*smiles at Boom's post*


I too gave up "the church" a long time ago. Personally, I think Jesus was a great teacher if you take what he said and break it down to the bare bones. I also think that most of the people who are walking around calling themselves "Christians" these days are the furthest thing from true followers of his real teachings, and use the Bible and Jesus' name for their own means of all sorts. I also believe that if Jesus was alive today he would have a fit about the whole thing.

No, my beliefs are basically an eclectic mix and I refrain from labeling myself or squishing myself into a category. It's not from lack of commitment; as a matter of fact it's FOR commitment: commitment to ultimate truth. It's basically because in my journeying I've found truths in various places and I figured out that something is true somewhere after realizing that seemingly different schools of thoughts have the same or similar threads of truth running through them. All this came after years of questioning and inner conflict, which I might add came at a very young age, possibly after I noticed the differences between the churches we attended, from Catholic to Pentecostal to contemporary Christian, and how these denominations all seem to claim to be "THE church".
I could go on, but that's the basic jist of it.

Cheryl, from other posts of yours I'm wondering if possibly you are at a place where you may be questioning what you believe or maybe you are feeling conflicted a bit about things you think or feel that don't seem to perfectly fit the uber-Christian mold. I say if so, good for you. Even if you decide to stay within your current belief system, perhaps you will be able to do so a little wiser and centered and doing it because it's right for you and not because you were told what you were "supposed to" do.