On Religious Matters
I was filling an application form today (one of many… well, in reality one of three), and I came to the Equal Opportunities part of it, when I encoutered a conundrum (now how can no one give me a better job when I use these fancy words is anyone’s wonder). It asked me to specify my ethnic group, which was easy: other white background (see, I’m not Scottish, English or Irish, which were the other options). Then it asked me about my gender: male (EASY!). Do I have a physical or mental disability: Nope. Sexual orientation: Gay Man. And then the question which made me stop in my tracks and think. What is my religion. Wow.
The fact is, technically, I’m Christian - Roman Catholic. That’s how my parents kind of raised me. I was baptised, but that’s as far as it goes. Didn’t go to mass, didn’t really read The Bible… I don’t even know what I believe in! I had the options of ‘no religion’ or ‘prefer not to answer’ (this option was in all the other questions too, by the way, you don’t have to answer anything you don’t want to. They even had the ‘prefer not to answer’ option in the gender question: male/female/prefer not to answer), but I didn’t want to say ‘no religion’, since I don’t want to be denying anything straight away. I’m just not sure. And the ‘prefer not to answer’ option is always a no-option to me. It feels like you are hiding something.
I really can’t remember what I wrote down. Part of me wants to have written ‘Christian’, mainly because God knows (if he exists) how many times, when I have found myself in a life deciding moment, I have prayed for him to choose the right decision (I mean, what if the bitchy-one wins America’s Next Top Model!? We can’t have that! So it’s all ‘please, God, please, don’t let her win’ in my head). Also when I had to do an exam I hadn’t study for (’I promise God I will study for the next one! Don’t let me fail!’)… But another part of me hopes I put ‘no religion’. I don’t want to be part of a religion where its own morals are based on double-standards. Where they condemn the use of condoms, when so many sexual transmited deceases are out there. A religion that also causes/has caused wars.
So I’m not sure what I decided. I’m not sure what I wrote down. And I like that. I don’t want to decide, yet, if I believe or not. I think I will wait and see.
April 15th, 2008 at 10:18 pm
my dad started reading a kiddie version of the bible to me when i was young… my mom asked him to stop because i would have nightmares and cry my eyes out every night… @:)
April 17th, 2008 at 1:50 pm
I’d have put this as the religion
April 18th, 2008 at 9:19 am
oh wow! I wanna be a Jedi now…