Intro to the New Church Doctrines Journal #2
CONTENT WARNING: The religious/spiritual opinions on this blog post are mine based on my own experiences and do not reflect the opinions and experiences of everyone. Commentaries published on my First Former Buddy Club President influencer page represent diverse viewpoints. If you would like to submit a commentary, please contact me for more information. All perspectives and experiences are welcome here.
In my first trimester at Bryn Athyn College, I was required to take a religion course along with eventually some other religion courses since it is a religious school. Bryn Athyn practices the New Church religion of Swedenborg so the required religion course that I took this trimester was Intro to the New Church Doctrines. For the class, one of the required assignments was to write daily journals based on readings from "You Can Believe!: An Introduction to the New Christianity" written by Grant Schnarr (The author was actually my professor for the class! He is a minister in the church!) and we students had to apply what we read to our lives. So, since some of the content mentioned in this short essay that I wrote is related to the content that I post on my disability advocacy influencer page, I have decided to upload it is a blog post. Here is Journal #2.
TRIGGER WARNING: If you are affected by religious or spiritual trauma, this blog post may be triggering. If you or someone you know needs support right now, please seek help from a therapist or other mental health professional or call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline at 988 or text "HOME" to the Crisis Text Line at 741741 if you live in the USA or text "CONNECT" to the Crisis Text Line at 686868 if you live in Canada.
Prompt: "Read the Introduction of "You Can Believe!". Show me you read, thought deeply about what you read, and apply it to your life."
I was raised in the Catholic religion and attended Catholic school from first to third grade. After third grade, my parents enrolled me in a public school. I am not against the Catholic religion, but based on my individual experiences, the Christian behavior has been confusing and contradictory for me. This has been the only religion that I have been exposed to and along with many authentic people, there have been inauthentic people.
The way that some people acted at school and in church was different than how they acted on the outside. My interpretation of Christian behavior is supposed to be acceptance of everyone. The church that I grew up in was very cliquey and did not display acceptance of everyone. Also, from the academic and social standpoint, most people with differences did not have good experiences. In regards to the clique, families were treated differently based on who they were and who they knew. There were a few people who did exhibit true Christian behavior during my experience. For example, after moving schools, my parents enrolled me in our church's Catholic education program for public school students. When my mother registered my brother and I, the nun who was in charge of the program never asked my parents why they removed us from Catholic school. Instead, she praised them for continuing our religious education and stated that she was looking forward to having us. There was also a teacher who was very kind to me. She was accepting of my differences and very accommodating of all learning styles. She also showed kindness and patience.
I am not being biased towards the Catholic religion at all just based off of the experiences that I have had with it because I was not exposed to all parishes. I had experience at only one parish and a Catholic college; so, these were my individual experiences and they were not good.
You can also visit The Mighty's hotline resources page by clicking on this link: https://themighty.com/suicide-prevention-resources/
1. Schnarr, Grant. You Can Believe!: An Introduction to the New Christianity. 2006.
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