Losing My Religion

Today being Ash Wednesday, out of curiosity Jeff and I decided to hit up Saint Josephs Catholic Church for thier Ash Wednesday mass. I've never attended any kind of catholic service before so it was a very interesting experience. From the moment I walked in I was out of my element. Everybody there seemed to know the procedure. They knew exactly when it was time to speak, when it was time to kneel, when it was time to cross their chest, etc. We just kind of hung out and observed. I am certain that there are many catholics who really believe the gospel, and have had thier lives transformed by it, but just watching people I am also sure that there are a bunch who were there just because that was where they were supposed to be on Ash Wednesday. They sure knew what to say, and what to do, but really they we're caught up in symbolic, religious expressions that held no meaning. That is what happens when you depend on the power of man to play a role in salavation. Things get fake in a hurry. I'm pretty sure we suffer the same problem in "our church" as well, maybe not as explicitly, but we still do it. I'm as guilty as any of going through the motions sometimes because thats what I am supposed to do. Tradition and symbolism are great as long as thier sole purpose is to direct our attention to God, but the problem is humans are creatures of habit and we tend to forget why we do things and focus on the fact that we are supposed to be doing them. But anyway, the whole purpose of this day is to be a day of penitence; a day where we show remorse and regret for our sin. It sure doesnt do any good if we spend one day a year being remorseful for our sin, but I think its a good reminder of something we should be doing constantly. Godly sorrow brings repentance ...

I am glad I went. Catholic churches are just really cool to me. I love stained glass, I love the solemn reverant feel I get when I go in, and I think all the symbolic stuff they have is cool, just not as an object of worship. Oh, and the lady who put the ash cross on my forhead forgot what she was supposed to say halfway through and had to start over. We both started laughing during what was supposed to be a pretty solem moment. I thought that was funny. Being involved in the mass was a little awkward at times but even in that setting God convicted me of things in my life. Losing my Religion, not only the title of an R.E.M. song but also my commitment to not hold onto anything besides the gospel of Jesus Christ, nothing else matters.

On kind of a whole seperate note, Scientology is one of those most wack religions I have ever heard of. I've always known they were kind of on the crazy side just listening to Tom Cruise in some of his intervews, but I started reading this article in Rolling Stone about them and I am pretty astounded. Here is a little excerpt:

They assert that 75 million years ago, an evil galactic warlord named Xenu controlled 76 planets in this corner of the galaxy, each of which was severly overpopulated. To solve this problem, Xenu rounded up 13.5 trillion beings and then flew them to earth, where they were dumped into volcanoes around the globe and vaporized with bombs. This scattered their radioactive souls, or Thetans, until they were caught up in electric traps set up around the atmosphere and "implanted" with a number of false ideas - including the concepts of God, Christ, and organized religion
Inside Scientology, Rolling Stone, March 2006

I don't even know what to say to that. Everything about the religion is hush hush. You have to be a trusted member who signs legal contracts before they let you know all the secrets. Certian files have to be read in locked rooms and transported in locked briefcases, its just weird. The founder, L. Ron Hubbard, was a science fiction writer. How else would they come up with some of this stuff? By the way, L. Ron Hubbard is dead now.