Sunday, August 08, 2010

Saved!

I've always been of the belief that those who cling on to religion do so because they have nothing else to hold on to.

Today I went to church.

After giving it some thought, last week Sarah and I decided that we would go to church. Why? you ask...well, it was a combination of finding a good boyfriend with a little bit of networking. I know, not very pious, but I like to call it a step in the right direction.

Anyway, we came up with a plan: 2 weeks each church for a total of 5 different denominations of Christianity.

Today was Presbyterian.

Religion scares me. I woke up at 5am today for 11am mass and somehow managed to be late. I showed up to mass/service to learn that if my conscience says "should" I am a horrible person because it should always say "must".

"You MUST do this".
"You MUST do that".

If you don't, you'll go to hell in a hand-basket.

As the bible-owning Christian in our duo, Sarah says that all the hell and damnation talk is atypical of Presbyterians because this is meant to be "Christianism lite". Still, aside the confusion I felt, I honestly felt like a crappy human being because my conscience tends to give me choices. I'm more of the belief that if nobody gets hurt in the process, all options are okay.

Anyway, after mass/service, as I was hoping and honestly praying for pancakes we got invited to the "fellowship". I am guessing this must be strictly a Presbyterian thing because in all my visits to the Catholic church (and yes, I have gone to church plenty in life) I have never seen this. In any case, we went to this room where they were serving lunch and some guy was all about me having a glass full of something: coffee, water, coffee or more water. There we also "interacted".

In life, I would call what we were doing "networking" except that I don't think I've ever networked with a 94 year old woman who was telling me (while demonstrating) to massage my butt and my boobs to maintain good health. It was almost geriatric porn except that it wasn't.

I also met a really nice guy. Like me, he was from NJ which I suppose earned him 800 brownie points except for the fact that he is really baptist (no offense to the baptist folk but i find them a little overly enthusiastic for my taste). Anyway, my nice guy was a military man who turned out to be 24 and despite the compliment (he said I looked 22) I thought he was kinda sorta too eager to please (which may or may not come from being baptist).

Really, how many guys do we know who will wait like 3 minutes (which really is a long time) holding a door so that we can get out? I rest my case.

After "fellowship" Sarah and I went to brunch and whithered the storm at Balans. I think that after our (my) first time at church in a LONG time it was necessary that we washed the experience down with some sangria. For me, it was a really long day.

Our friend @miamijorge came and hung out for a while. That was cool.

I may be confused in regards to God and what faith means but I am grateful for friendship.

Oh and badges...I got a Foursquare badge at church :)

I will admit that I haven't been to church in a REALLY long time.

2 comments:

Sarah Elles said...

I think it is also notable that the pastor today was a visiting pastor. We should try again next week for a more uplifting service... and after the luncheon, more sangria. ;-)

Muriel said...

It's strange, I also feel like going back to the church.
I was brought up in a very christian family and up to the age of 18 I was very much into that..
My only reservation is that people in churches tend to judge you.
I am very wary of that..