Hello Thomas,
I was raised as a Catholic and still am at heart, I no longer attend church but God has always been in my heart and always will be for he has given me unconditional love. I have more or less stayed away from churches because a lot of the people I knew who attended were nothing more than hypocrites, they left their religion a the church steps on the way out. God does not judge us by what church, synagogue or temple we attend, but by how we lead our lives. If we spread love, we get love in return but if you spread evil you reap accordingly. So many of the churches now a days have their hands in your pockets it is very hard to find a good one. When you receive a postcard in the mail from the church with the picture of a finger with a string tied around it saying "did you forget" because you were not able to pay your tithe I think the church is overstepping their bounds. The church I attended as a child was very solemn, you could feel the respect that the people had for God's House when they entered, but now a days it's so much different, the respect I was taught is not there anymore. I realize that time changes but when I enter a church and see people conversing with each other I have a hard time accepting that, and when they talk to me and involve me in their conversations I feel that I am being disrespectful toward God as it is His Home, my Place of Worship, not a place to socialize, the socializing can be done before or after the Mass. I feel I should respect God's church as I would want my home to be respected. I also feel that there is only ONE God regardless of race, color or creed or however you want to refer to Him as, anyone should be allowed to worship Him in his or her own way. We, in this country have the freedom of religion. Some do not believe in God and its okay too it's their choice and I respect that. There is one thing I am against tho, it's when they keep knocking at my door to teach me their religion after I very nicely tells them I believe in God but not their denomination but please respect my belief as I respect theirs. It seems that they don't understand that, I even tried telling them that I did not understand English only French and the next day I would have a couple of French speaking people at my door trying the same thing.
God Bless you Prayer Warrior, Gaby
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