I was invited to go to church last Sunday. It was a denomination and service I had never attended before, so how could I refuse? I have in the past managed to scare away the missionaries that would arrive at my front door to recruit me some time ago. The last pair, were two young men from the closest Mormon Church group. After fifteen to twenty minutes of talking and discussing, they were getting concerned about there own belief system and left with a promise that they would have some of their Elders come and speak with me. I thanked them and said I welcomed the future conversation. That was about seven months ago and I am still waiting….
I am always surprised about the groups of people who all feel they have the real version of Christianity and everyone else is peddling something that looks real, but does not quite get you through the golden gates into the promised land - whatever that may turn out to be.
In the past when the world was much larger, it was not unusual for a Town, City, Province, or even Country to be one religion. That was the way it was. The rulers ruled and the rest followed, or were put to death, or if they were lucky banished, which was about the same fate.
As the world became a smaller place, religion lost its iron clad grip little by little on people over the world. People were starting to think and have opinions and for the first time in history were not killed for disagreeing or having an alternative view about some facet of their religion.
Of course the fundamentalists never went away, they were always there pointing out the wrongs in any new thinking that flowed into town on the lips of travelers. Because the pen is mightier than the sword, some of those ideas took root, and people changed their thinking just a little bit about how religion should be. So here we are now, with more versions of Christianity in the world than most towns have residents.
Who is to say who is right and who is wrong. If you pretend for a moment to be looking at the earth from space, it is as we see in pictures, just a little blue and white marble surrounded by a sea of emptiness. It should become obvious when immersed in the view that we are all one, and connected to each other and everything contained on this little blue and white marble floating in space. It is also a little hard to find any supreme being when looking at earth from space.
Unless that is you take time to consider how exact and perfect everything about our earth has to be in order for life to survive and thrive. Or while gazing you think that we are really only a few hundred years from the way people on earth lived for possible millions of years, and how ignorant we really are. For all our modern knowledge there is so little we really can do. Then a Godhead becomes apparent to us, but the whys and wherefores are still a little hazy at best, with humans not much more advanced than an ant hill or beehive.
Back to the Sunday service I attended. It was focused, and fun. There was singing, music, a short skit, prayer and celebration. I found that what I watched unfold in front of me sitting as a visitor fit well with my beliefs. Of course I noticed some differences from other services I have attended over the years, no surprise there. All in all it was fun and I enjoyed the experience more than I have some other services I have attended. Try it out some time, if for no other reason than to validate your own religious beliefs.
