Is Christianity bullshit?

I’m going to attempt to go over some of the main points that make up this discussion. Creator, Bible, Christ, people of God (who can be total jerks), Church, Religion/dogma? Before you come for me, this is just a conversation. I am asking questions and sharing my thoughts. I know nothing.

This is simply a collection of words from a curious soul.

Creator?

I guess we first have to decide if we believe in a creator. That’s step one.

My thoughts on that front are: If there is no creator, there is no soul. Nothing has meaning. Nothing is on purpose. I just will not live in that reality. How terribly boring. Besides, life is far too beautiful for that to be true. The way I see it is, the only way to make it through life holding tight to that belief is to walk in and out of everyday with your heart closed off to the world around you. Feeling nothing. Touching nothing. Believing nothing (when there is clearly anything but nothing). Because call it what you can right now…the universe, magic, energy, God…but whatever THAT is, is absolutely EVERYWHERE. That is, if you’re willing to get over yourself enough to see it.

End game: We are not an accident, we didn’t just end up here. We are here in purpose.

So, Creator? I vote hell yes. Absolutely.

Bible?

You might want to grab a cup of tea or a bourbon for this one.

I think we first have to realize God didn’t reach down and hand us a leather bound Bible and say “here you go”. Many of the stories were passed down word of mouth for ages before they were even written down. There’s some wild stories in there that made me double take. At first, I was thinking “goodness gracious, what kind of messed up ___ is this?” and then I thought about my moms mom and her mom and then me and how much we’ve grown as mothers in just a few generations. People are messed up and apparently they learn really slow. Humanity does appear to have gotten off to a really rocky start, to put it mildly. In regards to the Bible, I would like to point out the marvel worthy fact that there are individual stories (be it, wild ones) and then there is THE story. When chopped up, it can be mind boggling and not in a good way. But when looked at as a whole, it somehow does actually make sense. As an avid reader, I find this fascinating! The greatest plot of all time.

So, after Christ, around the year 300, the OG church fathers put together a Bible. That was the only Bible until the year 1522. This is where it gets interesting. Martin Luther gets pissed off at some shady priest or priests (valid) and starts the protestant reformation on October 31st, 1517 (anyone else think his PR team really should have advised him to pick a different date? lol). Fun fact: the word protestant means “one who protests’. Then in 1522 he published his new translation of the Bible. Bro changed Romans 3:28 & moved books around (books that consequently ended up getting taken out of the Protestant Bible all together) He’s got balls, I’ll give him that …but damn! That’s wild work.

Originally, Martin Luther moved books around but didn’t actually take them out. He just moved them to a separate section of the new protestant bible. He changed Romans 3:28 by taking out half the sentence and adding the word ‘alone’ to emphasize his sola fide ‘faith alone’ movement (umm..okay?) It wasn’t until 1825 that the practice of printing only 66 books instead of the original 73 became widespread. That means for the first 1800 years after Christ, those books were known by all Christians. Now, most people have no idea what you’re even talking about when you mention them.

That’s seven removed books of the original Bible,..but who’s counting {insert eye roll}. Me, I’m counting!

Those seven missing books are full of good s___!! If you want to check them out, they are called Deuterocanonical books and can still be found in the Catholic and Orthodox bibles.

In 1940 you had the Dead Sea scrolls discovered (fascinating finds there). Enoch will blow your mind. Then someone came up with this supposed missing book that says Jesus was married to Mary Magdalene. I’m pretty sure that’s what inspired The Da Vinci Code. Take that for what you will, I’m calling bullshit on that one. I love a good conspiracy theory but when you start digging, there’s not really a lot of solid (non-fictional) evidence of this, but feel free to prove me wrong.

As far as the Bible goes, I think discernment is required and also truly educated interpretation. I’m sorry, but I don’t want some 2 week wonder pastor telling me what he thinks God was trying to tell us in these ancient texts. Spare me, please.

I’m a little biased though cause I spent years in church and didn’t even realize the Bible I was using had missing books. Excuse me, but no. That pisses me off, actually.

People of God?

They’re human and all kinds of messed up, just like the rest of us. Don’t judge God by them.

Christ?

Did he live? Absolutely.

Did he die? Yep.

We have irrefutable evidence of both.

Did he rise again on the third day and is he the son of God?

That’s where faith comes in. Now, there are solid accounts that he did but it’s something we can’t touch or see for ourselves. I believe he did, but that comes from a place of faith. Not something I can prove. The Jews who were Gods people, don’t believe he is the messiah. Actually, I’m pretty sure they killed their own people for arguing that he was. That trips me out.

Here’s where I stand. Look at the fruit.

If you followed the life and teachings of Christ, where would that put you?

I say probably in a better place than most cause look around you. People are losing their ever-loving minds. Broken families, broken minds, broken hearts and broken spirits. Did you know the translation of the word Hell is ‘eternity separated from God’. The way I see it, there’s a lot of people unnecessarily creating hell on earth right now.

We live in a time when someone can start a random trend online and suddenly everyone is jumping on board but we balk at people who are followers of Christ.

Come on now, don’t be daft.

Church?

So, most people don’t know this ( I certainly didn’t) but there was only one church originally. A single united church. Imagine that. Then the great schism happened in 1054 and it became a split between the Catholic (which actually just means universal) Church and the Orthodox Church. For the record, I think they’re both badass and should just reunite already.. Looking from the outside (and knowing nothing) it seems that their heart is so much the same. I’m surprised they’ve stayed separated for so long, actually. Maybe we’ll see them reunite someday. My witchy (completely inappropriate term considering the conversation hah ) senses say they’ll find their way back together someday ..maybe even sooner rather than later. Fingers crossed. As far as all of the spin off denominations, I don’t know what the heck is going on there. Good luck figuring that mess out. I know Martin Luther separated from the one united church in 1517 and started the Protestant reformation. Denomination means ‘branch of’ so technically Lutheranism was the first denomination. There were no denominations before that. That’s really the only denomination I know anything about. Good luck in that rabbit hole.

Anywho, back to the point. 1517 = The beginning of churches gone roque. I get it, I’m a rebel at heart. But in hindsight, I also see how it just made for a mess of discord among believers. I think there’s over 30,000 different denominations now and they all see things differently. Call me nutty, but I don’t see that as a positive. Also, this newer trendy fun version of church that we see is very, very new. I get that the old school way can seem boring in comparison. But I kinda wonder if boring actually translates to slow & sacred and we’re just unaccustomed to that in our busy, fast paced, self-satisfying world. A world where our attention span has succumbed to that of a gold fish.

Anyhow, that’s my two cents on that. Take it for what you will.

I do feel really strongly though that when it comes to the church, like with most things, people aren’t asking anywhere near enough questions. If you are a believer, I would take the time to research the roots of the religion you are a part of. I think you might, like me, be surprised at what you find.

Just a thought, but can you image what would happen if you put the faith and fire of the Protestant church with the sacredness and sacraments of the Apostolic church. Now that wound be something, wouldn’t it? You know what that would be like? The early church. Christ’s church, as it was intended to be.

Religion/Dogma?

Ugh, that’s a hard one for me. I have been dragged kicking and screaming to a point in my journey where I would even walk back into a church, let alone consider joining one. That said, I am scheduled to start OCIA classes in April. I feel sorry for whoever has me in their class. I will keep you posted.

That’s it for now, I guess.

If you made it this far, thanks for listening to me yap.

With love,

Brooke Hampton