Parchment is a fitting background for one so obsessed with the faiths that have been written in ancient parchment I suppose.

I still stuggle with religion.  Its been almost 10 years since I was excommunicated Mormon.  Homosexuals have become the "out caste."  I do not believe that homosexual attraction is innately wrong.  Having said that, I must find a faith that is on par. 

Lately I've been thinking of the Jewish faith again.  I have studied it for years, on and off, nothing super serious, but perhaps it is time again to renew my old friends, and read again of the Jewish faith.  I realized something: Israel is not the Jewish faith.  The Jewish faith is not Israel.  The Orthodox are not the Jewish faith.  I am the Jewish faith - spiritually wounded, searching, on a long path of finding God. 

I will start this by celebrating Friday prayers, and saying a simple morning and evening prayer.  On the 1st and 3rd Friday of every month, I will go to Temple at the closest Temple and say prayers.  At each festival, I will research and choose one way in which to celebrate that festival. 

I will become Jewish over time.  God will make me a new man, and I will renew my covenant with God that I made at the sea in the Carribean when I was perhaps only 16.  God gave me a life from the sea and only asked that I simply remember Him.  God wants me to remember Him. 

I pray for peace among the various paths.  I pray for prosperity of my house, my parents and my extended family.  I pray for justice for the oppressed.  But most of all I pray for peace.

Taylor

I think those times I have felt much closeness to God is during quiet moments of thinking, praying, being out side near flowers or trees, and in times when I feel great joy.

Odd isn't it?  My first post and I don't even know what really to say.  Usually I have so much to say. 

I'm a student of religion and have been for the past 10yrs.  I love it.  The beginning of my study was an attempt to learn which grew into a need to belong as I was forced out of my natal faith.  Now, it is a desire to understand and enjoy the various religions and cultures and practitioners around me.

I have tried for years to gain a deep enough understanding to be able to know what faith truly speaks to me, so that I could find where I belong.  It is only recently that I have really come to understand that I don't "fit" anywhere.  That's frustrating to a guy looking for identity.  I understand and agree with many points on almost every faith, and yet have strong reservation with nearly every faith.

The faiths that are probably the most compatible with me are: Ethical Culturalist, Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), Universalist (UU), and Reform Judaism.

When I take the Belief-O-Matic Quiz I am almost always Liberal Quaker, Reform Judaism, and Uniterian Universalist.  Go figure.  Odd isn't it?