I would like to clear something out before we get to my
story. Faith and religion are NOT the same, although we often use them
interchangeably. Faith is what you have in you, something that is not seen on
the outside and remains constant from person to person, but is the most important
component of any belief system. Religion is the external rules and regulations
that a belief system has, something that can be seen on the outside and is not
same from person to person. Most of these traditions are man-made, and the
belief system itself may not preach such tradition, or even tell that a rule or
tradition is not to be practiced. Thus, faith and religion are two separate
things, and if a person has one of them, it doesn’t necessarily mean that they
should have the other. For example, a Christian need not necessarily wear a
cross around their neck, and a person wearing a cross need not necessarily be a
Christian.
Every person has some experience with any belief system -
either good or bad. If one were to ask you, who suffers the most because of
religious nuts, the first thing that comes to mind is atheists, and you’re not
wrong. But, there is yet another group of people who go through tremendous
mental torture because of religious fanatics - the ones who stand firm in the
faith that the belief system proclaims, but not the external religious
claptrap.
When I was fifteen, I was doing my intermediate first year
at St. Francis College for Women, Secunderabad. The college conducted a
three-day retreat in our campus, where they explained from the basics about
what Christianity is, pointing to some key Scriptures as they elaborated. It
was an eye-opener. That was the day I saw how amazingly beautiful my faith was,
felt immensely proud it and committed my entire being to Christ for the rest of
my life.
The reason why it was an eye-opener for me was because it was nothing
like my relatives showed Christianity to be. They were just following external
laws, rituals and traditions (the part called religion), but that did not have
any effect on the internal i.e. the heart. They recited Scriptures, but did not
ever try to understand what they meant. They prayed, but there was no faith
that their prayers would be answered. They sang songs of praise and worship
towards Him, but their hearts were far from Him. Their perception of
Christianity was to be perfect on the outside, but the actual message was to
bear “…the fruit of the Spirit [which] is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness,
goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such there is no
law” (Galatians: 5:22,23)
It doesn’t matter what you eat, what clothes you wear, where
you come from, what was your past or what you are now, all you have to do is
BELIEVE that the Saviour, Jesus Christ took your sins and its consequences,
died for them and rose from the dead. Then, you spend the rest of your life
loving and forgiving people, BECAUSE He has loved and forgiven you. That, my
friends, is the “faith” part of Christianity, and to be honest, it’s the ONLY
part that matters. The external show of cross around the neck, sticking a
picture of Jesus on your stuff, wearing white clothes, eating only certain
foods, fasting compulsorily on some day(s) of the week, not wearing jeans and
other such nonsense is of no use, or, even worse, it can lead to weaknesses in
various areas of your life.
During my last vacation, I made it clear to my relatives
that I was not going to be a part of their religious routines of waking up at 4
am, groggily pray for an hour, blindly read ten chapters from the Bible and
spend some more time memorizing a chapter. I was going to sleep till I woke up
fresh, then pray as long as I felt like praying, or skip it to the afternoon,
read one chapter with utmost attention, making every effort to grasp the
message in it and remember the concept of the Word. Well, that definitely got
their religious brains crazy with indignation and rage.
My grandma saw me as someone who was desecrating her
religion. Every time we ran into each other, she would say that I had sinned,
and I have to fall on my knees, begging for forgiveness from God. She once got
angry because I wore tight pants and a tee shirt. She said by wearing such
clothes, I was dishonoring God. I once spoke out against my father because he
was treating my mother with disrespect. She said that according to the Bible,
my father is the head of the house, so he had the right to treat my mother
however he wished. I stayed quiet for a while, but then I couldn’t take it
anymore. I asked her, “By not following your rules, am I desecrating God or
hurting you? Should I ask forgiveness from God or from you? By wearing tight
pants and a tee shirt, am I dishonoring God or dishonoring you? Yes, ‘the
husband is the head of the wife’ (Ephesians: 5:23), but also, ‘the husband is
supposed to love his wife, just as Christ loved the church and died for her’
(Ephesians:5:25), not treat her like trash.”
That was it. We ended our relationship for good. I told my mom
that if I was going to see her again, it would only be when she has changed. I
was not going to do stuff that I don’t believe in, even if everybody else does
it. If I believe in something, I am going to stand up for it and against the
critics. I will not be a hypocrite. Jesus said to the religious fanatics of His
day, “You people tithe (give one-tenth of) mint, rue and cumin (as a religious
duty), but neglect the weightier matters: justice, mercy and faith.”
Yes, my relatives see me as a rebel, but I honestly don’t
care. I
believe in something beautiful, and I am not going to shy
away from it,
even if it gets negative attention.
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