What religion should you be?

[Oh really, now...]

I do not accept this because my experience is otherwise. I've seen my friends crying with hurt and frustration because their parents church won't accept them. They ARE trying to change the beliefs and practices of others. At least SOME gays are - certainly not all. Just as SOME christians are trying to eliminate or segregate homosexuals.

 

Being bisexual and currently in a happy relationship with another woman, I must dissent.

 

Let me illustrate this by changing "homosexual" to "black."

 

" I do not accept this because my experience is otherwise. I've seen my black friends crying with hurt and frustration because their parents church won't accept them. They ARE trying to change the beliefs and practices of others. At least SOME blacks are - certainly not all. Just as SOME christians are trying to eliminate or segregate blacks."

 

So yes, we are trying to CHANGE this society - into a place where we can walk around our towns without fearing we will be hurt, where we can know we won't be discriminated against, denied jobs, pushed out of our religions which we hold dear, and generally hated upon. I have heard plenty of arguments like yours - that we shouldn't be "pushing ourselves in people's faces." Are you pushing yourself in people's faces by walking around your town, openly straight, doing the things that straight people do? I'd say not. Being gay is no different - it's as if you were telling someone in a wheelchair "fine, but you can't go wheeling that damn thing around my church and shoving it in people's faces. When you're in my church, you have to walk."

 

I am proud to be bi, because it's who I am and it's just as beautiful and holy as being straight. However, for the sake of ease, it probably would have been better had I been born straight. I did not *make myself* bisexual, I was not *turned* bisexual by anyone, I was *born* bisexual, there's nothing I can do about it, and I deserve the right to hold my beloved's hand walking down the street in any town in these United States of America. Yes, She's female, and She's just as wonderful and as fulfilling as a Significant Other could ever be. There is nothing wrong with Her, no more than there is with you or the ones you love.

 

Yes, it IS the problem of the haters, not the hated. Yes, it IS the responsibility of Americans to reflect on their beliefs and realize what harm they do without even meaning any harm. YES. This change cannot be a local change within the gay community; it has to be a NATIONAL change, a widespread cultural paradigm shift, because the root of the problem is in our culture itself, and as long as the root is not removed, it will grow back time and time again.

[Tangerina]

This thing works pretty good, though I don't consider myself a religious person really

 

I match 100% with Unitarian... actually, that is the only real church that I have ever attended consistantly... the only other religions that I have been involved with are Unity (a liberal form of Protestant Christianity) but I just went to the sunday school and ate pizza bagels, we didn't even learn about god or Jesus.... and I have been pretty involved in Lakota spirituality and am kind of trying to decide if I should involve myself in that more again.....

 

 

here is what it said about me:

 

1. Unitarian Universalism (100%)

2. Liberal Quakers (96%)

3. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (89%)

4. Secular Humanism (85%)

5. Theravada Buddhism (77%)

6. Taoism (75%)

7. Neo-Pagan (75%)

8. Mahayana Buddhism (74%)

9. New Age (70%)

10. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (69%)

11. New Thought (63%)

12. Scientology (61%)

13. Orthodox Quaker (58%)

14. Bahá'í Faith (57%)

15. Nontheist (56%)

16. Reform Judaism (50%)

17. Jainism (50%)

18. Hinduism (47%)

19. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (39%)

20. Sikhism (38%)

21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (33%)

22. Jehovah's Witness (28%)

23. Seventh Day Adventist (26%)

24. Islam (20%)

25. Orthodox Judaism (20%)

26. Eastern Orthodox (13%)

27. Roman Catholic (13%)

 

 

 

 

Haha, it makes me happy that R. Catholic is last, I really don't have much in common with them at all, they are against many things that I think are important... I do have many Catholic friends though who are just great, I am not anti-catholic or anything, I would just be wierded out if the quiz said it fit my beliefs... I can see how the 1st 9 fit me at least a little, but after that they totally lose me... I love the Liberal Quakers for the anti-war stuff they do, though, and like I said, Unitarians are rad... secular humanism is very close to my philosophy and I have been very interested in Taoist teachings in the past... Neo-Pagan and New Age probably encompass a lot of what I have done with Native American religions... and yeah, a lot of Buddhism makes sense to me... # 10? well, I love the newspaper that the Christian Scientists put out, it is one of the best places to get good real reporting on world events, but I am not too interested in their religion....

[d'Arthez]

I am European, so half of the faiths and churches are practically non-existent over here. So that leaves, from the top 8: Theravada Buddhism(3), Social Humanism (4), Mahayana Buddhism (7) and Taoism (8).

 

I am not schooled in all ofthe differences between the various branches of Buddhism. Albeit that I would object to deitify Buddha. Something similar holds for Taoism.

 

I am probably more of a "fundamentalist" in religious matters. Not meaning "I am right, and you are wrong"- kind of fundamentalism" but I believe that humans overanalyze the words in sacred texts, thus losing sight of the meaning and (lack of) importance of the whole - and eventually come up with 72532 rules to live by. I'd rather stick to the fundamentals - which are but few - than letting people define what is in accordance with God / Tao / the Eightfold Path. That only leads to intolerance, and people who are afraid to "sin." And you can define sin as practically anything, if you have 72532 rules to live by.

 

The Tao te Ching warns against that, in a very simple but eloquent fashion.

 

And I do not believe there are on the fundamental level much differences between the various groups of religions. Mostly the differences are perceived as such, because different religions stress different points.