I don't know when I made the choice to be agnostic. I've struggled for years, 38 at least, with my faith and the trickle down to my religion. I've written about the struggle before. I've written about the comfort and the grief I have found in believing in a god and following a religion. And now, I write about being comfortable in my agnosticism and knowing that not following or believing has not lessened me as a human.
I was baptized into Catholicism within two weeks of my birth. My parents raised me solidly in the church. I attended mass when I was big enough to sort of behave and I attended catholic school first through twelfth grade. I have very positive memories of my time at Immaculate Conception school. The school closed at the end of my third year there. That was a blow. The school was later sold and torn down. It was not only a grand school building but also where the Parish bazaars were held and losing that tradition was very difficult. I associated being catholic with the group of people my parents associated with. Theirs was a group of families with a lot of kids that all played sports together, were in the same classes, lived on the same streets. When IC school closed, that changed. I was angry that I didn't get to be a greyhound, coached by my dad and Mr. Derby. St. Matthew's, my new school wasn't old, it was different families, the church was not as beautiful as Immaculate Conception. It was at St. Matthew's that I went through instruction for Confirmation with my classmates, my friends. At that time, the parish priest at IC decided that parishioners that attended other schools would need to attend RE at IC and received the sacrament a year later. That was maybe the first time I saw the politics of religion. I was angry that the parents didn't fight for us to make the sacrament with our friends. I was angry that we had to repeat instruction, losing our Wednesday nights and sometimes Saturdays. My attitude did not improve for a great many years. Anyone that attended high school with me could attest to that.
I returned to church when the parish was assigned a new priest. I took my boyfriend to mass because he wanted to learn more about the church he had been baptized in but never attended. We were married with a full mass. When we move to California, I looked for a church to attend but without my mom reminding me to go to church, I never kept up with the habit. I watched midnight mass on TV, but that is as close as I came to going to church. After our daughters were born, we baptized them but when we were away from Cedar Rapids, never stayed consistent with mass. When we moved to Germany, there was no shortage of catholic churches, big and old and beautiful with the mass spoke in another language. We visited plenty of churches but again, did not attend mass regularly as the closest English speaking mass was about a half hour away, and on a Sunday morning with three kinder, getting there was more miss than hit. Obviously, attending mass and building that community was never a true priority for me.
Returning to Cedar Rapids was an easy return to the habit of mass at Immaculate Conception seeing so many of those same families, knowing the pastor as a priest from my grade school days, getting involved, feeling a sense of belonging. The kinder were enrolled in St. Matthew's. Sacraments were made. It all felt familiar and comforting and right. Then we moved again, and we searched for a new church, again. And we found a truly wonderful, welcoming place in St. Francis. We got involved. More sacraments were made. The girls and I taught religious education. I retreated, joined book clubs, made these wonderful friends but still, was not going regularly.
And then the news was filled with the dark, dirty secrets about the Church's cover up and protection of predator priests. The movie Spotlight, released in 2015, along with so many other special reports and exposes revealed this dark, disgusting practice of protecting men that preyed upon children, over and over again. The church paid millions to victims and that money came from the millions of faithful tithers that gave willingly and without question. Many giving from tight budgets, never expecting that their money was used in such an evil way. Even though my diocese did not have any evidence of abuse or cover up in my lifetime, I wanted my money back. I felt betrayed. And when the church never owned their sins, I felt finished. There was no place to be within the Church. I know it was a minority of priests, I know that the majority of clergy took their vows to be part of a community to help and minister. I know that my parish was not responsible and that the priests that I knew probably felt the same kind of betrayal and disgust. Regardless, it didn't feel like a place I wanted to be any longer.
Plus, I am pro choice and pro marriage between any two consenting adults, those two opinions are not very Catholic though I imagine that many Catholics share my opinion about marriage.
So, what did I believe? Where did I practice? What box did I check on a survey?
Oddly, I still get very defensive about Catholicism. I still take issue with Martin Luther and his desire to ruin perfectly beautiful buildings. Though I cannot completely disagree with his disgust with many of the practices that were common within the church in the 1500s. But still.
What did I believe? Well, based on the emotions I had after my mom died, I had to believe in heaven because I was so sure that she was there. So if I believed in heaven, then I had to believe in God.
Right? There is a difference in believing in something and having a belief in something. So, do I think there is a god? Yeah, I suppose I do. Do I think he's a gigantic jerk? Yeah, I do. Do I believe in Jesus? I want to, because he seems like the kind of being I want to have faith in? He has been depicted as kind, without a lot of judgement. He often had practical solutions to issues that plagued the day (like plagues, oh, wait that's his dad). But also, what I know about the man was written several years after his death and was written by humans. I did a google search to see when the gospels were written and there were so many different answers from addresses that ended in blog, org, com and edu. So many interpretations and opinions out there and I don't know what is true, and also, I don't know that it matters. Belief is different than truth. Isn't it? The American band The Eagles are a great, iconic American band. I think we can all agree that that is true but it is my belief that they suck because their videos interfered with me seeing the videos I wanted to see on Night Trax circa 1984. I rest my case.
If god is love and gave humans the capacity to love but also gave humans the capacity to love members of their own sex, why in the name of god do people say it goes against god to love that way? I think homosexuality is brought up in the bible because homosexuality was practiced within society in Roman times and the bible writers wanted to separate themselves from the Romans. I realize there is a lot more to it than that, but my point being, should the old testament be the guiding force one uses to look down upon a nurturing love being two consenting adults? The old testament suggested killing your baby to show god you loved him was an okay thing to do. Today, we would realize that that is not an ok thing to do. But folks are still going to point to the OT to do their intolerant bidding. We are required to take some of the teachings in context and some are universal and some are a compelling story for the evidence of aliens, and that is a topic for another day.
So, what to I believe? I don't know. I know I don't need a book or a building or a body to worship. I know I don't need to worship. I know there are some really very beautiful ideas inside the books, not just the ones that Christians read, but probably most other religious books as well. And I can use those as tools to lead a better life here, not as an end goal to get to heaven. Besides, I have screwed up enough in life to know that my entrance into heaven is not a given. So I'd be better to be better for this life I am leading here. And shouldn't we be kind and good and love not because the bible tells us so but because it is the humane way to be? Shouldn't our actions be a reflection of who we want to be, not as notches on our get into heaven belt? Are you good because god wants you to be and if you didn't believe in god, you would be an asshole? Is that it?
Your faith is a beautiful thing for you. I would never want you to lose that, question that or try to show me that I should have faith as well. I did have faith and got sucker punched in the process. And I am happy to be on the other side of faith. I am not nearly as disappointed as I once was, or confused or angry. I still attend mass on occasion for weddings and will always believe that a Catholic funeral mass is one of the very best send offs there is. Probably right up there with a Raveragers or Viking funeral. As I stated earlier, I still get defensive about the catholic faith and think the rest are knock offs. But the rest didn't cover up the rape of thousands of children so there is that.
You are still going to find a lot of crosses in my house (a collection that was started when I still believed) and there is even a crucifix and a few rosaries. I will even say the rosary from time to time because I think Mary is a good ally to have as are many of the saints. I know they work for God or Jesus and I don't, but I still find that I like to have them in my corner. St. Francis is going to keep an eye on my pup regardless. I am still putting up my collection of nativities at Christmas. I am still celebrating Christmas and Easter because I want to and other than the nativities, all my décor and traditions are pretty pagan anyway.
But here's the thing, a believer or follower or worshiper or not, I am still going to be kind, be a steward, not covet my neighbor's ass, I am probably not going to kill, I am going to take names in vain, often. I am still going to be a lot of the things that are associated with following Jesus, I am just not going to follow Jesus. I don't believe I disagree with any of His ideas, I just think I am going to need a little less talk and a lot more action from him if I am going to go down that road again.