Anticipation

This is the first website concerning spirituality, that I check about every 3 seconds to see what new post have appeared. I think about what I have learned while I'm at work, playing with my children and watching a movie. It's wonderful to feel welcome and comfortable in such a setting.

I grew up going to a Southern Baptist church, where on Monday through Saturday everyone did whatever they wanted, regardless of the consequences, and on Sunday, acted like they were the right hand of God.
Needless to say, I rebelled against this type of behavior. I don't always \"practice what I preach\", but I do it as much as I can. There have been moments in my life when I felt the pull to God, and I did what everyone said I should, I got saved. Not to mention that my father being Jewish, my mother Baptist and my wife, Catholic, makes for interesting times.

But of course I backslid every time and fell further away from any type of Christianity. I felt that some of the \"sins\", were not sins to me, like tattooing, interracial couples/marriage, and homosexuality. So being the knowledge loving Sagittarius that I am, I started researching other religions. Buddhism, Muslim, Scientology, Mormonism and many others were looked into, but none quite right fit the bill for me.

The idea or belief of a \"Force\", a power that flows through everything, makes up everything, is right for me. I cannot find any fault, in my personal idea of a religion to me, in the concept of the force. So to my great fortune and probably misfortune of the people I will bother with endless questions, I have joined this Temple with a \"do\" attitude.

Thanks for letting my turbulent spirit find a home to find peace and harmony.

Your experiences echo many here Brother, again...welcome to the Order.

I concur with Lenny - it's hard to find something that works just right, and it's easy to become disillusioned by the available religions. I'm personally of the mind that religion as a whole should be a personal thing, and therefore should differ from person to person, and experience to experience.

Given the overall generic aspect of the Force, it can (like Taoism) be applied to and blended with many other religions, forming a system of beliefs wholly dependent upon the individual.

This is probably something interesting about the Jedi in general, of course... they respect and accept each other's differences, regardless of race, gender, or (I'd assume) sexual preference.

Though given that the Jedi are supposed to be asexual, I guess that latter one isn't quite as accepted - but from what I understand, many famous Jedi have fallen in love before.

At any rate... Jedi come from all walks of life. White... Black... Twi'lek... Ithorian... whatever the heck Yoda is...

Welcome, bro.

You can ask as many questions as you like brother, fire away!! If you need any help you can PM me to your hearts content. I grew up in a Pentecostal household so I know how you feel, believe me. I moved away from Christianity and ended up practicing Zen Buddhism and Jediism, where I am today. What attracted me most was the fact that Jediism never tried to definitively define who or what God was, and that was in perfect keeping with my personal beliefs. I firmly believe that as the gnostics said, \"Whatever you bring forth will save you\", or at least I'm pretty sure they said that first....LOL. Anyway welcome to our temple, YOUR temple. If you need me you know where to find me.

~Merin~

Im happy that you found some place where you can be your self.
Most other religions are about controling the piople.In this one your the one thats in control.
Thank you for shareing your thoughts.

Daniel Luckie wrote:

Most other religions are about controling the piople.In this one your the one thats in control.

Oh! Like Satanism! Only we didn't name it as a \"Screw you\" to another religion.

(At least, I think that's why they decided to call it \"Satanism\" instead of, say, Individualism, or something...)

I think we should be very careful about how we label other religions. Just because we for one reason or another could not cope with these does not mean that others don`t. Jedi should be able to look beyond the limits of their own garden fences and see into the horizon. There are a lot of people finding answers and giving answers in most religions. To generalise is quite condescending, and distracting from an important question of \"where did I go wrong?\"

I quite agree.

Well said Br.