Associated Press: Survey: US Religious Landscape in Flux
I was born into no religious affiliation. When I was very young some Mormon (LDS) missionaries visited my mom and she thought it would be good if I went to church once a week.
When I was in college I decided that my personal spiritual views were not in alignment with LDS spirituality and left that church. I could wax poetic on how leaving the LDS religion is not quite the same as just not going anymore.
Later in college I went back to church, and eventually converted to Catholicism. I was a very ardent believer and I felt that there were good things in that religion.
Somewhere between college and my professional life I saw things in Catholicism that I did not agree with. Some doctrinal things, but mostly I did not like the lack of respect Catholicism (and by extension, most die-hard Catholics) has for other religions, and that bothered me deeply. So include me in those ex-Catholics.
I read somewhere recently something that Steven Weinberg said, "with or without religion, good people can behave well and bad people can do evil; but for good people to do evil - that takes religion."
Maybe that's why so many people in the United States are migrating to non-denominational churches, because they're getting sick of the whole, "Religion Flavor A is the only way to salvation, Religion Flavor B is misguided (or, in the case of A = Catholicism and B = Buddhism, Flavor B isn't even a religion, it's a way of life!)" attitude that permeates being attached to a particular religion. If you're non-denominational, it takes a lot of that close-mindedness out and you can say, "this spiritual mindset works for me, but I realize that it may not work for everyone and that's OK" and not feel like you're going against what some priest/pastor/bishop/holy guru has said.
Every once in a great while I feel the urge to go to Mass - I still feel there are great truths in the human condition to be found there, and I believe that the music is moving to me and that there is something beautiful and vital to human existence there. But I know that I don't fit there anymore because my view of the world and what it means to be a good Catholic are in disagreement. And I'd like to think I'm a person of integrity and that I could not, in good conscience, force myself to adhere to a religion that I could not agree with 100%.
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I was raised Presbyterian and I've described it as the easy road as opposed to the higher road. We have no confession, we don't worship saints, we don't use prayer beads and we don't genuflect.
The ladies used to wear hats and gloves, but that has kind of relaxed over the years. Some people wear jeans. If you're looking for religion as community, you might want to check it out. It's like church for dummies.
If you're looking for religion as a celebration, try a Pentecostal church on for a try. It was the coolest church service I've ever attended. They had a rock band!
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