Eye Opener

I was talking to CS about the same things I talked to Infinite about. But for some reason, Infinite and I couldn't understand each other's point of view while it was so easy with CS.

At any rate, I finally understood what Infinte was trying to say, thanks to CS, and it seemed so clear to me. I felt so enlightened.

I have been meeting more and more people who are against the church -- mostly the Catholic church, but I realize now that it may as well be any church. I mistook that to mean they were against God to which I revolted -- for lack of a better term at the moment.

Save for the aetheists (no offense!), I've realized that it's possible to believe in God without subscribing to everything that the church -- any church -- says. Churches are, after all, man-made and subject to imperfections just as the next human being is.

What's saddening -- and perhaps frustrating -- is that some people equate their belief in God to the credibility of their church. Just because church leaders fail in one way or another doesn't mean that there's no God or that God is not as good as these church leaders say He is.


I guess I was being too idealistic to think that church leaders are infallible because they're not. A week ago I was attending mass with a friend, and the priest had some "commercials" before the mass ended. He was selling some religious materials where orders could be placed through his email addrss, customized cellphone number (a number that spells out his name), and even a Facebook account! Ugh...I was trying hard not to roll my eyes. My friend said that the priest was even texting while the choir was singing (Couldn't wait to follow up on those orders?). OMG!!!

Even the Bible is flawed, they say. But then again, the Bible has also been written by men who were just as imperfect as you and I. Besides, the Bible has been translated in so many ways, so many times that the author's intended meaning could have been lost in translation.

To make things more complicated, Bible text isn't as straightforward as a user's guide where there is no ambiguity and one procedure step can only mean one thing. It seems that the Bible's meaning can be interpreted in many ways -- literally or not-so-literally, and this again can be manipulated by churches and church leaders to serve their purpose. They can be twisted to mean anything, and people would believe them without question.

In addition, I've heard a lot of stories about how the Vatican is bathed in gold and how Vatican priests live like princes. I personally know nothing of this. I think this side of the Catholic church is kept hidden from most people, except for the few who had the privilege of seeing it for themselves. Although I'm not inclined to believe this -- or maybe I don't want to -- the many stories I hear prompt me to keep an open mind.

All these realizations do not dissolve my faith in any means. It just makes it clear to me that I should direct my faith in God and not in any church and to start trusting in my own values more than in the dogmas that churches teach. Religions evolve to cope with the times, but faith in God should always hold steadfast.