What the World Needs

What the world needs now (besides love) is a bit more tolerance, specifically religious tolerance. I do not like to wear my religion on my sleeve, but I feel the need to get this out before I criticize. I was born and raised Catholic and I now attend church weekly. Not that this is what qualifies me to have an opinion, but I am a proud and happy Catholic.

I am very tolerant about other religions, in fact, I love that the world is rich with so many varieties of religion. Not one religion works for everyone and if someone finds a religion or spirituality that makes them a happy and good person, I think that is fantastic. I am happy I found that in Catholicism and I hope everyone finds something that works for them.

What brought this blog on: I do not like it when I am told in my Catholic Church to “evangelize.” Catholics are Christians (anyone who believes in Christ is a Christian) and have been doing this since the time of Jesus. I think we know how to worship. I am willing to talk about my religion to others who ask and I will show it through my every day actions, but I am not going to say grace before dinner in a restaurant to show people that I am Catholic. That is superficial. I know what is in the Bible. I know in Matthew it is stated to go and make disciples of all nations. It comes down to interpretation. The Catholic Church for years has used actions and love to spread the Word, not “evangelizing.” This is the state of religion in the United States, whoever can shout and yell the loudest about their religion wins. I do not think so.

And I also resent the fact that religion is used in politics. How dare politicians use a person's religious fervor to advance their own political cause. I agree that religions and political beliefs can overlap at times, but how dare they use religion to get a vote. That is cheap. There are religious, spiritual people of all brands of political parties.

Religion is not something to brag about or to shove in other people’s faces. It is easy to speak about religion, but harder to show it in actions. This is why some nuns no longer wear their habits, because they choose to show love through actions and some do still wear it because they are comfortable in it and that is great too. One person’s religion is not better than another’s choice. No individual is going to “hell” because their choice of religion – and I have heard individuals state this and I wish those individual realize this is what the Islamic fundamentalists believe. I went to a private Catholic school and loved it. One of the required classes I had to take was World Religions and it was a great class. I grew to appreciate Judaism, Islam, Buddhism, and so forth. Each religion has great things about it and we could learn from each. If we could all appreciate one another’s choice of religion, things would run much smoother. Religion is about love, not judging others. I think that is God’s job.

P.S. – Great homily today at Mass about King Solomon and it is pertinent to taking the bar on Tuesday and Wednesday. King Solomon asked God for wisdom, that he may be able to rule wisely. The Priest noted that many people ask him to pray for football games, safe vacations, all sorts of things, but rarely does one ask for wisdom. Wisdom is not only about intelligence, but showing humility and making good choices as well as decisions. With that, I hope God graces all of us taking the Bar with wisdom this upcoming week.

-Jen