Ramblings on my relations with religion

So two Sundays ago, my wife got me to go to Willowbrook Baptist church with her, since a co-worker of hers went there and their commercials are decent. I was kind of irritated that the police were directing traffic to the megachurches on Bailey Cove, but I got over it.

I hate dressing up in suits and ties and nice shirts and slacks. I like to be comfortable. Yet I love costumes. Go figure. So I went with a nice shirt and slacks to appease the loved one.

Anyone who knows me, knows I prefer disorganized religion over organized religion. Organized religion seems too much like indoctrination and brainwashing to me. Like everyone's there to have the answer given to them instead of questioning and challenging themselves to get to their deeper faith. That always irritated me. More spiritual than religious, I guess.

I never feel farther away from the God I believe in than when I am in a church, Protestant or Catholic. I feel closest to the God I believe in when I'm in the middle of nature, hardly anyone around.

So for a Baptist church and Sunday school, it was better than most. I still hate church, though. Sunday school was okay, nice people, but not really my bag, you dig?

The sermon was one I'd already heard. He had actual pictures from the Holy Land, but I had heard the exact sermon from about 1980 when I lived in Monterey, Mexico from the Pastor (from Mentone, AL originally) at the non-denominational English speaking church. I always knew he was good, and now I realize that his performances and sermons pretty much said it all for me, and anything after that has been pale repetitions that have little to no effect on me, other than irritation that this isn't anything new to me. My readings of religiuous texts, and yes, the rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar did more for me in understanding my own faith and what I believed.

My wife liked it okay, and I felt she really was missing that sense of community one gets from a church.

Then they started calling. 4 times since Monday. That was a real turn off for her.

She asked me if we found another church if I would go with her. I had to honestly reply, "Probably not. But that shouldn't keep you from going wherever you want to. You can keep asking, but the answer is probably always going to be no. Sorry. This is just one of the things we're going to have to disagree on."

So, there ya go. My ramblings on my relations (no, not that kind!) with religion.