Me 'n' Jesus

I like to read Service Industry blogs- it makes me feel better knowing that other perfectly reasonable people face the same types of crap that I do. One of my absolute favorites is Ryan over at IServeIdiots.com. He gets to say all of the things I only wish I could say to my *ahem* guests.

Recently he posted about homelessness/an experiment in being homeless, and then a follow-up post outlining why he went homeless for spring break and how this works into his believe system.

To be totally honest, I stopped being into Jesus in high school. I went to a non-denominational church that leaned toward baptist beliefs- and with that, baptist insanity. I was totally into Jesus until a girl got pregnant in our church- her boyfriend was completely absolved of any wrongdoing, and she was actively called a whore and treated like a lesion. I'm pretty sure that if Jesus was God, and if Jesus cared enough to pay attention to the happenings at our church, Jesus would damn sure have been ashamed of the retardation. Something about that whole parade really struck me, and that's when I stopped talking to Jesus. It just seemed that the people who didn't call themselves "Christian" were behaving in a much more Godly manner.

Now that I'm a little older (and partially at the urging of my mother), I decided to re-examine my feelings/belief in any religion.

To be sure, I really want to be religious. I want to be caught up in the whole "I love Jesus, and He loves me and we all are happy and la la la!" thing. I want to go to church and feel like I'm part of a community again. The problem is that I think it's a giant crock. That's right, Mom. I totally do. I just don't believe it. I want to, though.

And really, the only reason I'm really not that into Jesus is that I think that the foundations of what is "sin" and "wrong" and "immoral" are based on social norms of people who lived, literally, several millennia ago. Premarital sex is bad because there weren't effective forms of birth control or a social system to deal with bastard children. NOT because the act of inserting one set of genitalia into another is evil. Homosexuality is sinful because tribes needed to repopulate, and if no one was mixing the right gametes, it wasn't going to happen. NOT because it is unnatural for two people who are attracted to each other to act on their attraction.

So, my moral code is broken down into simple rules:
1. Don't idolize stupid things. Being materialistic leads to selfishness and wastefulness.
2. Censor speech or other forms of communication so as to minimize hurt and offense while not compromising the sentiment.
3. Don't work too hard- remember to take a break and remember what is important.
4. Family and friends are "what is important."
5. Don't kill.
6. Don't cheat.
7. Don't steal.
8. Don't lie.
9. Avoid jealousy.

So, I am not always good at keeping to these rules, but darn! They do look pretty much like the 10 Commandments- and those don't seem to be too bad as far as rules go.

Maybe I'm not cut out for mass worship/religion. I was always bothered by the idea that my pastor would be my shepherd because he's obviously so much better, smarter and more spiritual, so my stupid illiterate soul better just do what he tells me to do.

Anyway, coming back around- after reading Ryan's post, I feel like I can approach religion again. It won't look much different from my daily life. Maybe someone will see me church-hopping around the city, trying to find a church that's not full of lies, blasphemy, and hypocrisy (HA!). But I feel very much like I don't have to join the establishment to have a spiritual life.

As a fan of reason, I'll follow the rules that make sense in a modern life and honor a moral code that fits for who I am and who I want to be.