Thursday, March 12, 2009

Coz You Gotta Have Faith


I woke up too late for Thursday Nights. I intended to continue telling my Manila tales, but I checked my emails and stuff first, and I stumbled upon this test. It is supposed to measure your personal beliefs and matches it through percentages with known belief systems. I am not big on religion and religiosity and what is important for me is spirituality, so I do not consider one singular religion to define or label my faith. For the longest time though, I have associated myself and even called myself a Catholic Wiccan Bahai. Catholic by birth and tradition, Wiccan by practice and Bahai by intellectual convictions. I was aghast to read in the links that the Bahai faith does not condone homosexuality and that they believe in reformatory measures to 'straighten up' gays. Here is a snippet from religioustolerance.org. It was a case of foot in mouth disease for me. Then again, never too late.

The Baha'i Faith teaches beliefs about homosexuality that are quite similar to those of many conservative religions. They teach that:

bulletThe only acceptable form of sexual expression is between a one man and one woman after marriage.
bulletHomosexual feelings and behavior are improper, and in opposition to God's plan for humanity.
bulletHomosexuality as a disability for the individual to overcome. Through prayer, medical treatment, counseling, and much personal effort, they believe that a homosexual can become "straight."
bulletUnless gays or lesbians can convert their sexual orientation to bisexuality or heterosexuality, and enter a marriage with a person of the opposite gender, they are expected to remain celibate.

Naloka naman ako sa clincher dun about conversion to bisexuality. May ganun? Well, it is official. I now dissociate myself from the Bahai faith. Too bad. I always thought it was perfect for me since it is a 'thinking' faith. I hope they would reconsider. Oh well. Getting back to the test, results showed that I was tops NeoPagan, and bottoms Catholic. That does say a lot!

Here's my result:

1. Neo-Pagan (100%)
2. New Age (95%)
3. Unitarian Universalism (93%)
4. Mahayana Buddhism (91%)
5. New Thought (85%)
6. Hinduism (83%)
7. Liberal Quakers (82%)
8. Reform Judaism (78%)
9. Scientology (75%)
10. Baha'i Faith (72%)
11. Christian Science (Church of Christ, Scientist) (69%)
12. Mainline to Liberal Christian Protestants (69%)
13. Jainism (65%)
14. Theravada Buddhism (63%)
15. Taoism (60%)
16. Orthodox Judaism (59%)
17. Orthodox Quaker (57%)
18. Sikhism (57%)
19. Islam (54%)
20. Secular Humanism (52%)
21. Mainline to Conservative Christian/Protestant (34%)
22. Nontheist (33%)
23. Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Mormons) (32%)
24. Seventh Day Adventist (30%)
25. Jehovah's Witness (21%)
26. Eastern Orthodox (19%)
27. Roman Catholic (19%)

Interesting discovery! If you wanna take the test yourself, click here.

Now tell me...

How's your faith these days, father?

And to keep things light, here's a song about faith... Enjoy... Manila Stories from the Batchoyan resume later




Photo Credits:

http://www.wunderground.com/blog/iamblessed0816/comment.html?entrynum=0&tstamp=200701

4 comments:

Herbs D. said...

lol. did you found this on my blog? or somewhere else?

btw i go to this UU meeting every sunday at QC. maybe you could drop by someday if you have some time. even though im an atheist-they're pretty open and fun :)

. said...

When you strip down Christianity to its essence (Jesus Christ without the apostles) You would realize that Christianity is quite a tolerant faith towards people like us. Bahai seems to be a good faith so is Buddhism. :)

Neopagan means you don't believe in anything, tama ba?

Kokoi said...

i took the test and pareho tayo sa #1 & 2. =)

Luis Batchoy said...

herbs: sikret

Mugebn: but you can not possibly strip down religion. A religion is a religion with all its trappings and embelishments.

kokoi: Pag nag baguio ako, kape tayo sa ruins... hehehehe