Sacred

My family never attended church. But I was allowed to go with my friends whenever I wanted to.

My Dad’s family never attended church, except on “special” holidays… whatever those were. He now “knows” there has to be something out there, however far removed from us it may be, because of science. “They” all say you don’t get something from nothing.

My Mom attended church every Sunday of her life, sang in the choir… and then decided she didn’t believe in God, or any of the attached spiritual notions, when she turned 18 and could effectively make her own decisions. My Grandmother was devastated.

My boyfriend has an unbreakable understanding with himself that the Christian faith is his truth.

I am surrounded by all kinds of people, of varying degrees of religious conviction, with a fairly wide representation of different religions, but I don’t know what it is that instills faith in people. I’ve never been able to let myself, as I see it, “blindly” believe in something I have no adequate proof for. More importantly, if I am to accept all the folklore and mythology, all the dogma and politics, associated with one religion, I see no reason why I can’t, or shouldn’t, do the same for all religions. My line in the sand is blurry. This is what the exhibit reinforced for me today. I understand all too well the importance of religion as a moral underpinning for society, no matter what the religion is. I understand the power of fear, and the allure of salvation, which is what I see as the tie that binds the three major world religions. But looking at the artifacts, the holy books… all the items associated with so many lives, and so many deaths over the ages… I’ve come to understand that I do not have faith…

… I have hope.

~Laurel Butcher