There are 2 things you don't talk about in this country, politics and religion. Well, I am not from here, and I think you should talk about everything, because thats how you form an opinion. Religion it will be today.
Although I am raised in a Dutch reformed church, I don't believe at all. And actually if there is something which can set me really off, it is religion. The most obvious case I have against religion is all these immoral wars around the globe. But I also don't agree with the outreach of missionaries in development countries, the pope holding back development, celibate priests who tell how to live your family life, the rage against homosexuality, abortion, euthanasia, the brainwash of children to say sex for fun and Darwinism are wrong and the worst, evangelists. Pretty much I can not stand organized religion.
Non of my friends in the Netherlands believe and when I came to America I was confronted for the first time with personal religion of educated intelligent young people who believe.
Its something very far from my own philosophy and impossible to just comprehend. I do not understand why is it so hard to believe that there is no purpose for being here. Why not look at science, that if we die, our body shuts down, or synapse in our brain stop firing electrons and thats was it. Why do we need a soul? Is it not enough to see that what forms me, is the genetic body I have, some hormones and other chemicals running trough it and a bunch of memories stored in a brain. I understand its hard to find rest that there was nothing before the beginning, but ask a theoretical physicist and he/she will explain that time is relative. Ask a historian and he/she will explain that the bible is a history book and no more then that. Why should there be a god overlooking all of us? Why is there something needed to hold on to, to drain strength from, why can we not just be? Did I already tell that religion will set me off.
But you have to talk to the people to understand, so where to find as many as believers in one spot and try to talk to them. Yes, in Houston, the non-denominational Christian Lakewood church, a mega church. The preaching here is not based on the bible, but rather on a prosperity gospel. God wants us to be prosper in all areas of your life, including money and material success. And that rings well with many Americans down South. And so this church is real mega, with a capacity of 16.000 people, one of the biggest in the USA. You have to see it with your own eyes, to believe it...
The show is life on television and watched by 7 million people weekly. Its very well organized and starts of with half an hour holy karaoke. People reach for the sky, others dance and everybody claps their hands and sings. Its pretty up beating and way better then the formal dark services I had to sit through during my upbringing. As everything is big in this church, the money collectors are big plastic buckets and the LED screens are immense. There is no real feel of belonging to this church. But this is big business and smoothly calculated for. There are people spread out through the immense arena to give a personal pray to who ever walks up. And there is a request for people who are with the church for a long time, to stand up and receive an applause.
Joel and his wife Victoria are mounting the stage and a big applause sounds. Not that they are trained or anything, but apparently that is not needed and inheriting a church is enough. They are talking about a way to be happy. To smile even when others around you are negative. Big applause. To have a positive attitude, to be the flower between the weed. Big applause. Having Iris as my name, I can only agree with that and it is pretty much how I stand in live. There is only one who can make me happy and that is me. And thats pretty much what I do, I smile and laugh a lot and try to be always positive and happy. So far so good...
But then the preach changes. Because although we are the only flower around and we are unhappy in our life, this is where god wants us to be. This is the path he has in mind for you and you have to stand through it. Big applause. Because in the end there will be light again, thinks will change to the good, because god will not leave you behind. Big applause.
Holy shit...thats not how I stand in life at all. If life is not good for me, I fight for a better one. I am not going to wait for some entity to change it. I change it myself or get the hell out of there. I really strive to have every minute of my life to be worthed and happy. And I can't say it doesn't work for me.
Before I get even more upset again, lets focus on my mission though, talk with somebody. I am however feeling so unease that I ignore all the hands and shoulder pets and look straight ahead. I really don't wanne be between these people. I know that my mission at a smaller setting would have made more sense, while this is just big and commercial, but there might be something else too. I am really not ready to deal with religion and I am pretty sure I will never be. I try to be open minded, I try to understand, but I just think religion is fucked up. Of course, each its own, but this is so not mine. Dag,
Iris (Houston, 33518 miles)
