Religion v Spirituality

*Disclaimer: the content of this blog post is my OWN personal view and may offend

Over a month ago a YouTube video entitled " Why I hate Religion but Love Jesus" went viral. I agree with the message that the poet conveys in this video about Christianity. From the outset it seems that the title of this video is contradictory, especially because Christianity is a religion right? Let me explain my answer to this.

I believe that being a true Christian is having your own personal relationship with God. To maintain any relationship in life you regularly communicate with the person and spend time with them in order to get to know them more. This is also applicable to having a relationship with God. This means regularly communicating with him (praying) and spending time with Him by reading the bible in order to get to know Him more. If you are consistent with this then with time your relationship with God will develop and become stronger. You'll allow God into your heart and hopefully accept Jesus Christ as your Lord. This is what I call Spirituality because this develops your spiritual life. Afterall when you die your body will perish but it is your spirit that will live on. Hence, why I describe myself as a spiritual person and not religious.

In the YouTube video the poet describes 'religion' as being man made, which I also agree with. I believe that people take a faith, twist it, add on their own opinions/culture to it (or take the faith completely out of context) in order to make a set of behaviourial rules for people to follow and label it as 'religion'. Religious people are those who focus on these rules and behave in a "self-righteous" manner. They are quick to criticize those who deviate from these rules. During Jesus' life the Pharisees were religious people who  constantly criticized Jesus' actions. They were self righteous men who thought that they were better than everyone else. I have seen many people in my life like the Pharisees. Jesus was very vocal about his opinions on the Pharisees:

²⁵ Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. (Matthew 23:25 NIV)

Do not get me wrong, the Bible does give us guidance on how we should live our lives that we should follow. However we should not do this because we feel that we are being coerced but because we actually want to. God looks at our hearts and our intentions behind our actions.  "The LORD does not look ... at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7). Like my Pastor said in one sermon in relation to offering, if we give our offering unwillingly then our offering is meaningless to God, even if it is a big offering. But if we give because we genuinely want to, then yes it is meaningful to God. It is not about the size of the offering that matters but the manner in which we give the offering.

I think that we live in a world where people have deviated from the true foundations of faith and have used Religion to commit many atrocities. For example, starting wars and causing the death of thousands (i.e Christian Crusades and Islamic extremists).  Religion has been used as a tool to oppress women in Arab countries and was used to justify the enslavement of Africans during the Trans-Atlantic Slave trade. Even nowadays many false religious leaders are out there decieving thousands of people. I believe that the ideology of  "Religion" has had a detrimental effect on this world. Even today many people still use religion to justify their evil actions.

That is the reason why I detest 'Religion' however I do encourage Spirituality. That is why if you are a Christian aim to develop your own relationship with God. Do not compare yourself to other 'Christians' because you do not know and will never fully know the true nature of their relationship with God. Furthermore, on judgement day God will judge us all individually. Therefore aim to be Christ-like. What I mean by this is to love, to give, to encourage and to help others. Not to judge, belittle, criticize or start telling people in a threatening manner that they are going to hell if they do not convert. After all we are ALL sinners, nobody is perfect, I am far from it and that is the reason why Jesus came on earth in the first place, to die for all of our sins. Here is one of my favourite poems called "I am a Christian" by Carol Wimmer

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not shouting, “I’ve been saved!”

I’m whispering, “I get lost! That’s why I chose this way”

When I say, “I am a Christian” I don’t speak with human pride

I’m confessing that I stumble - needing God to be my guide

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not trying to be strong

I’m professing that I’m weak and pray for strength to carry on

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not bragging of success

I’m admitting that I’ve failed and cannot ever pay the debt

When I say, “I am a Christian” I don’t think I know it all

I submit to my confusion asking humbly to be taught

When I say, “I am a Christian” I’m not claiming to be perfect

My flaws are far too visible but God believes I’m worth it

When I say, “I am a Christian” I still feel the sting of pain

I have my share of heartache which is why I seek His name

When I say, “I am a Christian” I do not wish to judge

I have no authority I only know I’m loved

Written By Dinah

R.I.P Whitney Houston - What can we learn?

This morning  as I was preparing to go to church my mum knocked on my bedroom door and said "You know the singer Whitney Houston?" and I replied "yeah what about her?" and my mum then said "she's dead". That moment my jaw dropped, I was in complete disbelief. I then took my phone and went on twitter and saw many tweets about her death (breaking news hits twitter before anywhere else). I couldn't believe it.

Unless you live in a remote village in the Amazon rain-forest I am sure you know who Whitney Houston is. She is one of the most talented singers to have ever graced this earth. There are very VERY few singers out there whose vocal abilities can even compare to that of Whitney's. She was really blessed with a God given talent. She started singing in the church and then progressed into having one of the most successful music careers which included her winning over 400 awards.

In 1992 she married Bobby Brown which I believe was the biggest mistake she made in her life. He had problems with drugs and alcohol as well as having numerous run ins with the law. After Whitney had been with him for a while, she too started having a drugs problem. This started affecting her  behavior and performances. This beautiful talented woman who had everything going for her had now become a drug addict which eventually cost her career. From this I realised that as people we need to be very careful with who we allow into our lives. People can either be an asset or a liability. In Whitney's case Bobby was a liability. Whitney was someone of a high value whose worth had dramatically depreciated.

"He who walks with wise men will be wise, But the companion of fools will be destroyed" (Poverbs 13:20 NKJ)

I can't tell you how relevant this verse is. You have to make sound choices when you choose who you associate with. As someone who has worked in a criminal Law firm I have seen young guys who have been charged with crimes, not because they are bad people but because they associated themselves with the wrong crowd. Being around the wrong people can cost you so much. That is why when someone always brings negativity to you, you should cut them out of your life or at least keep them at a distance. In life people come and people go, some people are not meant to be in your life. The people that I currently choose to be in my life influence me in a positive way and help me to become a better person. I do not have time for those who are a liability, negative or detrimental. I will not hesitate to cut them off, after all I only have one life why waste it on someone who doesn't even care about my well being?

My message to you is choose the people you surround yourself with wisely. I will leave you with my favorite Whitney Houston Track

Written By Dinah

Stephen Lawrence - 18 years later

I'm sure most of you know the story of Stephen Lawrence's murder. It has been all over the news due to the very recent trial. To explain the story briefly Stephen Lawrence was an 18 year old black student from south London. On the night of 22 April 1993 he was with his best friend Duwayne Brooks and they were waiting for a bus. The buses were disrupted and not running on schedule. After waiting ages for their bus they decided to go to another bus stop to see if any buses were coming and that is when they came face to face to the gang of racist white males. Duwayne managed to escape but unfortunately Stephen didn't and was stabbed twice and died.

Five suspects were arrested but no one was ever convicted until 3 January 2012, 18 years later. There was enough evidence linking some of the suspects to the murder but the initial police investigation was inefficient and there was a lot of corruption involved; hence the charges being dropped against the suspects in the first trial. Fortunately new forensic evidence came to light and two of the original five suspects (Gary Dobson and David Norris) have been convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment with a minimum of 14/15 years having to be served. I do wish that their minimum terms were much longer but they were sentenced as juveniles since they were 16/17 at the time of the murder. In addition the Judge was bound by pre-2003 law and had to sentence them according to the laws at the time of the murder. If the incident had happened in present times then the minimum sentence would have been 25 years.

Though I am glad that they have been convicted I think it is 18 years too late. Police had ample time to get the suspects convicted many years ago but due to their inefficiency it took far too long. The names of the suspects were given to police the day after Stephens murder but they did not do a thorough investigation.They made a number of errors, for example the officers that attended to Stephen while he was dying did not even give him first aid though all of them had been trained in it. They thought Duwayne Brooks was the perpetrator and treated him like a suspect. One of the policemen in charge of the investigation had ties with one of the father's of the suspects and when this came to light he migrated to Spain. This investigation led to the 1999 McPherson Report which concluded that there was institutional racism within the police force.

Even though I was just three years old at the time this happened, this story has had an impact on me. As part of one of my modules in my degree I looked at the MacPherson report and the many recommendations he made. I also had the opportunity to meet one of the lawyers who represented the Lawrence's during the first trial and heard him speak on the racism involved in the case. I don't know what sickened me more about this case, the racists who killed Stephen or the police's handling of this case.

As a black female living in the UK I have been fortunate not to have experienced racism but unfortunately its not the same for all people from minority ethnic groups. Just recently an Indian was shot at close range for absolutely no reason apart from the colour of his skin. Discriminating and harming someone due to something they were born with and have no control over is sickening. I hope the other three suspects Neil and Jamie Acourt, Gary Knight also get convicted.

Racism is evil and is something which causes hate, violence and negativity. If I had my way racism would not exist. Though we do hear about racist incidents we should remember that there are many non-racist people out there. Even when Stephen was dying it was a white Christian couple that held him and prayed for him. I believe in the saying that love conquers all. If we learn to love and accept one another we will continue to progress.I think that is the reason why the most important commandment in the bible is "Love your neighbour" because love has no room for wrong doing. I am going to leave you with a bible verse on Love


(1 Corinthians 13:4-7) 4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It does not dishonor others, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.

Written By Dinah

My Tram Experience

Last week a video was posted on Youtube entitled 'My Tram Experience'. I remember being at work and looking through my timeline on twitter seeing many people tweeting about it. I was wondering what all the fuss was about so when I got home that evening I watched the video, about three times over. I was initially offended but I also laughed at the stupidity coming out of the woman's mouth. Especially because she could not even name one black country and  made up a name i.e "nee-grag-gria".

This video went viral and hundreds of YouTube responses were made. As a result of all the attention it got the woman was arrested for Racially Aggravated Public Disorder offence. Many people think that that was the wrong course of action to take since people have the right to freedom of speech and she was just stating her opinion no matter how offensive it was.

Looking at what the woman said she was complaining that non English people are taking over her England. First and foremost the percentage of ethnic minorities in this country is  about 5% which leaves 95% of white English people. You do not have to be a mathematician to realize that it is highly unlikely for the 5% minority to become a majority in the near future.

Secondly wanting all immigrants out of the country does not make sense. If you look at British history many people settled in England from other countries, i.e the Romans from Italy,  the Normans from France and their descendants lived here. Therefore many "white English" people are not pure English but carry the blood of these immigrants. Look at the British empire when many British people moved to many countries to 'colonize' and instill their own culture. In history the British are probably the number one immigrants. Why do you think English is one of the most widely spoken languages in the world? Because of immigration. Immigration has been happening since the beginning of time, people have always traveled and explored. Without immigration the world would be very different to what we know today.

Some responses I have seen to the video is that the woman should have got beaten up. If someone (such as the boy sitting behind the her who got up and had to be calmed down) had hurt the woman he would have committed a criminal offence (i.e ABH and end up with a criminal record) and it would enforce the negative stereotype of black people being violent. In addition, hurting her would not erase her racist views but will just reinforce them. Even though I think more people on the tram should have spoken out it was good that nobody was violent against her.

Yes racism will always exist even if it was 2056 but the fact that racism is not as bad as it used to be shows progression. I sometimes imagine a utopia of people looking beyond somebody's outward appearance. However the bible does say that "People look at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart" (1 Samuel 16:7) which is true.

Here is the best response video I have seen so far, this guy provides many valid points and articulates his arguments very well . Enjoy

Written By Dinah