Religion And Love Can’t Coexist
By Allie McCoy
I’m a spiritual person.
By that I don’t mean I wander into the woods and do chants, I mean, I have faith in God but not in religion in the hands of an imperfect man or men who run them. I believe we were created in his glory, I believe in Jesus and the sacrifices he made. I won’t argue over the meaning of Christmas, or whether it’s ok to celebrate Halloween. I won’t get into a deep debate about whether Islam, Christianity or any other religion or its subsets are right or wrong, because I think we are all created under the same God and have created our own differences through man’s interpretation over time.
But, I believe.
And sometimes that isn’t good enough.
See, the guy that I love – he is from a religion that doesn’t allow him to love me back. He does love me. And he does want to be with me. However, if we are together than his family can no longer support him in anyway and can’t have anything to do with him. What makes it worse is that my family has the same affliction about him. We are not allowed to be together.
God created these two perfect beings and put them together and they chose imperfectly. Then religions created separations and separations created more separations until we decided that one had to be of a specific subset of a religion to be of value or to be a good enough person for another person to be with.
It destroys love.
It has come to a point where we have to decide whether our love is worth not having our family involved in our lives, or if our religious differences and spirituality are worth not having love. It’s not a Romeo and Juliet situation. There is no happily ever after where we will be able to have some moment that clarity will come to our families and we will be given the big seal of approval.
Religion can bring together masses of people to celebrate God – but it can also destroy a love that is amazing. It is nothing short of positive and uplifting. It is encouraging and supportive. It is everything that a love should be – and nothing that it shouldn’t be. This love isn’t perfect because we aren’t perfect. This love is incredible though, and I feel like religion is tearing us apart.
“Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away.”