Mission Trips

I was watching TV the other day and stumbled upon Locked Up Abroad. It's a great show everyone should watch it. Anyway this episode was about two missionaries who were Kidnapped by pirates near Indonesia. The husband ended up dying it was sad. Then I found this article about how missionaries are becoming better equipped to serve the areas they work in. (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20101020/ap_on_re/us_rel_religion_today). I may not like much about religion but, I do have respect for missionaries. These people put their faith and even life on the line for a cause. The TV show said that these Islamic pirates were interested in the missionaries teaching while in captivity. I thought that was strange but when along with it. I've always wondered how the people being served react to the teachings. If I was struggling though life would I really want to hear about how god created life?

Open House

If I've learned anything in class, it's that religion is full of misunderstanding. Since religion is preached in so many different ways, everyone interprets the bible differently. The questions brought up in class have shown me that not everyone's understanding is correct. This recent article talks about how Muslims are out to correct this misunderstandings regarding Islam by having an open house. (http://www.ocregister.com/news/mosque-271564-open-muslims.html). Being BIC members, we've attended similar events at the Hindu temple and mosque, even a synagogue. However, I've never seen a Christian church advertise such an event. I guess my question is why? Every religion has stereotypes both positive and negative. This open house gives Muslims the chance to eliminate stereotypes. I would be open to attending a Christian open house. I'm sure someone will say well you can just go to church one Sunday. To me that's intimidating, I'd rather show up with a bunch of people who would look as confused as I would.

Sports and Religion

Unless you live under a rock you know I love the Texas Rangers. If you pay any attention to sports. you know the Rangers have a playoff game tomorrow. It's an elimination game that can end in two ways. 1. Rangers win and advance in the playoffs for the first time ever or 2. Rangers lose and become the second team ever to lose a series after having a 2-0 leading. Both options are amazing achievements with opposite rewards. The game is in 27 hours yet I can't sit still and can't stop thinking about it. This really does have a religious point, I promise. People have often said sports is like a religion. I decided to investigate this further. It's true. Both sports and religion have faith, devotion, worship, ritual, dedication, sacrifice, commitment, spirit, prayer, suffering, festival, and celebration. My experience as Rangers fan involves lots of dedication, commitment, occasional prayer, and a hell of a lot suffering. I even believe on occasion that there are such things as Baseball Gods. My lack of religious upbringing has been well documented in previous posts. After putting everything together I have to ask myself the obvious question: Did I swap religion for the Texas Rangers? That's a scary thought. I'm sure God is not amused. But what am I going to do, it's hard to break a 21 year habit? I do believe everything happens for a reason. If the Rangers lose tomorrow, maybe it's a sign from God that I need to re-organize my priorities a little but. Maybe switching my religious views from the Texas Rangers to something more tangible would be a good start.

(I hope this post does not anger the Baseball Gods) :D

Conversions

Today in class, we discussed the story of Paul. Paul was a Christian persecutor before his conversion. This reminded me of a recent story where a neo-nazi in Poland recently found out he was Jewish. Story here (http://www.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/09/23/poland.jewish/index.html). This interested me because I am from Poland and know that the Polish neo-nazi gangs are incredibly ruthless. In the article, the convert mentions he doesn't hold a grudge against himself for his previous actions. This makes me wonder about how Paul felt about his previous actions. The issue I wanted to talk about was guilt. It's important to feel guilty in some situations but, it's also important not to let guilt linger forever. I seem to have a problem with letting guilt linger. I feel guilty about thing that happened 5-10 years ago. So what's the proper way to deal with guilt? People often tell me religion helps people deal with guilt because you can settle things with God. This is something I'd like to investigate further.