Easter Thoughts

I went to mass with my Catholic roommate today. I figured he never goes, and I've never been to mass, so I might as well see what its like. And I realized, Catholic mass is 99.999 percent the same as Lutheran church. The words are exactly the same. We sing them a little differently, but the words are exactly the same.

Here are the differences:

1. Catholics do the sign of the cross a lot.
2. Um, that's pretty much it.

I'm really glad that we fought multiple wars with each other and killed each other in the name of religious differences. I also like how Republicans complain about the Sunni and Shia in Iraq killing each other for small reasons. Um, we killed each other because they have a Pope and they make the sign of the cross a lot. That is really the most retarded thing I've ever heard of.

Now I know the religious wars were really about money and political influence, but they were still justified by crushing the non-believers. And hundreds of years later, we fight wars based on even more abstract reasons. We used to fight over religion, now we're fighting for Freedom and Democracy. We've down graded from a belief system to an idea. In a hundred years there going to be fighting for Goodness and Niceness. God help us all.

Here's my other thought.........

Why am I not considered religious?

I go to church. I read the Bible. I pray. I use religion as the basis for my moral code and belief system. My political beliefs are based on tolerance, sympathy and love for my neighbor. I even care about the poor. This is all from the Gospel. But for some reason, I'm not considered a religious person. I don't even consider myself religious. This is ridiculous.

The simple reason why I'm not considered religious is because I'm a liberal. I have a conservative friend who never goes to church, who never really does anything, and he's considered religious. Why? Because he's from a hick town where everyone calls themselves religious and Christian. Shouldn't you have to do something for your religion? Can you really just claim it? How can you be religious when you don't actively participate in your religion?

Clearly, I'm missing something. I just wish that religion became about, um, the religion, and not all these coded political messages. Fantastic, you don't want gay people to get married. But being a bigot doesn't make you religious. You have to actually participate. You have to actually try to expand your mind.

So this is Easter. Our God literally raised himself from the dead, and you slackers can't raise yourself out of bed. If you don't watch football games, you aren't a fan. If you don't do your work, you're not a good employee. If you don't go to church, you're not religious. This shouldn't be hard to understand.

But then what do I know? I'm a pagan liberal. Nature and Mother Earth help my future offspring!