God Talk

During dinner, I told a friend that people get along very well until they talk about religion. A professor turned good friend expressed how she feels about what’s going on with another friend, in religion’s point of view. She said she felt the need to rescue her from some destructive force. I was saddened, more so, I was torn.

In the catholic school where we used to go in college, we were taught about everybody being a child of God. Up until now, I share Dr. Margie Holmes’ perception of God. That He (or She) is somebody who isn’t short-sided and unfair to let people (man, woman, homosexual) be thrown to hell for eternity just because they are what they are. Then there’s a movie I saw (I think it was Stigmata) that made me “doubt” religion being the vehicle with which to reach God. A verse lifted from the Gospel of Thomas was read in the movie, which was, so they say, deliberately omitted from the Bible because of its unequivocal message that fiercely clashes with what the Catholic Church has long established as the Christian way. It said,

“I am the light that is over all things... Split a piece of wood, I am there. Lift up the stone, and you will find me there.”

The message, to me, means that I can commune with God even without the church, even without religion telling me what to do, for God is everywhere and most of all He/She is within you and me. It is through faith and personal relationship with God that one will be able to find Him/Her. Therefore, I still hold that a person, as long as s/he remains productive in the community, s/he is good to other people, and s/he believes in one holy and powerful being that is far greater than us all, that person is every inch a child of God no matter how “odd” his/her preferences in life might be.