Church.

Last week I went to a Catholic mass with my nan and I wont lie: it wasn't for me. There was too much rigidity, too much order and control and too much religion. This may seem strange to people who don't go to church. How can you go to church but hate religion? They're probably thinking.
Well, because Jesus hated religion. He mocked the hypocrites and denounced high, judgemental, self-righteous religion. He hated Christians taking the Bible out of context and judging one another. He preached time and time again "don't be like the hypocrites", and yet still Christians choose to ignore this and get swept up by the dogma that is religion. The Catholic service I attended last week was a prime example. In a prayer worshipping God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit, we also were supposed to worship the Catholic church. False idolatry anyone? You were also not allowed to receive communion if you were not a Catholic, but was the thief on the cross a Christian? Had he been baptised? No, but Jesus still told him that he'd see him in heaven.
Today I went to a Church of England service and I was blown away by how happy and non-judgemental everybody was. Last week I got dirty looks because of my leather jacket and tattoos. People didn't understand what I was doing there because I'm a sinning little teenager. Yet today, people were so nice! And the sermon, the sermon was about everything that Christianity should not be. The vicar was basically saying things that I've always believed but have been told that I've been wrong for believing them and that I just want to be a "liberal hippy Christian", but this sermon didn't contradict my beliefs at all!
He spoke about how we must do what JESUS tells us, not what religion tells us. He asked us to consider what God would think of fundamental Christians who use the Bible as an excuse to judge people for their sexuality (which shows that, thank God, not all Christians are walking around with banners in the USA saying "God hates fags"), and to consider what God would think of bad political systems that serve to widen the gap between the rich and the poor, about how the government keeps raising the fees for university and offering less and less help to people who want to better themselves, about how bankers get huge bonuses when the rest of the world is in a recession and about how capitalism goes on in the hands of a small few while there are children starving.
He urged the congregation to "commit to Jesus, not to religion". Jesus turned water into wine, engaged in banter with his mum and befriended prostitutes, while going into churches and criticising them for taking his words and the Old Testament out of context and using it as a tool to oppress rather than set free.
That was what the sermon was on today and it's served to give me hope that good really does exist and that Christianity is not some evil, oppressing, judgemental religion but one that, when used in the right way, is Love itself.

















It's just a shame that fundamentalists and rich men in the Vatican serve to turn it into something that it was never intended to be.
And please remember that these are not my words but the words of someone who knows a lot more about the Bible than I do! Someone who had dedicated his life to giving sermons and being a Christian.