All sins are not equal..

Growing up in Uganda, I was raised in a Catholic setting though my mother was Protestant. My father being Catholic, that meant that I was raised the same way. I never really understood this because I grew up with my mother and one would think that I would be raised Protestant. Also the fact that I almost do not speak my mother's language but my father's. Anyway that is the beauty of being African... we do not ask why? We just do and then when you grow up, you can ask why and become as curious as you want especially when you are away from home.

During my early years prior to becoming a teenager, it was custom to get your "Confirmation" in the church. I do not know how to explain this but those who went through the same thing world wide know what I mean. I hated it but then I was told if I did not get confirmed then I would never be married in the church. And I remember one day asking my mother: "What if I got married in another country? How would they know if I was confirmed or not?"..... that was rather a rhetorical question that my mother answered back with dagger looks.

The confirmation classes took place every Saturday morning till the mid afternoon. These classes collided with my Saturday half day lessons at my primary school which was also in the neighbourhood. I hated both because it was a Saturday and I wanted to be up and about playing and getting up to no good. But I hated the confirmation classes more because we had our teacher Mr. Odoi who happened to share the same surname as my mother. For some reason he thought having the same surname with my mum made him have more rights to tell on me whenever he pleased.

After one year, I was able to finish the confirmation classes and I had to buy the whitest of dresses and the prettiest of rosaries for the occasion when I was allowed to eat "The body and blood of Christ". I was told it was real wine but it tasted like bad blackcurrant juice and there was no buzz kick at all. The "body" tasted like bread dough and it stuck to the palette of my mouth. I was quite disappointed that the ear pulling and the boring confirmation classes had this in payment. The classes were in my local language; Luganda, which was easy to speak but a headache to read or write. I later on wondered why I wasn't put in the English one. I should have pretended not to know Luganda.

Anyway as time went on, I started exploring other religions. Funny enough, my mother always told me that she did not mind if I changed religions as long as I did not turn to Islam. That was rather a weird way of giving someone freedom but I took it because for me this was paradise. I went to the Protestant church first for a few years and then moved to the Born Again church.
When I moved to the Netherlands, I changed to a Ghanian Methodist church which I somewhat liked even though at times they would hold part of the Mass in Twi, their local language.

Still something was missing and I was curious about Islam because Christianity almost taught the same thing. Catholics, Anglicans, Protestants, etc they all had the same theme.
So I started reading the English versions of the Qur'an on the internet. Someone even offered me a small Qur'an which I still have in my apartment though it is in Arabic.

Then I moved on to Buddhism, then read some of the Dalai Lama's teachings and so many spiritual divisions of the world. And i realised all the different spiritual approaches to life had a main goal and that was to help man save his soul. I enjoyed getting to discover all these different parts of man's quest for spiritualism. Because I believe that "he who travels not, thinks his mother cooks best". 
And I am in a position where I question anything man made..... Be it religion or government. They are all made by man so they are not greater than man. Religion is man's interpretation of God.

I am a spiritual person, I will not say I am religious because I was raised Christian but there are many bad things that have been done and are still done in the name of Christianity.
I believe there is God, whether a man or woman, I do not know.
But I know there is a force out there stronger than me. I have found out that other spiritual groups are a lot more peaceful than Christianity. Christianity bashes other spiritual groups as Satanic but also within Christianity, sects bash each other. And if the aim is to save man's soul, it would not matter which sect is bigger than the other. But religion is a result of man's greed and worst of all it was a war tactic used in the days of slavery.

Christianity separated Africa so much and in other parts of the world. But when you look at it, they all read the Bible, they all worship the same God... So why the many sects? There are over 50 sects within Christianity. What is that all about? There are many versions of the Bible. What is that all about? Good News Bible, New International Version, King James Bible, New Revised Standard Version, etc. Is this really what it is all about? My version, his version, their version.

It took me a while to really question myself about this. I once spoke to a religious leader back home in 2009 and he said I was full of demons for asking these sort of things.
First of all, our original religion is voodoo, juju, black magic... call it whatever you want. This is what we had before colonialists came to Africa. But as I said, Christianity was also a war tactic. Remember Scramble and Partition of Africa? The colonialists told us that our religion was not good and that Christianity was the way to go.  
"And then they told us to close our eyes and pray. When we opened them, we had the Bible and they had the land"

When you look at present day Europeans, many of them are either not religious and if they are spiritual at all, they are into Buddhism, Kabala or another form of spiritualism.
Look at Italy and Spain that are supposed to be the centers of Catholicism.... none of that happening there. Western European countries are liberal. Liberal does not mix with the Biblical teachings. 
How can someone introduce you to a belief they themselves no longer believe in?
Why are we told we can not question what we were not born with?

There are many good aspects of Christianity, no doubt. The Bible teaches many ways in which to live in harmony with each other. Love your neighbour as you love yourself.. help one another...tell the truth, etc. But in all this, the world has been torn apart by Christianity. Take for instance, many people tell lies under oath in court. If you take a Muslim and make him swear on the Qur'an, there are very few that will lie. Maybe that is why they are called extremists because for a Muslim, his religion and everyday life is emerged together.

I was raised Christian and I have grown up seeing a lot of things, so it is only fair that I criticise what I know best. Many people might get defensive and start talking about all the bad things done by Muslims and I am not overruling anything. No human being on this earth is spotless, we all have our bad deeds. But when you are always pointing the finger, remember there are four other fingers pointing at you.

We all have a role to play on the this so- called planet, Earth but when you are not doing such a good job, people will realise it. And when they do, not all will say something but some will definitely stand up. When these few stand up, they try to make things right. The only problem is, in trying to make it right, they make those in authority look bad. Well if you do your job right, people will not criticise you as much.
I do not respond to authority very well because one human being can not be the controller of another human being. Much as society needs some sort of governance and order. We are all born of a woman. Bishop, president, peasant farmer, student, teacher.......... FROM DUST TO DUST!!