One Man's Theology

One man's theology is another man's belly laugh." (Heinlein)

I apologise because this post may be a bit of a controversial point but I was thinking today and wanted to state that I am a Christian. I am a Methodist but that is more an accident of birth than a firm belief. I have a deep fondness for the Methodist Church though, as they are not judgmental like the Catholics or scary like happy-clappy sects can be. They just sort of get on with it.

I am not a particularly good Christian. I tend to swear, drink, fornicate and generally not do what you would consider to be that Christian. I don't really think that's the point of Christianity though. Someone told me I can't be a Christian if I pick and choose what I believe but I don't agree. The whole point of belief is that you believe what you believe. Despite what some people say there is no firm rules you have to follow to be Christian. It's more about the belief in trying to do the right thing. That doesn't mean you can do that stupid steal a bike and pray for forgiveness thing though. That wouldn't fool anyone.

I dislike established religion quite a lot. Historically the whole thing became freakishly corrupt and by now the point of religion has been twisted from its original form into all sorts of weird shapes. Gandhi said "I like your Christ, I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ." That man knows what he's talking about. The patriarchal slant on religion really gets up my nose too. Why does God have to be a He? And I am pretty sure the Earth would not drop out of orbit if there was to be a female Pope.   

Sometimes I do not know if I believe in God any more. A fundamentally good person that I knew died last year before she had even left college and it made me think that if there is a God he's not really that great. But then again, when I was in High School, my mum had Stage 3 Breast Cancer, was given a 50% chance of survival, and is still very much alive all these years later. When she was ill and had to go to the hospital for regular treatments, my church made a rota of people to drive her (as she was in no condition to drive herself) and I really don't think my family could have coped without that kind of support.

I do think Christian values are a good way to live your life. I don't believe in Creationism, or the Mysteries, or that you need some sort of priest fellow to act as an intermediary with a deity. It really annoys me when people tell me what I believe. It's meant to be so much more personal than that. Obviously, as you can see, I do not quite know what to think. I am only 18 years old though - you can't expect me to have it all figured out. I'm working on it.

And although I have a lot of problems with the Bible, I think people need to read some more of it before they knock it too much.. 

That's from Corinthians. I kind of like it. I have it on a bookmark now.