What's the difference?

This blog is not intended to confuse anyone but to possibly help answer some questions to a problem that all of us face or in most cases are facing right now.

What's religion and what's the difference between all the religions out there. Is there a difference between Islam and Christianity? Judaism and Buddhism? Hinduism and Scientology? I mean think about it.. Those are just a few I could come up with. Whatever it is we believe in, most of us will sale out for it to the point we would die for it if we had to. Not in all cases, but the Muslims die for their faith everyday. The Christians die for theirs. The Jews for theirs and the Buddhist theirs and the Hindus theirs.. What's the difference? Is there a difference? If so Why?

Any and every religion sells you a "formula" that will make you a better follower of whatever religion it may be. It's like there is something you have to do to be a better follower, whether that be some type of service, whether you stop eating curtain foods, stop smoking, stop drinking. The list goes on and on. You go to a meeting either on Saturday or Sunday or maybe another day in the week. Sometimes we may even find a religion and then there are all different types of ways within that religion. Take Christianity for example. Some Christians believe you should go to church 3 times a week while others believe only once is necessary. Some think your music should be with no drums and others believe it should be a rock concert. Some put a lot of attention on dressing up and others don't. They still care but it's just a different style. Which one is better? Does it matter? If so then what makes one right and the other wrong?

With so many Christians one of the biggest things is taking a stance against abortion, gay rights, democrats, people that go to "one of those churches" that talk about nothing but love. I mean really it is a stance against anyone that does not believe in the same stuff they do. They even take that stance to the point of hate. You should do this and say this and never disagree with this or that or what this person says, or your not a good "christian". I mean what is that? It's another formula. It's a "how to" so you can be a better follower and look better in the eyes of those people you go to church with.

Religion gives us hope. Whatever one we follow it gives us hope. Hope for something better than this hellish life we sometimes live. We have a void and it needs filling and we'll do whatever it takes to fill it. Lets take Islam for example. I mean the Muslim faith does not tell you to blow yourself up, but some of them actually think that it does and so they do so at the cost of so many others. I hate the things that have been done because of their beliefs, but think about it this way. They would not blow themselves up if they did not really think something great was going to come from it. I mean there are "christians" all over the world that have killed innocent people for the cause of their faith. People killing abortion doctors or blowing up one of their offices in a way to make a stance for their faith. A christians beating the crap out of a gay person because "God hates them". People just randomly killing or beating up people because "Jesus told them to". They actually think that He told them to and so how are they any different than a certain group of Muslims that blow up buildings, or subways or whatever?

There is no difference. How are they any different than the "christian" church that shakes their heads every time someone that's different from them walks by? How is that different?!?! How is the hate of a certain radical group of Muslims any different than the hate of a certain radical group of christians? I'm not just talking about the ones that blow up abortion clinics or beat up gay people. I'm also talking about the ones that "don't care" about the lives of these people that hate them because of their faith. I'm also talking about the ones that turn their nose up to people that don't dress in a way or act in a way "they" feel is honoring to God.

The point is that it appears that there is no difference. It appears that way because it's all still hate!! It's freakin hate, and whether we're killing physically or mentally it's all still hate and it's all still wrong, and it all still makes our Creator equally sick of such things. Hate is hate!! Whether we're physically killing people in the name of ali, or mentally killing people in the name of our religion or our church. It was not said and written that you were to only Love people if they practice the same religious beliefs as you. It simply said to LOVE. It also said to Love your enemies. It says that "Love is patient", and "Love is kind". It says that "Love is not proud" and it is "not rude". It goes on to say that "Love is not easily angered" and that "it keeps no record of wrongs". Does it not seem a little strange that all of that is in the absolute complete opposite of this country we now live in and of the average church we now go to? Well it's not strange, it's sad, and that's why our country / church / world is going to HELL in a hand basket faster than it ever has before!! There is to much hate and not enough LOVE. There is no gray area. You either Love or you hate. HE said "your either with Me or against Me", and so if HE was Love and not hate, then that means we're either love or we're hate. "Your either with Me or against Me"..

So my question is.. What's the difference?? What are we doing and why? Is religion just something to give us hope and a reason to pat ourselves on the back? Is there something more than just religion? Has the Real thing been lost within a religion bearing it's Name? Is religion just another tool of evil to get us to be passionate about nothing and to take our eyes of Love? Think about it, comment on this blog. Let's see if we cannot look and see and understand for ourselves instead of what just mere men have been saying for so long because of their traditions or degrees, and find out what in the heck is going on with us and this life with so many different religions that offer no Love..

Thanks,
SB

Religion is Killing Us

Add to My Profile | More Videos

Life

Life cannot be understood flat on a page. It has to be Lived; a person has to get out of his head, has to fall in love, has to memorize poems, has to jump off bridges into rivers, has to stand in an empty desert and whisper sonnets under his breath:

I'll tell you how the sun rose A ribbon at a time...

It's a living book, this life; it folds out in a million settings, cast with a billion beautiful characters, and it is almost over for you. It doesn't matter how old you are; it is coming to a close quickly, and soon the credits will roll and all your friends will fold out of your funeral and drive back to their homes in cold and still and silence. And they will make a fire and pour some wine and think about how you once were ... and feel a kind of sickness at the idea you never again will be.

So soon you will be in the part of the book where you are holding the bulk of the pages in your left hand, and only a thin wisp of the story in your right. You will know by the page count, not by the narrative, that the Author is wrapping things up. You begin to mourn it's ending, and want to pace yourself slowly toward it's closure, knowing the last lines will speak of something beautiful, of the end of something long and earned, and you hope the thing closes out like last breaths, like whispers about how much and who the characters have come to love, and how authentic the sentiments feel when they have earned a hundred pages of qualification.

And so my prayer is that your story will have involved some leaving and some coming home, some summer and some winter, some roses blooming out like children in a play. My hope is your story will be about changing, about getting something beautiful born inside of you, about learning to love a woman or a man, about learning to love a child, about moving yourself around water, around mountains, around friends, about learning to love others more than we love ourselves, about learning oneness as a way of understanding God. We get one story, you and I, and one story alone. God has established the elements, the settings and the climax and the resolution. It would be a crime not to venture out wouldn't it?

It might be time for you to go. It might be time to change, to shine out.

I want to repeat one word for you:
Leave.

Roll the word around on your tongue for a bit. It is a beautiful word, isn't it? So strong and forceful, the way you have always wanted to be. And you will not be alone. You have never been alone. Don't worry. Everything will still be here when you get back. It is you who will need to change.


Donald Miller - Through Painted Deserts....