Funeral for a friend

So this past weekend we attended a funeral for one of my Wife’s family members that was murdered. I really enjoy the pastor from that small northern Minnesota town. I’ve never attended any of his church services, but really enjoy his funerals and weddings. If I lived in that small town, I would probably go to his church even being an Atheist. Last Saturday, at that funeral, I started to understand Christians a little bit. I was raised Christian. We went to church every Sunday. I went through all the motions and got confirmed, and hated every minute if it. Never once had I ever felt the way I felt this past Saturday. Maybe it was because the pastor wasn’t talking much religion. He was just down to earth, very uplifting, and positive.

Religion gets a bad rap because of all of the sexual scandals, their anti-gay stance, and a lot of other hatred they spread. I know that’s a small minority of the religious people, but I tend to hold it against all religious people, and I know that’s not right. It doesn’t help though when bunches of my Facebook friends, that I know are good people, spread the hatefulness of religion. I think they are just entrenched in that community, and don’t see it as hateful. For some reason, that I don’t understand, they think their religion is under attack and spreading their believes is a way to defend them, and they don’t see the hate in it. I don’t hate anybody. I only hate the haters. Life is too short to hate.

Churches do do a lot of good in communities. They could do even more if they didn’t have all the overhead of the church stuff. I now understand why people like going to church. It can be uplifting and bring some joy to your life, if that’s your thing. It’s not mine. Never has been, and never will be.