Not Swooning For Men That Juggle

Wow. Wow. At church a bit ago, there was a juggler. It was pretty cool (I am so mature and classy sometimes). I liked the juggling and thought it was cool to see a juggler who uses that passion to spread God’s love. False. I did not feel God’s love. It was juggling so tons of kids were sitting front row center and heard and saw a story with magic tricks explaining that Buddha and Mohammed were essentially fakers and wrong. He then explained that Jesus is the only real son of God (which is true) and therefore the only right way to heaven.
BULLSHIT (excuse the language, I get super pissed when people use kids to spread hate). You may say, what’s so wrong, Naomi? Why is that hate? You cannot teach children who are taught to trust adults that other religion is wrong and they’re right. That’s inexcusable to me. This whole I’m right, you’re wrong and hell bound is so old that it makes neon leggings look like a fresh fashion statement (oh…wait…). You’re giving children no basis for 1) questioning (which is the best part of being a little kid) 2) tolerance and 3) true faith.
Think about it, if people tell you that you’ll go to hell unless you’re a Christian and that’s your basis for why…that’s a bullshit reason. When people ask me why I chose to be a Christian I say that Judaism classes are a lot of work (actually I did want to be Jewish for a looooong time which I can explain later) and that I truly believe in the message of Jesus to love and show that love through our actions and use the knowledge that EVERY PERSON MATTERS.
What would I tell kids? So glad you asked! I would tell them that Christianity is ONE type of faith and it has a lot of history (good and bad). Then, I would explain what Jesus’ message was and encourage the wee little ones to read the Bible and find out for yourself what YOU think his message was. JUGGLE THAT! I bet you can’t.
P.S. Here’s why I wanted to be Jewish. When I was super little (like Kindergarten) my mom who taught English did a section on the Holocaust. I grew up watching movies and reading books pertaining to the subject. My mom gave a lot of answers and we saw a lot of museums and things on the subject. When I was confirmed (protestant Christians become members of the church when they’re about 12 ad the process is known as confirmation), my dad took all the confirmands to a synagogue for service (he says, Judaism is our roots). I loved it. I loved the service and the strong message of tolerance. Loved it. But I decided on my own to be confirmed as a United Methodist Christian. So, later I became a confirmation leader and went to another service at a liberal synagogue. Dude, their prayer books took out “he”, “him”, and “his” in reference to God because (get this) God is genderless! Bingo! Sign me up! But I also realize that maybe my place is to get this stuff going in the United Methodist Church and to be a force in my faith that I feel in my heart. So, my admiration for Judaism continues to grow as my place in my chosen faith also does. THE END…JUGGLE THAT TOO!