Can’t say I haven’t wondered what Jesus would do

I was born to a religious family, and so religiously, I was in attendance at all sorts of things that happened on a Sunday, despite Sunday’s definition in the Bible being a day of rest. Sunday Mass, Sunday School, Easter Sunday, Sunday Pints. Ok, so maybe I made the last one up.

In high-school, I joined the Catholic Student’s Society; a decision initially based on there being passageway to girls from other schools and churches. What started off as me being a casual attendee, ended up in my being the club’s music coordinator, then treasurer, and then much later on, the Inter-School Catholic Student Society’s Vice-Chairman; a whole other club that saw schools from across the Klang Valley get together in worship and all-round happy things.

The reason I’ve just told you all that was to paint for you the picture of my initial upbringing, and the way I went about religion before acquiring what I guess said religion sincerely wishes upon all its devotees: Freedom.

Then I started to question it all. “If God is real, prove it to me. Show me one strand of His existence and I’ll exalt everything he stands for”, I used to say. Typical responses would follow. “You’ve got to have faith”, “Religion is about letting go and believing”, “Just because you cannot see the air, doesn’t mean it isn’t there”.

So you see the validity of my initial religious rejections.

I left the School Societies for dead. Quit the church band; because the music was just terrible and of course refused to accommodate any of my four-minute guitar solos, and as soon as I did a little math on how much donations my church potentially acquired over just ONE single weekend and never saw spoils, lost the patience for Sunday Mass.

And that was the least of it. Seeing religious leaders at a Sunday Mass competing in a ‘Who can raise your hands higher in praising the Lord’ contest later at a pub chugging away the pints and womanizing everything that moved, struck a chord or sorts.

Then there was the politics. And no, I care for you enough to spare you this bit. So moving it along then.

It just didn’t add up to me. Why would an institution of all that was sacred, benevolent and correct, be so irrelevant, devious and wrong?

So I walked.

I told myself, ‘By religion or not, so long as you, Christopher Aaron, do what is right, you’ll be alright’.

Just a little less than 10 years have passed. And I must say, the world looks a little different to me from when it did 10 years ago. This is why Part Two of this post will spell the changes. This is why there’s a need for a Part Two. But not tonight. Sleep deprivation is a cruel mother I’ve yet dared to detest.

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