What Religion Means to Me
People all over the world identify themselves according to their religion and not one in particular over powers the other. The faith that was practiced in my family as a child was the Catholic faith. I attended a private school that was run by the Archdiocese Catholic Church of New York City.
The doctrine was based on all the saints with weekly ceremonies, rituals, and church services. We had to pray and make the sign of the cross when ever we saw a statue or the Holy Cross. Every month we would have a celebration of a specific saint and had to participate in all the rituals, stories of miracles, and divine healing done by these saints. In my earliest memories of my child hood I remember asking the nuns and the priest why we did these things because the ten commandments states that we are not to worship other Gods. I was put on detention for a month in the convent to clean and dust off the statues of saints. They also wanted for me to pray for my sins committed against these saints and to then go to confession to tell the priest. I now know that these actions were wrong because this is what religion is all about. Religion is a practice that is done by a member of that church and is repetitious with no meaning. This particular faith does this continuous prayers, rituals, and devotions in order to fulfill their place in Heaven. I was taught to do these things from a school curriculum setting and had to be learned because it was part of the academic structure.
At the age of seventeen I was asked to attended a church and was so surprised that they had no pictures, statues, candles, or pews. The speaker was not dressed in a long robe and on the far back he had a band that sang modern type music that exclaimed the name of Jesus Christ. This was the first time I felt a wonderful peace and did not have to worry about repeating the same constant prayer chants, hand rituals, or singing when the organ played. Most of all I...