Religious Ingraining

I am fortunate to have many friends so I know many different mind sets, people of different back grounds and up bringing. For me the religious foundation which was ingrained in me was Assembly of God, Southside Assmebly of God to be exact on 13th and I streets in Brownwood, Texas. It was a small church with huge beliefs and my last years there it was ministered to by a fiery preacher who we referred to as Brother Mallone. His sweaty sermons were "anti" Catholic, Church of Christ, Jehovah Witness, and certainly "anti" homosexual. What I remember are all the "amens" he would encourage from his meager congregation, all encouraging him to become more red in the face during his ranting and sometimes he would run around the church with excitement, surely scaring any hapless visitor to our church. I know it often scared me and caused many sleepless nights where I would lay in bed wondering if Jesus was coming back and would I be left behind to face the "Annie" Christ, notice the spelling.

As a child I wasn't allowed to visit other churches, and my only knowledge about them was what I learned at Southside, yet I met children at school who attended these other churches and I remember thinking, "Y'all are going to hell" or "When Jesus comes back y'all are going to have to face the Annie Christ and God help y'all". It's sad, but people still believe if someone isn't of their faith then they are missing heaven's boat.

Now as an adult I realize we all do have differences, most ingrained or conditioned in our minds from children and I have learned how to think outside of all the expected thoughts and think maybe there is something else or what I was taught is wrong. I did walk away from all this with some good traits, such as personal ethics, an empathy towards anyone who is different or persecuted and certainly towards the poor.

I personally compare organized religion to racism, it is something which is taught, and in the teaching we ingrain a rightness in little minds who grow up to be adult minds. We all do have the right to worship, believe devoutly anything we want, however think about teaching the absolute and it's dangers.