F...ing Christians

I think I ought to warn you up front - This is going to piss some people off. If you have some sensitivity concerning your religious beliefs, you may want to tread with caution. I was born and raised Roman Catholic in an area of the south that is split about 50/50 Catholic/Non-Catholic and I went to parochial school all but for the 3 years my family was stationed in Germany. All my friends were Catholic in grade school and in high school the few that weren't were rich Jewish kids. In college, the region I lived in was predominately Catholic so it wasn't until I moved into the Bible Belt area of my state that I was exposed to any degree to other Christian denominations. I don't want you to think that I am a “go to Mass every day and confession on Saturday” kind of Catholic. I play guitar in the church choir on Sunday and try to take something from what the priest says in his homily to incorporate into my everyday experiences. I’ve developed my faith to a great degree by questioning the status quo and my notions of what God is differ from what most people think to the point that I might be labeled a heretic or blasphemous by some people who are satisfied with believing what they are told to believe. I think we are given rational, thinking minds to do just that and we have to form our own consciences (a Catholic doctrine that not many Catholics are familiar with). There is nothing so powerful as a personal epiphany. So, before I go any further, let me make one thing clear. In no case do I want anyone to feel that I am singling them or their chosen religion out for criticism. I am simply stating facts and if that offends anyone, I would challenge them to do some honest, soul-searching research on their own and don't be content with being spoon-fed.
What I am really fed up with is getting lumped together with all these other F...ing Christians that don't have the slightest idea about what Christianity really is. It seems as though every article related to Christians portrays them as people who are led around by the ring in their nose by evangelical ministers. Creationism, intelligent design and other tenants of what the media shows Christians to be are insults to those of us who care enough about our faith to really learn what Jesus taught. First and foremost, not every thing really happened the way it is described in the Bible if it happened at all. Secondly, the Old Testament was written in Aramaic and most of the New Testament was written in Greek. Aramaic is a dead language that doesn't translate into modern languages very well if at all and translations from Greek have been carefully chosen to put forward the agenda of the translator in many cases. Thirdly, it amazes me that rational, thinking people will hang on to mistaken beliefs when the evidence to the contrary is staring them in the face. To quote Thom Yorke – “I’m sorry folks, the dinosaurs ruled the earth”. Lastly, like it not, the Catholic Church is the only Christian denomination that can trace its lineage back to Christ. My intention is not to convert anyone to Catholicism. It is to inspire people to think critically about their existence and that of the divine.
Careful analysis of Genesis shows that there are three different creation myths (yes, myths) woven into one story. Every civilization has it's own explanation as to how man came to be and parts of Genesis are very similar to other civilizations of the same time period. Even though the official position of the Catholic Church is that Genesis (and much of the Old Testament) is mainly illustrative narratives and parables this doesn’t imply that Genesis doesn’t have any relevance. Genesis tells us that we were created by someone outside of our experience and that this someone is beyond our comprehension. I could go on for hours about many other stories in the Old Testament that are either partially or wholly fictional. That doesn't diminish the message or the fact that they were divinely inspired. The Jews of that time knew that story telling (parables, etc) was much more easily digested by the common folk than preachy diatribes about what to do and what not to do.
So many people that quote bible verses don’t have any idea as to the origin of the verse or the spirit in which it was written. The book of Revelations is a great example of people who have no experience in Biblical writing styles and history claiming to be able to divine great prophecies. An entire group of best selling books has been written about the Rapture as if it were really going happen. This misreading of Revelations has made those two individuals who wrote these books incredibly wealthy and has further perpetuated the fallacies of Revelation interpretation. Careful analysis and comparison to other historic Jewish writings will reveal that the Book of Revelations was written in an Apocolyptic style that was common when the Jewish people were in a period of great stress culturally and religiously. Writings from the time of the Babylonian exile have remarkable similarities to the book of Revelations. When Revelations was written, the temple in Jerusalem had just been destroyed and it was the end of Israel as a nation for almost 2000 years. Catholics in particular were being persecuted and had to go underground in many instances. These missives were intended to remind the faithful of the past, not to foretell the future and were written in a particular style to disguise their true intent from their oppressors. The Bible and all religious writings are simply an divinely inspired attempt by imperfect beings to explain the absolutely perfect and as such can never be the only basis for one’s faith. Tradition in the truest sense of the word and experience along with the inspired writings of many different faiths is the only way to determine the shape of one’s faith.