And so we’re back to religion.

For those of you who do not enjoy listening to rants about religion – or simply just my rants about religion –, I suggest tuning out. Go download random Animaniacs songs and learn those during the time that you might otherwise be reading this. (I highly suggest it: Animaniacs rules. Immensely so. And now we’re done with that.)

So, I’m going to St. Kate’s for college. It is, honestly, a pretty nice college: I like the English department, and the campus is pretty, and even though it IS an all-girls school, I think I can manage. (Yes, without turning gay, thankyouverymuch. And for all of you currently murmuring, 'Turning...?', fuck you.) However, it is also a Catholic school, a fact which my father decided to point out to me earlier today, and a fact that I had completely overlooked.

Apparently, this is supposed to present a problem, as my religious affiliation is Lutheran. My father gave me a long speech about this – even though he himself was raised a Catholic and later converted to Lutheran –, which involved the phrases "keep an open mind" and "you should go to church more."

Now, this rant isn’t going to be about my dislike of organized religion (ihateitihateitihateit), but it will delve into one of the many reasons that I do dislike organized religion so much.

I mean, what’s the big deal about Catholics vs. Lutherans vs. Baptists or whatever? Aren’t they all Christians? Why does each division have to have their own separate rules and regulations that they must follow if they are of that sect? And really, it gets even worse: not only do we have the three major divisions, but there are even divisions in those. Being a Lutheran, I know more about the divisions in that branch of Christianity: we have Episcopalians, Missouri Senate, Evangelical, etc. My mother had this big issue with our church – a Missouri Senate, I believe – because we have mandates that state that women cannot become pastors, and a few other pointless little things. She is currently thinking about going to a different church – an Evangelical one – because it more suits her beliefs.

Seriously, what is up with that?

For one, my mother’s dish with these little rules is probably one of the reasons I got started on my beliefs against organized religion. It was hard enough going to church – what with being painfully bored half the time – without having to listen to her being annoyed at the same time. I mean, I liked my church. I really liked our pastor, and for the most part, the people were nice. Hearing my mother talking badly about my church, and discussing leaving it threw me off – it made me not want to go to church anymore, or get involved in church-related stuff. (After all, if we were just going to be leaving anyway, what was the point?) It also felt like I was kind of betraying the congregation that I had been a part for practically my entire life. But I couldn’t side against my mother, because I kind of agreed with her – those rules were as stupid as the one in Mankato that says it’s against the law to own a red car –, and because I love her a whole lot more than anyone at that church.

This isn’t to blame my mother for my gripe against organized religion. That probably would have developed anyway. But it leads into one of the key reasons that I dislike it: separatism.

The entire reason my mother wanted to leave our church was because of a couple stupid rules that she didn’t agree with – rules that, by all means, mean nothing. Why should Lutherans be divided into different little groupings? It only furthers to separate people when what they really should be doing is coming together. I personally think that we should stop arguing on how to worship God, and simply do it. Get rid of Evangelical and Missouri Senate rules. Eliminate the official differences between Baptists and Catholics and Lutherans. Sure, if some people want to worship God by revival and others feel like going to mass, let them. It’s their choice.

But it’s when you establish separate sects of a religion, with their own special rules and regulations that people must follow, that you get into trouble. One of the rules that my mother didn’t agree with in our church stated that pastors from our church could not get together and pray with pastors from a church of a different sect. I mean, how stupid is that? We’re all praying to the same God, aren’t we?

I know that I’m not going to change anything by writing this. And I really don’t care, either, because I’m not worrying about the state of the churches – I worship in my own way, without having to listen to someone tell me exactly how to do that. For instance, I’m not Catholic, but I cross my heart after I pray. I can bet that there are quite a few Catholics who would take offense to that – and why? I am a Christian. I am sincerely swearing my vows to God. Yet there are many who would say that I’m disrespecting the Catholic religion by crossing my heart when I was baptized a Lutheran.

To those people, there is not much I can say. They will believe what they will believe. And so will I.