Seminary Program

This is where we post the essays from many of our Universal Life Church Seminary students. When students finish a ULC course, they write a comprehensive essay about their experiences with the course, what they learned, didn't learn, were inspired by, etc. Here are their essays.

Search This Blog

Monday, May 26, 2008

Science of Religion

I have to admit I was not looking forward to this lesson. I do not like philosophy. To me it is just people who are not afraid to speak their opinion and want to get recognized.

I was impressed with what I learned and did get some answers to questions I had and learned some things about myself.

Let me explain this way. I have always been a person that believes totally in God but have a real bad taste in my mouth for churches. When we were young and living in a house with a father who was an alcoholic, my mom taught us her way of believing and what was best for us. We had a cabin that we built as a family growing up. We did not go to church much, but were members of a church. I remember one time our minister came to the house and accused my mom of not raising us right because we were not in church. My little 5 ft mom kicked him right out the door, saying we believe in God, but the things that keeps us together is being up north. 

During the week my dad spent all his time in the bar after work, spending money we did not have and never being around when we needed him My mom not having a license had to depend on others to get groceries, hospital emergencies and most things, however when we were up north with no electricity or plumbing we were a family. We played family games, rode snowmobiles, fished, spent time with friends. It was a great way to grow up. The cabin was our house of God. That is were we were a family and felt God keeping us together.

When I met my husband and we decided to get married we went to his church, were his family was very active in the church. We wanted to get married in the yard on his family farm, but the Minister said he would not tip toe through the tulips. The minister said it was not a house of God. How much closer to God can you get than under the sky above.

When we had our children I believed it was right to have them in Sunday school and be confirmed so they could make their own choices. During that time I did teach Sunday school. My son never had much to do with the church, my daughter loved it until she got older and was totally turned off by the same Minister that would not tip toe through the tulips.

I really had a hard time with a minister who did not even acknowledge your presents when you went to church and when he sees you on the street he does not know you are there.

Getting back to the coarse, it taught me why some ministers are the way they are and I can forgive them for it. The to are a product of greed, at least some of them. It still amazes me though how people are because of one philosopher. But then I see it every day in the way people listen to the news with politics, (because it is on the news it is true). I believe in 1% of the news, especially when it come to politics. Words or a lack of them can be a very dangerous thing.

I am an Municipal Judge here in Glenwood City. The law is so much like religion. If you have a good attorney that can take one word in the law and change its meaning, he can get you off. It all has to do with interpretation.

This coarse has also taught me to get my ego in check. I had thought I was doing pretty good in that area, but have since learned I have a long way to go. Trying to build my business of Holistic Pet Pampering. Healing Energy, and all Natural Products has been hard. I have groomed for 15 years and working with the animals and the love I have for them is easy. However building this business with finances and wanting to be financially stable is getting in the way of why I started to begin with. It made me realize I have to just focus on helping as many animals and people as possible and try not to dwell on the finances. It will come. My ego also gets in the way of how I look at some people and being jealous of others successes.

The sad part about all of this, God loves us all unconditionally, but it is the interpretation of his love that causes wars and hate among others. There is some definitely wrong with this.

My sister says I should talk about God more in my teachings of Reiki and healing energy. I refer to the Higher Power. I try to explain that even though my Higher Power is God, It is not everyone’s. I have to keep religion out of it. She has a hard time separating the two. I do tell people I am a Minister and proud to be able to say that, but I specify that I am a Minister of the Body, Mind and Spirit, and the Higher Power. not a Minister of Religion. This coarse helped me to figure that out and explain the difference of the two.

Rev. Kimberly Moe

*******************************

The Universal Life Church is a comprehensive online seminary where we have classes in Christianity, Wicca, Paganism, two courses in Metaphysics and much more. I have been a proud member of the ULC for many years and the Seminary since its inception

No comments: