by Susan Bennett

Created on: April 22, 2010   Last Updated: April 24, 2010

My Beliefs

Today I read an article by a woman whose children made her question her religious belief system, or at the very least, theirs. This got me thinking about my own and how they have in some ways changed over the years and in others stayed the same. One thing I am presently inclined to think is that as we get older, hopefully a little wiser, and with being a little more well-read, we start to question our beliefs. We do this cautiously, however, especially if we grew up in a family that valued our religion. Now let me explain my thought process on this.

I was raised in a family consisting of my parents and two sisters, one older and one younger. We are Lutherans who went to church every week, Sunday School when we were little, and as children went to Vacation Bible School over the summer. Between our church and my parents teaching us what Christianity is about I think we were raised with a pretty good set of values and a good moral code. We learned the difference between right and wrong, to be kind to others, help others when they need it, not to be judgmental, you know the Golden Rule that says to “Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” I learned about the Bible and its teachings. I’ll be the first to admit that some things made me a little skeptical – not that I would question my thoughts out loud for fear of disbelief by my fellow Christians – or worse – what if God got mad at me for second-guessing what the “older and wiser” adults taught me! Don’t get me wrong. Our faith was not in any way fear-based. It’s just that no one else I knew questioned things, so I was not going to be the first and only one.

Did anyone ever wonder though what all these other religions were about? And if I believe being a Lutheran is the only religion there should be (which by the way I do not), does that make everyone else’s religion wrong? When I was very young and first learned a tiny bit about the Jewish faith from a classmate, it appeared we had the same Bible, except hers stopped at the end of the Old Testament. Well, if Jesus was Jewish and “we” knew this, well, why didn’t the Jews just get a copy of the New Testament? I could not understand that at all. I do remember questioning a few adults on that subject matter, but no one had a good enough answer to satisfy me.

I once took a philosophy class. We touched on religions and spirituality a little, learning about Taoism

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