgirl]

Do as I say, not as I do...??? That kind of thing?

 

[honeylick]

backslider extraordinare.

 

[sexy-girl]

personally i dont think religion and sexual choice have or should have anything to do with each other

im not religious yet i probably wouldn't take the sexual choices she has

 

[Ms_Lilith]

Do as I say, not as I do...??? That kind of thing?

something like that.

Have I mentioned that hypocrites are my pet peeve?

 

[RosevilleCAguy]

It's always easier to fix others than it is to stare into the mirror.

 

[SilvaTungDevil]

You should join my religion. We get to do all kinds of fun stuff. The problem is.....well......you might not like the way I baptize people(unless youre into that kind of thing).

 

[Ms_Lilith]

personally i dont think religion and sexual choice have or should have anything to do with each other

im not religious yet i probably wouldn't take the sexual choices she has

Maybe they SHOULDN'T have, but the religion she's begun practicing is highly against premarital sex. And she's having it, and she admits that she doesn't love the guys, and she admits that she's got this 'guilt, or pressure' over something to do with her religion, and refuses to talk rationally about her religious choice and her sexual choices with me. We've been best friends for 17 years.

 

[Phoenyx]

If she has lived that kind of lifestyle for a long time its not gonna be easy for her to just drop everything at once. Its like a life time smoker going cold turkey.

Its gonna take time for her to change her habits.

 

[Ms_Lilith]

Re: Re: Religion and Hypocrasy (a personal rant)

It's always easier to fix others than it is to stare into the mirror.

'do not try to take the speck from your brother's eye, unless you first remove the beam from your own'.

'those who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones'.

I have a few of those ones stored away.

 

[Ms_Lilith]

If she has lived that kind of lifestyle for a long time its not gonna be easy for her to just drop everything at once. Its like a life time smoker going cold turkey.

Its gonna take time for her to change her habits.

She started having sex 4 months ago. She's been drinking for 2 years (and I worry about alcoholism, cus she drinks a LOT), and she's been doing drugs (mostly just pot, but she's had her moments with other kinds) for about 2 years as well.

 

[sexy-girl]

i do understand what you're saying

but i guess i can understand if people want to seek out religion without wanting to give up their sexual freedom


however even if she wasn't into seeking out this religion ... if shes feeling guilty about what shes doing then ii think she does need to rethink it

 

[Starfish]

Actually, if a person has personal 'demons', sin, and vices, as I do, and they are seeking God, those vices, sins will make it hard for them to get out the guilt for their sin.

If you get the desire in you to seek God, it isn't going to just happen. Chances are in this life, you'll not make it to pure righteousness, because of the hardships in fending off vices, doubts, sin, hate, and such. BUT! You can feel good in religion, cause it gives you hope, where nothing else does. If you have faith and hope, and hold on to it, your life will be peaceful someday. But it is when we ask too many questions, doubt, fear, hate ourselves that we weaken to vice.

If we all loved ourselves as much as God does, this world would be Eden again.


God wants to you repent sins, but holding on to feelings of guilt, bad thoughts, and all that, WILL make you fall pray to hypocrisy. That is what destroys you, as it has been working against me and my devotion to God.


This has clearly, physcological or not, been what is going on inside of me, and outside of me for a long time. It is a sort of hell in itself.

 

[Starfish]

Did I mention I need to go smoke a bowl and chill the fuck out?

 

[sexy-girl]

i think religion and faith are two different things

the bible was written a long time ago and not by jesus infact the bible we read nowadays wasn't even written by anyone that met jesus


the bible would say my love for my girlfriend is a sin but i don't know anything as pure and as good as the love i feel for her ... and i think my relationship with my girlfriend makes the world just that little bit more good and beautiful

my point is the bible says a lot of things are a sin because the teachers of that day thought a lot of things were sins

 

[Ms_Lilith]

BUT! You can feel good in religion, cause it gives you hope, where nothing else does.

But it is when we ask too many questions, doubt, fear, hate ourselves that we weaken to vice.

1) But if you choose a religion, and you aren't devoted to that religion (I'm not talking God, I can understand a devotion to God and being able to live a life of freedoms), and you only choose the good parts of the religion, doesn't it seem like you're 'cheating the system'? I mean... faith, I understand.. I understand attending youth group and gleaning the good from a religion, and then putting that good to work in your life, while living peacefully with your other life choices (including sexual ones), but if you say that you will devote yourself to X religion, and ALL of its rules (like she has said), and you refuse to agree with someone who knows you inside out that your sexual, etc, choices are against the 'rules' of that religion, I feel like it's lying both to yourself, and to god, and to the religion. You aren't being faithful to the religion, because if nothing else, you're lying to yourself.

2) Asking questions I think is a GOOD thing. I wouldn't go and become Buddhist without asking a bazillion questions about the religion, it's practices, it's 'rules', and everything I could think of. I would ask about why some rules are the way they are, and I would seek full understanding through questioning.

You say questioning makes you weak... I'm sorry, fishie, I honestly don't understand that...

 

[Ms_Lilith]

i think religion and faith are two different things

I agree 100%. I am faithful. I believe in God, and I have a system of other beliefs. As I grow, my beliefs grow and change, and I learn to accept some more than others, and I sometimes incorporate other beliefs that I have mulled over, and believe are true and good.

Religion is man made. Faith isn't. Faith is between you and your deity, between you and yourself, if you don't believe in deities. It is personal, it is tailor-made to you.

Religion is a mold in which you are expected to fit, and if you don't, you are often shunned and condemned. That my friend is trying to fit the mould, unwilling to let go of those things don't that fit, and that she's come up against her OWN guilt, not put on her by those around her, says to me that she's not ready for this journey. She's got to accept who she is, and what she's doing before she can ever expect to love herself, and accept herself, or before she can ever expect to let go of those things that are making her feel bad, and fit that mould.

I hope for her that she can figure out a way to find peace.. I want nothing but happiness for her, but it just kills me to see her embarking on her road to religion with self-imposed road blocks already there.

 

[sufisaint]

Religion and spirituality( a pathway to the divine) have nothing to do with each other. Religion is a social phenomenon that is designed to socialize a person by teaching morality..this is good, this is bad, this is sin ect... Spirituality is a completely individual search within yourself to find the divine within your own self. I suggest you tell your friend to look into Sufism...where the only sins are those ridiculous thoughts your ego has that you are some how seperate from the world, and the world is some how seperate from God..this is sin...but once you overcome these thoughts you fill yourself with divine love.. a complete acceptance of God's world and will...a deep love is what required to do this..love is divine essence and fear that is an invention of the mind...throw away the childish morality shit and become childlike..full of wonder, acceptance and love....thes are just my beliefs...

 

[Unclebill]

Originally posted by sexy-girl
personally i dont think religion and sexual choice have or should have anything to do with each other

im not religious yet i probably wouldn't take the sexual choices she has

Virtually every religion has some degree of control of some people by others as one of its tenets which includes but is certainly not limited to one's sexual behavior.

Originally posted by sexy-girl
i think religion and faith are two different things...

While you are correct in this assertion, it is also fact that virtually every religion relies on faith as a source of some sort of mystical knowledge, i. e., knowledge without any basis in reality.

 

[sexy-girl]

i wouldn't agree though that religion is bad for everybody or it moulds everyone ... some people need the religion to have the faith ... thats probably a bad choice of words actually ... i think some people get equal amount out of the faith and the religion


i don't have either faith or religion but my life has been influenced by people who were religious