Religious Freedom

We heard a presentation last night by the youngest survivor of Auschwitz. Rabbi Nissen Mangel was 10 years old when his family was taken to Auschwitz. It was a miracle that he was allowed to stay with his father and endure the work camps and death marches when all the other children were taken to the gas chambers. As expected, his talk was sobering and mortifying. What a reminder of the depths that people will sink to when given permission to be morally corrupt.

I will never understand the need some people have to control the religious beliefs of others. I was raised Methodist, which in some ways is about as benign a form of Christianity as possible. At least that was the impression I allowed myself. I do realize that whatever we put into something is what we get out of it.

Later in high school, I dated a young man who introduced me to the Church of Christ. That felt more like a relationship with God then I had experienced in the Methodist Church. Later, I spent several years attending the Presbyterian Church. My faith has been important to me throughout my life as it formed a moral code of which I have not strayed and have tried to pass down to my children.

So why is religion, anyone’s religion, such a taboo, hot topic? I can’t think of any other topic that has incited people to murder in the numbers as under the guise of religion. My relationship with God is my business and no one else’s. If I choose to have a relationship with Christ, so be it. If someone else chooses to not acknowledge Christ, why should anyone else care?

My connection to Christianity has been made murky in the eyes of others because I have an intuitive sense. I am capable of reading the energy of others and connecting them with angels and their higher selves. Because I walk with the Angels and serve others through energy work I have been told I am not a Christian. I would never tell someone what their relationship is with their divinity. So why do some people think it’s OK to tell me what I do or don’t believe in? Isn’t one of the tenets of our great country freedom of religion?

Listening to Rabbi Mangel last night reminded me of the dangers of people’s closed minded thinking when it turns into action. In honor of all those who have been persecuted in the name of religion: to all my fellow human beings, as long as you are not hurting others with your actions or words, please feel free to believe in and love whatever or whomever you wish.