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Monday, October 26, 2009

Believing or not*

*don't read this if you feel like taking offense today:



I think that oneof the things that bugged me about 'that woman' is that I was caught off guard. I had thought she was a whole lot of things and now I think she may be one of those people who believes in nothing but wears the trappings of many things.


and I think that somehow equates living a passionless life.


and it wigs me out.
(i'm still thinking about this woman too much and that wigs me out too)


Mama Mama Quite Contrary commented to me: Your post has me thinking about religion as a cultural identity. Do you think for a person to identify themselves as a certain religion they must believe in god? I'd love to hear more of your take on this. .



yes, there is 'cultural identity' ...


there is tradition, history, ritual. if you don't Believe in what backs it up, the faith that caused all the beliefs/miracles/struggles, then are you in fact, of that religious faith? how could you be? right?
but history/tradition/ritual, are real, strong, beautiful things. . . and identifying yourself with those things of beauty is fine by me. but that is different from a belief system. i guess its probably academic semantic blablah.
I'm leaving out all capitals for the proper nouns as it evens things out for me . for me.



there is semite, one whose lineage traces back to a specific region of the world. and then there is jew. the chosen people are the chosen people because they believe in the ONE. the original christians are jews. since then, the christians are christians because they believe in a radical god-born jew. so. -no belief? culturally attached but not religiously. i'm a stickler. I hesitate to call myself a christian because i like the whole jesus thing but its not a very DEEP part of my faith, just a familiarity... like i'm part of the 'tradition' but I'm so old testament. SO old testament. in talking with my husband about it, I realized how real it is for me, the escape through the red sea with Moses. I don't know if there is a huge community of people anywhere who identify strongly with that. Maybe its the Jews. . . (I should check with Chakra Carol... find out if she thinks I was ACTUALLY there..) :)
Its not the 'chosen' aspect of it, but its the fleeing, the miraculous escape part that I call my own. . . the flight into a rough but passionfilled and dangerous existence. out of childhood into adulthood.. the risk of a nonsensical faith that somehow fills one up and provides bread to the soul.



*I'm definitely of the old school, have no need to mess around with the pronouns of God... in my head I turn all stories of gods, goddesses, spirits, flows, into one lump sum of God and I use a masculine in my language. thats all. . . I find it all fits just fine.

also, correct me if need be.

my god, this may be my most rambling and incoherent writing yet. rockit.

1 comments:

Mama Mama Quite Contrary said...

Your post makes a lot of sense to me. I struggle with the whole thing myself. I like the ritual of holidays like Passover and Christmas but I would never once say that I believe in God as is formally defined. I don't think it is correct to say that we are raising our girls in both the Jewish and Christian faith either since neither M nor I indentify ourselves that way.

Yet, there is a part of me that would like join the UU church for the community and the social justice work and because I think a religious education is important. (As purely an academic pursuit and not necessarily to foster a defined belief system.) I'm trying to figure out how to reconcile all these different things because I'm not searching for any religious guidance which is generally what churches have to offer.

You are welcome over here anytime and I promise not to criticize your "social elitism." LOL!!! :-)