I am a journalist… the kind that stays in my nightstand. Sometimes I think it’s just a way of talking to myself without sounding crazy. I’m also a blogger; but these two are very different. My journal is my thoughts that I do not broadcast for all to see, but my last entry I thought I might want to share since it correlates to yoga. Being a yoga-studying Christian in the South is often times an oxymoron and I’ve had my inner battles with it but I think I’m coming to a realization and I wanted to share.
Here’s a little pre-text on the entry… My boyfriend is Catholic, I am not. I was raised in the Baptist church but with very open-minded parents. When people hear I am Baptist they think, “Bible-belt Baptist.” But I am far from it. (Obviously, hence the yoga blog and the laughing Buddha on my nightstand). I do not currently belong to a church but I often go to Mass with my boyfriend and always enjoy the message. I guess since I do not go to church regularly, do daily devotionals, or even own an adult-version bible (my last bible is a “teen study bible” from when I was 14 that is tattooed with pictures and “autographs” from my friends at church camp), you could say I’m not a ‘practicing’ Christian.
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3/18/2013
Yesterday I went to church with D’s family and I really liked the message. The Bishop conducted the service and he really did have an air about him. The one thing from the reading that I really liked was a part about a woman who committed adultery and she was brought to Jesus. The men said, “This woman was caught in the very act of adultery. The law says any woman who commits adultery is to be stoned. What should we do?” The men were trying to catch Jesus in an act of tyranny so he could be persecuted. Jesus simply said, “Let the one of you who has never sinned be the first to throw a stone at this woman” (I started nodding my head and felt like yelling out an “amen”). The men one by one walked away. When Jesus looked up and saw all the men gone he asked the woman where her captures had gone. When she said they had left he said to her, “Go freely and do not sin anymore.” I really loved this message. If Jesus did not even judge her for her actions what right do we have to judge our fellow humans? Then the Bishop went on to talk about death. He explained death as simply going behind a veil. Your body is only temporary, but your soul is eternal. The similarities between Jesus and Buddha’s teachings are uncanny to me.
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The thing that turns me off about organized religion, particularly in the South, is not the religion itself. It’s the people, the congregation, the followers… In the South, Christians seem to think they are better than everyone else. They are right and you are wrong. Basically, their religion is better than yours. This is not what Jesus taught. Here is where I am conflicted: I fall into the Christian category, but I do not think my religion is any more superior than that of a Buddhist, or Jew, or anyone else. I am not a scholar on the Bible and cannot quote scripture but I am always amazed at the similarities between Jesus and Buddha. They both taught love, acceptance, kindness, and non-judgment. What else is there to know? I’m slowly becoming more at ease with my Christian upbringing colliding with my yoga teachings, simply because they are one in the same. I just have to get through the political fog that we humans put on the subject.
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lindseyogabliss 