As you have read, probably several times now, I have been working with my bias against Christianity. And after a few months, I really feel like I am in a good place with it. However, I can only let go things that happened in the past… There are some issues that are more current that I would really like to take a moment to discuss.

The one, in particular, that I would like to speak about is communion.

In June, I was had some deep conversations with an acquaintance that is a Unitarian Universalist (UU) Minister, and she was engaged to marry a Catholic guy. She had take a lot of classes on religion, she had attended his church regularly, attended masses, and at one point, the Priest offered for her to accept communion. She considered it, but thought better of it as she didn’t know how her husband-to-be would take that action. She is a minister, and a leader of faith, but was she a Catholic? Even though her being a minister of the UU congregation would not force any particular religion, she didn’t know if she was a Catholic. This pointed out part of the problem. I spoke to her about the sacred manor of that ritual, and she realized that it would good that she did not partake.

First of all, the Catholics I have met, are somewhat offended by the word ritual for things they do in their faith. “Rituals are things that have been made taboo, and they can only be evil.” When really, a ritual as a “a religious or solemn ceremony consisting of a series of actions performed according to a prescribed order.” Which applies to most of what occurs inside of Catholic masses, as well as the mass itself.

And that also leads to the problem. The making words taboo to indicate a certain level of quality over religious rights. How can the society around you assist you to make the decisions that any religious community wants you to? They can do it by social norming. Make it seem that something is bad, even in the way it is spoken about. Can bring the idea of evil into and ordinary or mundane activity.

Ritual – According to social norms, is almost equivalent to evil. Even though, the definition of the word indicates that it is exactly what happens every Sunday in a Catholic or Christian church.

I question that all of these social norms that have been created actually take away the ability to truly have faith in something? If it is evil to hear voices, or speak to spirit, how are you supposed to hear what your God wants of you? Isn’t that the job of a priest? To communicate and translate the word of God?

So, I come back to Communion. When I was 8, I was at a church, and I was all but locked in a room until I accepted Christ as my savior, and then I was forced to take communion.

With what I know now about this ritual, and now about energy, I am appalled that this type of thing can happen. If you truly believe, that when you place the wafer on your tongue, or drink the wine, you are truly ingesting the body and blood of Christ, for him to save you for your sins, forcing that on someone is more like rape than salvation.

Which leads me to ask the question, do they really have faith in their religion? This is not to be offensive, but a true question. No one I have ever met, truly took communion with the weight I would imagine that comes from that kind of commitment.

Not only are you admitting to sins that you have never taken part of, you are entering into an agreement where by you believe this entity will swoop down and save you from yourself, and in exchange, you will give life-long devotion to being the type of good that the Christ would want.

Which once again, brings up my question of faith. So many of the Christians I see acting out right now, which I accept are much more like the Taliban of Christians rather than true believers of the faith, they are finding ways to hate in the lords name. If you read anything from the bible, you will see that Jesus did nothing but love. And when he met a thief, a prostitute, a neighbor, or an enemy. I greeted them with open arms and expressed his love.

How can those who have accepted such a covenant, act the way they do, and still have faith?