Starting point
I too was raised Lutheran, then again, my “faith’s tenets” always seemed irrelevant to me in any way. Buddhism fits what I believe as a philosophy and not a faith, it also accepts other faiths, philosophies, and creeds as they, in essence, do not change Buddhist philosophy at all. Basically, you can be a Buddhist and worship whatever pantheon of gods, angels, demons etc, etc, that you want to believe in.
My problem with male-centric religions.
- They tend to be organized in a hierarchical male power-based structure.
- Their power is based on possession of your “soul”, if you do not obey their “teachings” it will be damned forever.
- They promote male privilege with respect to temporal and spiritual applications.
- Historically they have been quite violent to even small deviations to their core beliefs/rituals.
- They try to claim whole countries' populations belong to their particular version. I don’t remember having a vote on this one, then again, why would they allow me to?
*There may be exceptions, I haven’t studied theology and do not intend to.
Personally, I do not care what religion you believe in on an individual basis, I’ll only start to think/care when you promote one organization over any other. When it gets to fundamentalist levels I begin to worry and look for cover.
Just don’t try and convert me, my replies will vary, and sometimes I will even play along for fun, but mostly I won’t.
