by James Douglas Doorsman

Created on: January 02, 2010   Last Updated: January 04, 2010

It may be hard to imagine but I grew up in a family where out of the eight members I was the only one raised Roman Catholic.  I had two step brothers, a step sister, a half sister and one sister who was my full blooded sibling.  We lived directly in front of a convent with the church to the right of the house and a rectory and a school completed the facade.

We looked like the happy family living in front of Saint Theresa church but truth be told what went on in our house had little to do with religion.  I attended the Catholic school but my other "siblings" attended the local public school.  I still wonder what compelled my step father to locate me there but things are what they are so I did what I was told.

Searching for truth in religion is tough when you saw the things I did as a child.  For example I woke one morning to the clang of metal against, well something I couldn't fathom.  I looked out the back window of the house and could see Father Nee swinging a shovel over his head and striking something.  I dressed hurriedly and bound out of the house to see what he was doing and if I could help.  Father was a mean old man; well, at least that he how he seemed to most people but he didn't frighten me much.  He was hard at work doing whatever it was he was doing and I walked over to take a closer look.

What I saw was horrifying to a small child.  The man was beating a ground hog to a bloody pulp with the metal end of a shovel.  Apparently he had tracked this animal who had been destroying his prize rose bed and having cornered it proceeded to beat it well beyond dead.  I said, "Father I think you've beaten it enough, the animal is dead."  He looked up at me sweat pouring off his furrowed brow smiled wryly and walked away.  I buried that animal wondering the whole while how a man of the cloth could be so cruel.  That was a turning point in my religious life and is why I began to search for truth in religion.

"Do unto others as you would have done unto you."  Well I certainly don't want to be beaten to death with a shovel so that leaves that one out, doesn't it?  Maybe they weren't talking about animals.  I just think these Roman Catholics don't get what Jesus told them so I better check out some other Christian religions.

So, what exactly is the truth in my religion?  I firmly believe that Jesus walked our earth and that he was of The Holy Trinity.  Believing in science I have no choice.  If I were to insert the chicken or the egg theory I get to the point every time as to where the hell did the freaking chicken come from or the egg? Who had this object in their pocket?  It must have been God.

So we have God and being spiritual and having had contact with the spirit world (which is another discussion) which leaves us with the Son of God.  Having read the Bible I believed that Jesus must have been around or those twelve apostles had very avid imaginations.  Now we have the Holy Trinity again and the teachings of The Christ.  I live like a Christian.  Whenever there is a question, even as an old man of fifty-three, about right or wrong I ask myself, “What would Jesus do?” and I proceed accordingly.

Truth in religion?  It must be your truth.  Either you believe or you don't believe. Can I tell an Aztec warrior that his love of the sun is not the one true god when my God created the sun and the moon and the stars? I think not!

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