Sunday, April 8, 2012
Respect
Is it respectful to go to church and not be a part of the religion. Is it respectful to participate in certain aspects of the church without believing in wwhat they represent. I went to church this weekend for easter and am not catholic whatsoever and do not believe in God. This thought came to me a few times, was I doing something wrong by being there?
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I do not think that attending a church, and/or participating in its activities, without belonging to that church's denomination is disrespectful at all. Unless the church states that only members of the religion are allowed within, you are simply taking advantage of an open invitation. In fact, I think that many churches would probably welcome visitors, due to the chance of gaining new members of the faith. Curiosity about other systems of belief is an indication of an admirable sort of open-mindedness, I think. As long as you do not take the opportunity of being in a church to cause disruption amongst the other attendees (for example, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church shouting and throwing rotten fruit in a Unitarian Universalist church), there is no reason not to attend churches (or other places of worship) for all the religions you wish to investigate.
ReplyDeleteP.S. I also posted this on my blog if you'd rather read it there.
I don't think it is disrespectful. There is nothing wrong with listening about other peoples religions and views. When I was growing up my mother changed her religion every other weekend, and although I had no idea what was going on I think I learned a lot of good life lessons from these churches even if I didn't follow the religion.
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