Spiritualism & Mental Health Over Religious Indoctrination
This is a topic that trips us up time and time again. The problem with religion is that, like politics – it is rife with deception. Throughout our lives, most of us will observe many contradictions in mainstream religion, to include people you probably would not want in your home, if you knew what they were really like inside.
Religious indoctrination is filled with a male dominant, arrogance and superiority. Often there are many rules, restrictions, and judgemental attitudes toward what they view as sinful behaviours.
If you get indoctrinated with certain religious beliefs and literalistic or false interpretations of the Bible, it is difficult to shake all that shame. It is also easy to interpret the deception and nastiness as being part of God’s world or agenda, when clearly it is not.
Yet when times really get tough and we have nowhere to turn, we need to put our trust and faith somewhere. It is much wiser to put our trust in God and never mind the religious autocrats who try to call the shots. I always found the fire and brimstone rants disturbing, along with the pious and shaming looks, and the empty stare of the faux do-gooder who, if you can see beyond the glare of his horn rimmed glasses, looks like he would rather eat you alive.
Being in touch with our own spirit, and place of rest, where we can lay the burden down, and ask for help – creates a true sense of wonderment when some of what we hope and pray for works out. It reinforces that if we trust God, we will never be completely alone. We do not need to put our faith in man, and can hit the mute button or walk out, if we don’t want to listen to some religious rant.
Spiritualism is not filled with ranting and raving fire and brimstone, burn in hell forever type scenarios. It is not holding a hand out asking for a portion of your income in tithes either. It is not rewarded with money.
It does not form a political allegiance – except to things that are honest, good, transparent, and true. It does not turn you into a god, or take you away from God. It does not rob you of your identity. It is simply a quiet retreat, a place where we can be deflated and humbled, small and forsaken – without complete desperation.
Meditation calms the spirit. On a spiritual and individual level, we do not have to believe anything – and yet we all do believe something. Even atheism is a spiritual belief.
I tend to lean toward the beliefs and writings of Blaise Pascal who wrote, “truth is so obscure in these times, and falsehood so established, that, unless we love truth, we cannot know it.”
And “We must learn our limits. We are all something, but none of us are everything.” Blaise Pascal
And “In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” Blaise Pascal
Fair enough. If we believe in God, and it ends up we are wrong, we have lost nothing. If we don’t believe in God, and it ends up we are wrong, we lose all eternity.
There is nothing though – no threat, no losses, no preachers, no visions of burning in hell forever – that can draw us toward God. It is His love and forgiveness that humbles us the most. He draws us in with the power of His love and mercy, knowing everything there is to know about us.
I am not a church goer since there is so much in mainstream religion that I cannot swallow. I believe there is a great deal of metaphor and things we do not understand about the Bible. It is very easy for religious zealots to misinterpret things and get way off base.
There are now many versions of the Bible, something like a hundred different translations in the English version alone. Many of those translations are made deviously or mistakenly. In other cases, it is church leaders who twist the scriptures to suit their own agenda. We have to search for truth and hold the truth we do find close to our hearts.
Our spiritual life, beliefs, and persona do not belong to a specific church or religious doctrine full of deception. Instead, our spirit knows who we serve and ultimately where we are going.
Copyright Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage (2020). Unauthorised use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author/owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Valerie J. Hayes and Quiet West Vintage with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.