Victoria S. Hardy

Victoria S. Hardy

Monday, July 31, 2006

Fear Based Religions
I think it's time for the world of fear based religions to end. A couple weeks ago a Baptist minister knocked on my door for the second time, the first time he knocked I was polite, explaining to him that I was not interested in what he was selling, I even shook his hand and told him to have a good day. This time he came with his teenage son in tow, training for the boy, I suppose and then he proceeded to question my husband and I about our souls. Were we sure that our destinies were secure, were we positive we were going to heaven? Before he could lead into his sermon, I felt a righteous anger grow in me, shake in me. How dare this idiot come to my door, knowing nothing of me and my struggles, only knowing that I do not attend his church and do not give him 10% of my income and begin to question me about the most personal realm of who I am. I told the minister that God loved him and I did too, but to get the hell off my property and not to come back again.

I know God is there. It's not a matter of faith with me, it's knowledge and common sense. These religions that seem to want to hold your soul for ransom, to control you through fear are the epitomy of evil and darkness. It is ridiculous to think that billions of people must follow a single path for their personal salvation, to take the words of another as truth pulls from God, not towards Him. Each one of us has God inside us, each one of us has the Power of God inside of us, the power to create or destroy. And many of us give that power away. We give it to ministers, televangelists, world leaders, our spouses, our parents, our children, our friends. We decide we are not good enough, that the God inside us is not as good as the God inside others, that somehow God plays favorites and puts more of Himself in some and less in others. Your piece of God is bigger than mine!

The path to God is inside of us. No one knows more about God than you do.