A Better Word for Weird ([info]a_leprechaun) wrote,
@ 2007-03-09 15:08:00
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Current location:the library
Current mood: contemplative
Entry tags:ramblings, spirituality

On the Sharing of Faith
Multiple-post day, I know. But I have ideas I feel like sharing and the time to share them. It's one of Those Days: the sun has warmth in it again, today is the last day of the school quarter for me, and last night's dream put me in a very particular mood. I want to be aware of everything and poetic about everything I notice.

This morning's musings led me on a train of thought about the nature of sharing one's faith. I and others in my circle often grumble about not being able to open up to others about what we believe for fear of looking like card-carrying members of the Crazy Society. But it occurred to me this morning that this view isn't limited to believers in New Age-y things. If anyone strong in their beliefs--think not even a fundamentalist Christian, but just a person who is secure in their faith of the Christian God--starts opening up about it, people who don't share that are likely to think they're a kook. I realized this morning that I'm guilty of doing that. Most likely everyone is at some point or another when confronted with a faith they didn't share.

I don't want to seem cavalier about it, but I wish it were possible to share my personal view of life and magic with the world, just as I'm sure Christians wish they could express the beauty of God to everyone without getting the cold shoulder. But since that is always a possibility, we all divide into our safe little bubbles of belief and cling to the others who'll assure us we aren't insane. I suppose the beginning to a meeting of the faiths is to realize we're not all that different after all. Moral codes, not truth of spirituality, divide us. It's that old adage about the blind men and the elephant that I love telling so much.

I don't know why this bothers me so much. Religion-and-faith things get to me. As do issues of communication. So it's a double-whammy.


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[info]pooka_madness
2007-03-09 09:49 pm UTC (link)
I realize that I am commenting a lot on your posts lately. And I realize also that you and are sort of nebulous acquaintances at best. And we've never had the opportunity to sit down and talk about this stuff. But I know what you're saying and I agree with it. Its a tough situation. And I just thought you should know:

I admire you for your faith.

I have ever since I started reading your LJ. It's arguably why you ended up on my friends page and why I pay so much attention to this particular variety of your ramblings. I wish there was a way that people of faith could come together without judgment or restraint and celebrate it. Some forum where we could each shout, "This is what I believe!" without it being selfish or boring, and with everyone just celebrating the fact that we all believe in something.

I'm just sayin'.

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[info]a_leprechaun
2007-03-11 06:40 pm UTC (link)
Thank you :)

I think it's possible, and I feel like I've experienced tiny little microcosms of such an event with specific people in my life. It'd be hard to do, but it might be done.

And the not-knowing-each-other is a result of you not being in Evanston hardly since I got here :P Ohwells. We should hang out whenever you find your way back here.

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[info]roguebelle
2007-03-09 10:58 pm UTC (link)
There is still a difference, though -- a Christian who opened up wouldn't be in danger of getting institutionalised. The day I realised how very easily an open Ellaran could get diagnosed as a (possibly paranoid) schizophrenic was a little bit unsettling. An open, avid Christian looks weird, and sure people are going to judge them and think they're bizarre and a little delusional, but they're not going to look actually certifiable. Us? We'd get accused of having an unstable reality matrix and they'd be looking for the padded cells.

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[info]bangles
2007-03-09 11:23 pm UTC (link)
I don't know, I think people with the wackier belief systems in general tend to be overly concerned about the possible reactions. We could easily be diagnosed as schizophrenic, absolutely; but these days people aren't generally institutionalized involuntarily except as a last-ditch effort - if you're violent or violating the law or otherwise causing a problem for society/being a danger to yourself. I could preach my faith in the flying spaghetti monster on the streets if I wanted, and odds are all it'd get me would be a handful of spare change.

That said - much as a meeting of the faiths sounds admirable, I don't know that I'd be up to it myself. To respect/learn about/discuss various religions on a cultural level fascinates me, but going beyond the cultural framework and handling the sort of hard-core faith that tends to get people labeled 'kook', regardless of religion, is way beyond the comfort zone. Admirable, though. I'm just not sure how to begin handling it.

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[info]a_leprechaun
2007-03-11 07:00 pm UTC (link)
Again, I'm not talking about God-crazy bible-thumping televangelists. It's a few steps back from that, the white-bread boy or girl who gets brought up in a Christian household and happens to believe faithfully.

Or what about the devout young American Muslim women who completely cover their heads and faces-- or even their entire bodies-- when they go to class every day?

That's the kind of people I mean.

Y'know, my freshman year I went to this thing where people of all different faiths were assigned to tables, and we just talked about what we believed. We had a Muslim girl, at least two Mormons, me and a few others. And we just talked about the interesting parts of what we believed (this was before I just after I'd found Ellara, and back when I was super-shy, so I didn't talk much). That kind of meeting would be a good place to start, methinks.

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[info]wrenbow
2007-03-10 12:24 am UTC (link)
Another reason we cling to those of our own beliefs is to escape judgment and criticism from those who see the world in black and white. A person starts to share her own unique perspective, and odds are she'll get a sermon rammed down her throat, or at the very least an unpleasant argument from said self-righteous people about how they are right and she is wrong. Sadly, there just aren't that many people out there with open minds or the time to care about someone else's spirituality.

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[info]spreadsothin
2007-03-10 12:46 am UTC (link)
Last month, I hit my head badly and it made a big bump.
Driving away that night, I was praying desperately
Which forced me to recognize that my fear is part of my faith
I really do believe in a force in the Universe.
And I have my qualms about naming it.
But yesterday I was praying out of joy and it really really worked.

And there ya have it.
And today, my grandmother forwarded me a Christian prayer. But other than one or two words I said the whole thing, wishing and putting my energy for good.

And that felt right.

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