Yesterday, the USA Today ran an article on GenY and religion; basically saying that while we may not be as associated with organized religions as the generations before us, it doesn't mean that we aren't religious. Didn't I describe myself in just that way in a previous blog entry?
Some of you may wonder what I do for certain holidays like Christmas and Easter in which special services are conducted. I will usually go to a local Greek Orthodox (which is what my family had belonged to historically, although my parents had long dropped out of the practice of religion by the time I was born) or Catholic church. I am not unfamiliar with the practices and customs of the Greek Orthodox Church (GOC), but having not been born and raised in it like my parents were, I don't understand some of why they do what they do, and why they believe in what they believe.
Yes, I know what some of you are thinking; if I want to understand it, then I should join it. One reason is demonstrated by the example that someone once gave me: Two persons may be in a car on the road, but the driver undergoes a different experience than the passenger does. The passenger's mind may be free to wander and take in the sights passing by, but the driver has to stay focused on what he or she is doing, or they both won't make it to their destination. And yet, the driver has a different kind of freedom that the passenger does not: The driver has the power to determine where they are going and how they get there. A passenger is like the church shopper who never joins, while the driver is like the church shopper who makes a commitment to join.
The GOC might be a logical start for me, and yet, my parents left that church for a reason. However, they left it because they are of the radical left-wing Marxist mindset of religion being the "opium of the masses", so their views are hardly objective and analytical (If you don't know Marxists already, then trust me, they are unreasonable and illogical people). I must confess that there is a mischievous side of me that wants to join the GOC just to piss off my parents. However it's one thing to adopt a conservative political ideology as a form of teenage rebellion, but another matter entirely to join my parents' former religious faith just to spite them. After all, joining a faith out of spite to someone is not a good reason to join it!
So anyway, I am still looking as stated in my previous blog entry linked above. It is interesting to see that my experiences regarding faith and spirituality are common in my generation. I have - well, faith! - that we will find our way one day, and it will be after some true soul-searching to find our way. This actually leads to how the baby boomers complicated matters for us, but I'll save that for a discussion for another time. I'm working on a blog entry somewhat related to this anyway. :-)
No comments:
Post a Comment