FAITH

I received a monthly email from an old acquaintance that has left me remarkably torn. Since I’ve started taking religion courses for my major in college I find myself unable to grasp religion on a personal level. I am culturally Catholic and I always will be but, beyond the cultural aspects I’m a religious void.

This email is from someone who knew me when I was a born again Christian. She is one of the most dedicated and spiritual people I’ve ever met and was that way even when we were 13. She’s traveled the world as a missionary and her faith is absolutely inspiring. Even though our ideals drifted from each other I’ve never lost my respect for her.

Now to my issue. I never thought much of missionaries and mission trips until I started studying tribal cultures and their religions this semester. With a recent focus on the Sambian tribe of Papua New Guinea (oddly enough the locale of Friend’s mission work) I’ve come to realize how much culture and history has been lost by the Christianization of the world. Hundreds of years of tradition shunned, traditional lifestyles completely discarded for another mans god.

Now, I’m a strong supporter of free will and I can’t help but think that Westerners showing up in a tribal village with new clothing, toys, candy, medicines and stores of food doesn’t offer an unbiased plain upon which the indigenous people can decide what to believe. I know if I was in their position I’d jump right on board their train after my first lollipop.

I’m not saying that Christian missionaries are trying to buy followers (well, maybe I am a little), I think it’s admirable that they believe so strongly that they want to save the world but, their methods of doing so are in dire need of examination. These people don’t have the luxuries that we’ve come to take for granted, I don’t think it’s right that they’re given them and then preached to. It’s a positive rewards system, they listen about your God in exchange for things they need or desire. Isn’t that how we train animals? “Let me tell you a story about a man named Jesus and while I do that let me feed your malnourished children and give you some quinine for that malaria you’ve been suffering with since birth…”

Maybe I’m only attacking this because I’m jealous. I’m jealous of people who have faith, faith of any kind. Faith in God, faith in their friends, faith in themselves … I’m not sure when I lost faith, I imagine it was around the time I lost the innocence of childhood though.

Children, in their purest form are so remarkable. What happens when you’re sitting next to a child on the train or the bus? It smiles at you, it engages you, why? Unconditional love. They haven’t been corrupted or tainted yet. To them; why shouldn’t they engage you or like you? Why wouldn’t you want to do the same? They have complete faith that you’re good. My god! Could you imagine the type of world this would be if we never lost that? Instead, we now walk into a room and think “I hope they like me” instead of “why wouldn’t they like me?”. We’ve lost the capacity to love unconditionally, to trust all but a select few and ultimately we’ve lost faith in each other. What a horrible world to exist in.