Do you go to church?

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When I was going to church as a teen and young adult, I was really into it. However, no one was taking it as serious as me. The teens as one of the strictest Baptist churches were making out. I even went to a Christian school and the teens were making out on the bus after the game. And some of the adults were bigoted against blacks. The Baptist are republicans through and through.
They taught their ideals all over the place. Huckleby was a Baptist minister. I was scared there for a minute.

So as of now, I like Buddhism because they don't put down a group of people and are taught how to have self control.

Aspie4u
Do you regularly practice with a sanga? I am curious if meditating with a group works for you or if it is more difficult.

Also if you don't mind, what tradition do you practice?

I don't know what 'call you out on this' means but

You don't have to go to church because God is everywhere. You can pray to Him when and where you want and He will hear (be reasonable though - talking to Him while on the toilet or something isn't the best time and place!).

All I have is a CD recording. There's no sanga in this town. I don't think working in a group would bother me since they will teach how to control your thoughts. The socialization would be the only problem, I guess.

Thank you for the reply. I read on a religious forum a while ago that people opn the spectrum tended towards Buddhism but that doesn't seem to be what I am seeing on WP.

I don't have a local sanga either. I think it is ideal mostly for the support. In my experience the socialization side is very different with Buddhists, than Christians, at least in the western world where Christianity is the default.

There are a lot of good resources online, and good books out there that help a lot if you decide to deepen your practice.

I personally find discovering meditation to be one of the best things that happened to me.

Church, sangha, it's all about fellowship and community.

Amen! If only more people took a view like that. I often disagree with you lately but that is a very good observation.

[quote="Aspie4u"\When I was going to church as a teen and young adult, I was really into it. However, no one was taking it as serious as me. The teens as one of the strictest Baptist churches were making out. I even went to a Christian school and the teens were making out on the bus after the game. [/quote]


well...yes. abstinence-only and all that fails
http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2008 ... ntPage=all

lulz. Stereotype proven. Racist Republicans.

Then again Black Baptist churches are just as f****d up.

BTW do you live in the South East United States?



yes...the guy....

had to lol, he had Chuc Norris on his ad and he crack some of those jokes

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDUQW8LUMs8



well, arguably the case of secessionism in Southern Thailand between Muslims and Buddhists and the case of Tibet before China came in.

BTW I'm Agnostic.

Church is not for Saints, it is a place that sinners can pretend. Good place to score.

It is not just Blacks, it's Asians, Chinese, Democrats, other religions, other Republicans, they believe in Equality. God hangs out with Jews, and they have money, always something to learn.

Buddhists seek harmony with the Universe, but those people without control produce static and lower the vibe.

I did like The Tibetian Book of the Dead, the Tantric Path. I always was a loner. The Bardo states remind me of my life.

Native American Church, like Buddhism, a wider view of fellowship and community.

Alone on a mountain top under the stars.

I don't go now, but I used to go all the time.

As a child, I was forced to go by my parents and I was miserable. At the church I attended as a child, I was the only kid in my church that attended my school. I told my parents that I didn't have any friends, but that didn't matter. As I stated on another post, my feelings were ignored and invalidated. My parents told me it was my fault that I didn't have friends, and I could make them if I tried. Or, when they were angry, which was frequently, they told me I didn't have sense enough to make friends and, with the way I acted, there was no wonder other kids didn't like me.

Growing up, I was forced to be in the Christmas play every year, and I hated it. One year, I refused to go to practice, and I was whipped so hard that I got sick and missed two days of school. When I got into my teens, I protested even more because I was nearly grown and most of the other kids were grade school age. One Saturday night, I refused to go practice. The pastor came up to the house and asked me why I wasn't down at the church practicing. I told him I wasn't interested and didn't want to be with a bunch of little kids. When I said that, my mother made me go practice and be in the play. The next day, Sunday, I made a profession of faith to please my mother and to get the preacher off my back. I later asked my mother why we went to that church, and she said because my father liked the people.

Before I go any farther, let me stop here and say that I have nothing against the church. I am a Christian and I believe in Jesus. But I am also aware that I am different, and that makes me uncomfortable around other people, and vice versa. All my life, I have been blamed for something that I can't help, and I'm sick of it.

In my adult life, I have had no end of trouble as far as interpersonal relationships are concerned--everything from being unable to keep a job to being asked to leave church because the people didn't feel comfortable with me. This happened with the church I grew up in, as well as the last church I attended. As a result, I am never going to church again. I miss going at times, but why subject myself to such torture since I can't connect to people. When my mother died almost seven years ago, no one from my church came the night she died except one man that had a part in the service--he came to get some information about my mother such as when she married, where she worked, etc, stayed about fifteen minutes, and he was gone. The interim pastor at the time, who was good friends with my mother and me, didn't even come. When I asked him why, he couldn't give an explanation, other than he should have, but didn't. I can count on one hand the number of people from that church who came to the visitation. Thinking back, I know that the majority of the people felt uncomfortable with me because of my differences, and didn't want to bother with me. I found out much later that someone else in the same church had died the same day, but that is no excuse. Someone should have still came by. I stayed in that church almost 20 years, only to discover I had no real friends. I went to a grief support group for a few weeks, but it didn't help. For almost seven years now, I have been grieving alone and it honestly hasn't gotten any better.

If the church and/or psychiatry doesn't help, where do you turn? Anyone been there?

Going to church has never been a big deal in my family. The way some people go on you'd think we were all horrible serial killers who drink blood from our victim's skulls.

I go to a very small congregation of the church of Christ.

I went to a huge congregation until I was about 12 years old. It was a traumatizing experience for me because of the number of people, the size of the building and the number of other kids. That's where my SM started and got its foothold.

I recommend a small place, about 60 members is what I do best in.

You mean it's not socially acceptable behavior?!?

Not since I was a teenager. When I was a kid my family only went to church infrequently and it wasn't a big deal. I remember going to vacation bible school when I was little, and it was ok as far as getting to make crafts and have snacks, but I really disliked the things they were teaching. It was all very weird and creepy to me and I knew from the get go that it wasn't for me.

When I was 12 we had a family crisis and my parents decided I needed more religion. So we started going to church regularly and I also had to go to a private Christian school for 3 years that was very strict and cult-like. Then I went back to public school and by that time, I'd had more than enough of going to church. I gradually started backing out of going until one day my parents confronted me and I told them I didn't want to go to church anymore.

The people at church were mostly very kind and friendly but some of them were smiley-happy friendly in a way that was just suffocating. It was tiresome being greeted by so many different people, and having them ask me nosy questions and tell me to smile and things like that. It was way too social for me and besides I cannot socialize with people anyway on the basis of something I do not believe in.

I went to a couple catholic schools that occasionally had church but I never went outside of that because my family is Catholic but not very practicing. I'm a Secular Humanist so I don't go to church nowadays.

No, I finished my sentence. My punishment is complete.