How True Was My Freedom To Choose?

Of course one of the first things I chose to question was my freedom of religion. I was taught that the reason the first people came over from england was for freedom of religion. Now when I think of freedom of religion, true freedom of religion, I imagine someone actually educating me on religion first. Someone teaches me about all the different forms of Christianity, someone teaching me about Judaism, someone educating me about the Muslim faith, teaching me Buddhism, and Hinduism, and atheism and every other religion. Then letting me go about to choose the religion that I felt was right for me. That is True Freedom of Religion. But that is not what really goes on in this country! It seems that some form of Christianity is pushed on us from the beginning. For me it started with Christmas!
As a child first becoming aware of the world, of course I wanted to know everything about the magical day when I was given gift after gift from Santa Claus for being on the nice list. As I inquired more and more about Christmas, it eventually led to the stories of Jesus, yet it seemed that his true words were downplayed, and his “miracles” were gloriously overstated. The next thing you know, I’m sitting in church and it’s being drilled into my head that it’s a mortal sin, a breaking of one of the holy commandments, to believe in another god or religion, for god is a jealous god. By the time I went out and learned that there are other religions, they didn’t stand a chance, because to show interest in one or all of them is a sin! My choice was chosen for me before I had a chance to view my options. If a child growing up in the hills of China is raised as a Buddhist all his life and never hears of Christianity (Yes It’s Possible, the world does not revolve around Christianity), is this child condemned to hell through no fault of his own? What kind of religion would consider this child a sinner? I thought the basis for all religion was Love!
Now ask yourself, did you really have True Freedom of Religion, or did you just follow along with what your parents taught you? If you have children, are you offering them True Freedom of Religion, or are you making the same mistakes passed down from generation to generation? If you think I’m attacking your religion, I’m not, I’m attacking mine! If you have strong confidence in your faith, no attack will ever make you waver from it, and no education or enlightenment can make you falter. Only those who feel insecure with religion, those who have reasonable doubts with what they have been taught, who have had faith pushed on them instead of finding it naturally; these people are easily offended because there is no backbone to their belief, so differing beliefs and opinions seem to challenge them.
I feel that the religion I was taught did me more harm than good, so I let it go! I let go of organized religion completely, and it wasn’t until I did that I felt completely free! I’m able to educate myself about religion and see where they are alike and where they are different. I’m able to take enlightenment and not feel threatened by a different way. I can choose to leave the bad and take only what applies to me, in my life. I’m a little bit Christian, a little bit Buddhist, a little bit Muslim, a little bit of a heathen, and a whole lot human! Regardless of what religion you practice, it’s that last thing, being human, which connects us all. Before we’re Christian, before we’re Buddhist, before we’re Muslim, before we’re Hindu, before we learn anything, We Are Human Beings First, and we are all as one!

It's All About Choice!

I first started thinking that a lot of the things I had learned in my life could be wrong the day my sister brought home a black boyfriend. Until that day, I had No Idea that my Mom was a racist. I remember in kindergarten, the librarian at my school was a black lady named Mrs. Williams, and she was a friend of my Moms. I remember going shopping and having lunch with this lady and my Mom on many occasions. I remember loving every book Mrs. Williams ever gave me to read. So the day my sister brought home a black boyfriend, the words that came out of my Moms mouth was a complete and utter shock to me. One thing that I cannot stand is racism, to me it is nothing but pure ignorance, and here I am finding out that my own Mom is one of the “ignorant”. It almost changed the way I thought about my Mom, not the way I felt, nothing I learned could make me love my Mom less, but it definitely almost changed the way I thought about her…until she explained. She told us that she would never apologize for being a racist, that she had learned it from her mother. There was nobody in this world that my Mom respected more than her Mother, my Grandmother, who died when I was five. My Mom held on to every memory and lesson that she learned from her Mom tightly, like holding on to roller coaster handle-bars. Some of these lessons happened to be racist. What my Mom told me next has stuck in my head, and I would never pry it out. She went on to explain that although she would never be remorseful for her racist feelings, something inside her told her it would be wrong if she passed these thoughts on to her children, so she made a conscious decision Not To! This is one of the biggest decisions ever made for me in my life, for I am so far from being a racist that I no longer believe in race, but that’s another discussion. My Mom realized that something that had been taught to her as a child, by the person she most respected, was wrong, and although she chooses not to change her feelings, she chose to end it by not passing it on to her children! My Mom explains to me that she is the way she is because she learned it from her Mom, and I always got the feeling that it was a way in which she could still connect with her. One day I pressed my Mom by telling her that her Mom had passed away some time ago, and that if she was racist, it was now her choice to be so. She one day made a choice not to pass racism on to her children, and she also chooses to keep those thoughts in her head. It’s all a choice. She chose to follow her Moms ways, she chose to accept the realization that it was wrong, and she then chose not to pass it on. What could I have learned that may be wrong and what are the other possibilities? The possibilities open up as soon as we choose to see them. That’s why it is imperative for us to Question All That Is Questionable! It’s All About Choice!

aSsOUL Is Here!

Before reading this, one must first be able to admit to themselves the possibility that everything that they have learned could possibly be wrong! I’m not asking you to admit that what you have learned is wrong, only admit in the possibility. The only thing we should be committed to is possibilities. Often times the things we learn early on become locked into our beliefs. Once you believe, truly believe, you give that belief power over you. You lock yourself in a cell and you give the belief the key. Once you are willing to admit that everything that you believe in may be wrong, then, and only then will infinite possibilities open up to you. One thing I know for sure, and it frustrates the hell out of me, is that I could never know everything. No one can ever truly know everything. Realizing that every man is limited to finite amounts of knowledge, one also realizes that no man is ever truly smarter than another. So even the most respected teachers should always be kept at eye level, there is no need for pedestals. Everybody hungers for knowledge. I realize that I am not smarter than anyone, and I am not trying to be better than any man, except for the man that I was yesterday.