Introduction

I've tried to keep a religious journal, full of verses and such, but it never works out. And I'm surprisingly pretty good at updating my other two blogs (Miss Leah Wilde's Sewing Blog and Tracing My Roots) so I thought I'd try keeping a religious blog.

I'm not really expecting anyone to follow this honestly. A lot of my friends aren't Christian so I really don't plan to publicize it like I do my other blogs. I'm mainly doing this for me. If someone does stumble upon it and reads it, then that's fine as well.

Now for an introduction to my religious beliefs (which are sometimes convoluted and hazy even to myself). I consider myself to be Christian. I was actually raised with a mix of Wicca and Christianity, I think my mother and I have firmly reconciled ourselves with being Pow Wow. Which makes sense considering our ancestors were Pennsylvania Dutch.

I don't mind the Old Testament, in fact some of my favorite stories come from there - Esther and Joseph to name a couple. But do I really believe that they actually happened? That's a bit more dicey for me. I think I subscribe to the "Bible as literature" school. Not that you can't learn things from the Bible, but I think its more of a learning tool than a history book. And a lot of things in the Old Testament are out dated. Like the prohibition of tattoos. My uncle once quoted the OT to me about my tattoos and I just looked at him and said "I'm Christian, not Jewish."

I don't like much of the New Testament honestly. I like the Gospels and have read them. I'm trying to work my way through Acts, but have been rather lax in reading lately. I've also read several of the Gnostic Gospels (including the Gospel of Judas) and own an Apocrypha that I'd like to read soon.

I think Jesus was a great man and a great prophet. I also think he was married. And I don't know if I believe he was divine. I said this once to a friend and her answer was "That's what faith is about" so maybe I just need more faith.

I don't believe in the devil, nor do I believe in hell. I don't believe that absolutes exist -- there is no absolute good, there is no absolute evil. Thus there is no devil. As for hell, how can a loving God confine someone to eternal torment? I believe in punishment, I just don't believe in eternal punishment. The concept of purgatory makes sense. I really don't know if I believe in heaven either honestly. I believe there's something after death, but maybe the concept of purgatory and some sort of Elysian Fields makes more sense for me.

Well there's an overview of some of my beliefs. I warned you at least. Convoluted and hazy.

I expect this blog will be just what I titled it - ramblings. I plan to talk about verses from the Bible, random ideas I have, other things I've read outside of the Bible, and so forth.

Goodbye for now. God Bless.