Yeah, I thought I'd make a post about this--What turns musicians away from religion (more specifically Christianity).
First off I'd like to say that I'm not about to hate on liberal people, conservative people, or any kind of religion. I'm just going to give an open perspective of why this is such a conflict.
Christians are often guilty of preaching things that aren't necessarily in the Bible. This goes for other religions, but again, I'm targeting Christianity. What I mean by this is that at churches, church-funded events, Christian youth-groups (I have been in a few) and other such happenings, they often speak the word of God, often to convert non-Christians/non-believers. This is fine, however, many times have I seen preachers sprinkle in words of their own. This is not fine. For me, I would go to church to hear the word of God and nothing else. I do not go to church anymore, due to bad experiences. And by this I mean judgement, discrimination, and cliques. Yes, cliques. You wouldn't think a religious gathering would have cliques, but unfortunately a lot of them do. For me it was the "God's little helpers" who put on the charade of having perfect lives and perfect families. It's really insulting. I see a bunch of cowards sitting in those pews. What are you afraid of? Not being "perfect?" No, I'm not hating on these people. I'm just not falling for the act that everything is fine and they have perfect lives. And now about that judgement and discrimination. Oh boy. Here we go.
This sub-topic is really where the majority of my frustration comes from. And this is not coming from someone who has gone to one church for all their lives. I've been to so many churches I can't even count them. And I haven't been at one particular church for very long, either. So my opinion here is really unbiased.
I am a perfect victim of judgement. I dye my hair bright colors (green, pink, black, purple, etc.) often, I wear heavy eyeliner, lots of black...you get the idea. Like I said, I went to a few youth groups in my history of churches, and recently quit the last one. The pattern is roughly the same each time, but I'm going to share about my most recent encounters at a church youth group:
At first, everyone's really, really nice. Everything seems great. I made a few friends, found out who to stay away from, play some cool games, and hear about the "word of God." Over time I start to notice things are different for me. I started to become separated from the other kids. My friends turned into fair-weather friends. One week they'd talk with me the entire time, the next they'd completely ignore me. At the time I didn't know why, so I got pretty upset about it. Of all the people, it was the youth group counselors who started picking on me for my band shirts, my hair, and since I started getting frustrated with the sports (I'm not an athlete) I didn't want to participate some weeks. They would pick on me until I joined in. I started coming home exhausted, frustrated, and hurt (and I mean literally injured sometimes). Maybe a year of this passed until I started realizing: why am I here? I'm not having fun, no one cares about me, and it isn't helping me in any way. So I quit. Yes, it was annoying to sit at home with nothing to do on those nights, but better than going to a place where I didn't ever fit in and no one liked me. So that's a little story about my personal experience with churches and church outh groups. And I'm sure there's lots of churches out there with less judgemental people, but so far I haven't had any luck.
So please, if you are one of those people who plays this charade, just stop! It's frustrating and discouraging.
Until next time,
Rock on.
-That Girl Who Plays Bass and Keys
First off I'd like to say that I'm not about to hate on liberal people, conservative people, or any kind of religion. I'm just going to give an open perspective of why this is such a conflict.
Christians are often guilty of preaching things that aren't necessarily in the Bible. This goes for other religions, but again, I'm targeting Christianity. What I mean by this is that at churches, church-funded events, Christian youth-groups (I have been in a few) and other such happenings, they often speak the word of God, often to convert non-Christians/non-believers. This is fine, however, many times have I seen preachers sprinkle in words of their own. This is not fine. For me, I would go to church to hear the word of God and nothing else. I do not go to church anymore, due to bad experiences. And by this I mean judgement, discrimination, and cliques. Yes, cliques. You wouldn't think a religious gathering would have cliques, but unfortunately a lot of them do. For me it was the "God's little helpers" who put on the charade of having perfect lives and perfect families. It's really insulting. I see a bunch of cowards sitting in those pews. What are you afraid of? Not being "perfect?" No, I'm not hating on these people. I'm just not falling for the act that everything is fine and they have perfect lives. And now about that judgement and discrimination. Oh boy. Here we go.
This sub-topic is really where the majority of my frustration comes from. And this is not coming from someone who has gone to one church for all their lives. I've been to so many churches I can't even count them. And I haven't been at one particular church for very long, either. So my opinion here is really unbiased.
I am a perfect victim of judgement. I dye my hair bright colors (green, pink, black, purple, etc.) often, I wear heavy eyeliner, lots of black...you get the idea. Like I said, I went to a few youth groups in my history of churches, and recently quit the last one. The pattern is roughly the same each time, but I'm going to share about my most recent encounters at a church youth group:
At first, everyone's really, really nice. Everything seems great. I made a few friends, found out who to stay away from, play some cool games, and hear about the "word of God." Over time I start to notice things are different for me. I started to become separated from the other kids. My friends turned into fair-weather friends. One week they'd talk with me the entire time, the next they'd completely ignore me. At the time I didn't know why, so I got pretty upset about it. Of all the people, it was the youth group counselors who started picking on me for my band shirts, my hair, and since I started getting frustrated with the sports (I'm not an athlete) I didn't want to participate some weeks. They would pick on me until I joined in. I started coming home exhausted, frustrated, and hurt (and I mean literally injured sometimes). Maybe a year of this passed until I started realizing: why am I here? I'm not having fun, no one cares about me, and it isn't helping me in any way. So I quit. Yes, it was annoying to sit at home with nothing to do on those nights, but better than going to a place where I didn't ever fit in and no one liked me. So that's a little story about my personal experience with churches and church outh groups. And I'm sure there's lots of churches out there with less judgemental people, but so far I haven't had any luck.
So please, if you are one of those people who plays this charade, just stop! It's frustrating and discouraging.
Until next time,
Rock on.
-That Girl Who Plays Bass and Keys
