Prepare for a long post
No, seriously. I'm gonna rant about my church retreat and faith epiphany, then my first day in high school. x_X;;
First, teh retreat:
Ugh. Confirmation retreat. Where to start. (If you don't like rants, don't read beyond this sentence)
So. I got there a bit late, put my stuff on the stage as I was directed. Before dinner, we played a game involving all of us linking hands and passing a hula hoop around the circle via stepping through it. 'Twas very boring. After that, we ate dinner. I had already stuffed myself with leftover cookie cake from my birthday party, so I just ate some chips and punch.
Once dinner was over and we had cleaned up after it, we went outside to the courtyard to play another game. Here's how it works: We had one person for each team (two teams) blindfolded and another turned away from teh area where the blindfolded people were. Everyone else would give the turned around person directions for the blindfolded person to get the flag we were s'posed to get. But we couldn't actually speak to give directions, we had to use hand motions. It was incredibly funny. The other team directed their guide into the woods, and ours kept running into trees. The next time, we had Jesse going for our team. As soon as we blindfolded him, he started running around the courtyard, so Kyle had to go after him, pick him up, and carry him back. It freaked Jesse out XD
After that we did some planning and learned about the "affirmation of our baptism". One of the things they explained is one of many that pissed me off and made no sense:
Apparently, it is our parents' responsibility to get us baptised, then "guide" (never have I heard such a miswording in my life) us through catechism and confirmation, because obviously if we're raised to go to church every Sunday we MUST want and be willing to go to catechism and confirmation! They told us that getting confirmed means that we are considered adults in the church and that we can make our own decisions within the church. This includes going to church etc. Well, according to them, we can do this AND we have an obligation to serve the church. Never did it occur to them that some of us were there because our parents were forcing us to go through this, they told us it must be because we were actually into our faith. Even though they told us that our parents were supposed to make us go through catechism and confirmation.
Once that was done, we went upstairs to the sanctuary to light candles and fill out a worksheet that was some sort of rough draft for our "statement of faith". It was then that I had my little epiphany thingamabob. It was amazing. Honestly, I've never had any sort of experience like this at all. I was just staring into the candles when I figured it out. I'm not totally sure if this what I really believe, but I haven't exactly had much time to think about it. However, whatever that is, I'm keeping to myself until I can determine exactly what is going on in my mind and faith @_@
When we were done with that, we got to play another game in the youth room (aka, the guys' bedroom). We each had to write a line explaining a funny story from RL. Then four people would have to make up a story pertaining to the line. Stan, Jason and Kyle came up with some funny ones, and we girls got to hog the cheese puffs. Just like the Cocoa Chex mix hording at the sex retreat XD (no, nothing horny. We had to learn what the Bible said about sex. Basically, "dnt h3ve sx til ur maryed!!!@#!@%!!11!35.32`")
Bed after that. Us girls had to sleep on the stage and got a fan. Upon running through the stage the next morning, Kyle exclaimed, "You guys got a fan?! We had to open the windows; I woke up covered in dew!"
But before that, we woke up half an hour before the guys. Good thing we were the ones who had to prepare breakfast. We gave them a wake up call by throwing pillows and yelling at them.
Then breakfast. w00t. We planned the service, with games in between. Nothing interesting there, 'cept I got a good idea of the Bible, because I was in the group that got to pick the Bible verses fitting our theme.
Okay, here's a question (that I actually want you to answer): Why is it that Jesus' death was enough to make one billion people worship him on a regular basis, but all the other people who died in the Bible were never mentioned nor heard of again? What is so special about Jesus' death? I hear all this, "H3 |)13|) 4 U@!!!@51!", but honestly, what is so special about that? Yes, he chose to die. So what? Plenty of other people did as well, and they aren't being used as an excuse for people to impose their morals on everyone else.
And, from reading all the verses they shoved at us to choose from to be our Bible verse, it sounds like what God and Jesus were doing was like business salesmen do:
"Hey, believe in me and you'll get saved from the fiery bowels of hell! For a limited time only!"
It also sounds like one of those things that people will believe and follow blindly...wait, that's kind of what it is....
Something else: When we were discussing charities (each group of confirmands must donate to a charity), our guides would say stuff like, "We should donate to a Christian charity, so these children/women/whoever would be recieving the money can learn about God and Jesus and get closer to them." as if Christianity is the ultimate truth! Honestly, I don't know if my faith is the truth or not, and I don't think ANY religion, faith or beliefs is THE truth. I know that people believe different things than me, and that forcing my religion on them, or making them think that my beliefs are the truth and that nothing else is, is wrong and egotistical.
TPauSilver said something like this in an ED thread a while back, and I felt like screaming it at these people: "By all means, be a christian and help people, but please, keep them seperate."
The people at my church said something along the lines of, "We should donate to them through the church, because then they can learn about God." Not because we're trying to help these people get out of poverty and give them a better life. Not because we know that we take such things as shelter and regular meals for granted. It's because they should join our religion. Beleiving in God won't make their life better. It will make it seem better, but when/if they ever realize that God will not just dump a pile of gold in their hands and give them a caring family, it will all come crashing down on them.
First, teh retreat:
Ugh. Confirmation retreat. Where to start. (If you don't like rants, don't read beyond this sentence)
So. I got there a bit late, put my stuff on the stage as I was directed. Before dinner, we played a game involving all of us linking hands and passing a hula hoop around the circle via stepping through it. 'Twas very boring. After that, we ate dinner. I had already stuffed myself with leftover cookie cake from my birthday party, so I just ate some chips and punch.
Once dinner was over and we had cleaned up after it, we went outside to the courtyard to play another game. Here's how it works: We had one person for each team (two teams) blindfolded and another turned away from teh area where the blindfolded people were. Everyone else would give the turned around person directions for the blindfolded person to get the flag we were s'posed to get. But we couldn't actually speak to give directions, we had to use hand motions. It was incredibly funny. The other team directed their guide into the woods, and ours kept running into trees. The next time, we had Jesse going for our team. As soon as we blindfolded him, he started running around the courtyard, so Kyle had to go after him, pick him up, and carry him back. It freaked Jesse out XD
After that we did some planning and learned about the "affirmation of our baptism". One of the things they explained is one of many that pissed me off and made no sense:
Apparently, it is our parents' responsibility to get us baptised, then "guide" (never have I heard such a miswording in my life) us through catechism and confirmation, because obviously if we're raised to go to church every Sunday we MUST want and be willing to go to catechism and confirmation! They told us that getting confirmed means that we are considered adults in the church and that we can make our own decisions within the church. This includes going to church etc. Well, according to them, we can do this AND we have an obligation to serve the church. Never did it occur to them that some of us were there because our parents were forcing us to go through this, they told us it must be because we were actually into our faith. Even though they told us that our parents were supposed to make us go through catechism and confirmation.
Once that was done, we went upstairs to the sanctuary to light candles and fill out a worksheet that was some sort of rough draft for our "statement of faith". It was then that I had my little epiphany thingamabob. It was amazing. Honestly, I've never had any sort of experience like this at all. I was just staring into the candles when I figured it out. I'm not totally sure if this what I really believe, but I haven't exactly had much time to think about it. However, whatever that is, I'm keeping to myself until I can determine exactly what is going on in my mind and faith @_@
When we were done with that, we got to play another game in the youth room (aka, the guys' bedroom). We each had to write a line explaining a funny story from RL. Then four people would have to make up a story pertaining to the line. Stan, Jason and Kyle came up with some funny ones, and we girls got to hog the cheese puffs. Just like the Cocoa Chex mix hording at the sex retreat XD (no, nothing horny. We had to learn what the Bible said about sex. Basically, "dnt h3ve sx til ur maryed!!!@#!@%!!11!35.32`")
Bed after that. Us girls had to sleep on the stage and got a fan. Upon running through the stage the next morning, Kyle exclaimed, "You guys got a fan?! We had to open the windows; I woke up covered in dew!"
But before that, we woke up half an hour before the guys. Good thing we were the ones who had to prepare breakfast. We gave them a wake up call by throwing pillows and yelling at them.
Then breakfast. w00t. We planned the service, with games in between. Nothing interesting there, 'cept I got a good idea of the Bible, because I was in the group that got to pick the Bible verses fitting our theme.
Okay, here's a question (that I actually want you to answer): Why is it that Jesus' death was enough to make one billion people worship him on a regular basis, but all the other people who died in the Bible were never mentioned nor heard of again? What is so special about Jesus' death? I hear all this, "H3 |)13|) 4 U@!!!@51!", but honestly, what is so special about that? Yes, he chose to die. So what? Plenty of other people did as well, and they aren't being used as an excuse for people to impose their morals on everyone else.
And, from reading all the verses they shoved at us to choose from to be our Bible verse, it sounds like what God and Jesus were doing was like business salesmen do:
"Hey, believe in me and you'll get saved from the fiery bowels of hell! For a limited time only!"
It also sounds like one of those things that people will believe and follow blindly...wait, that's kind of what it is....
Something else: When we were discussing charities (each group of confirmands must donate to a charity), our guides would say stuff like, "We should donate to a Christian charity, so these children/women/whoever would be recieving the money can learn about God and Jesus and get closer to them." as if Christianity is the ultimate truth! Honestly, I don't know if my faith is the truth or not, and I don't think ANY religion, faith or beliefs is THE truth. I know that people believe different things than me, and that forcing my religion on them, or making them think that my beliefs are the truth and that nothing else is, is wrong and egotistical.
TPauSilver said something like this in an ED thread a while back, and I felt like screaming it at these people: "By all means, be a christian and help people, but please, keep them seperate."
The people at my church said something along the lines of, "We should donate to them through the church, because then they can learn about God." Not because we're trying to help these people get out of poverty and give them a better life. Not because we know that we take such things as shelter and regular meals for granted. It's because they should join our religion. Beleiving in God won't make their life better. It will make it seem better, but when/if they ever realize that God will not just dump a pile of gold in their hands and give them a caring family, it will all come crashing down on them.