Spiritual Sampling

YESTERDAY I visited a different church, different from the one I have been attending for about a year. As I have said before, I would be inerested in visiting any church or religious service of any religion on the planet, of teh many thousand that there are. Why limite one's growth and experiences? I thoroughly enjoyed the experience of sharing an hour or two with Methodists rather than teh usual Presbyterians, but,fascinatingly, I missed my usual venue, and the people, few of them though there are, all of whom are my friends. My presence is needed; some Sundays we are lucky to reach double digits in attendance; when we do, we celebrate. I would probably enjoy, learn from, and benefit from any religious service anywhere, and would leave the building, any building, free to continue my personal evolution, the religious basis of which remains in place after sixty years of growth and introspection. Whatever faith I visit, I shall, I strongly sense, forever remain a pantheist, after the fashion of Spinoza and Einstein. Wheras my regular Presbyterian church is a two hundred year old building of extreme quaintness, the Methodists have a modern building, metal, glass, plastic, and girders. Although I prefer the nineteenth century edifice, the more modern ones have advantages. I was interested in sampling the local Methodist church because I was told that the minister is a woman, is very progress, so porgressive that she consiers gay and transgender people to be human beings who are perfectly acceptable as they are, and loved by God,rather than pariahs on account of their sexual and gender orientations. The congrefgation, I was told, was also progressive, the Trumper consrvatives having left the church in a great Methodist schism. Good riddanceThe congregation, I discovered, was about forty to fifty, half of them children, ges rangins from early teens to early single digits. Good looking, white, middle class folks, all very pleasant. A young blonde mother with three very young blonde kids kept the toddlers under control, barely, throughout the entire service, which in itself was impressive. The thoughts struck me that all three children, pre schoolers, were far too young to have any idea whether they wanted to become church goers, or for that matter, Christians. Firmmly I believe that all religions are created equal, as are all people, and that everyone should be allowed to choose his or her own religious beliefs. To me, that is simply basic good sense, and basic good morality. Religious indoctrination of children, by anyone, including parents, in any way, including taking someone to church without their express, informed consent, I consider child abuse. A child cannot be consdidered free to choose his or her own religiosity when taken to church when still too young to give informed consent. if they want to go, fine. If they don't, don't amke 'em go, correct? With half of its congregation children, this particular church seems to be investing well in its own future and perpetuation, in an era of sharply declining church attendance generally. I'm glad that for me spiritual evolution is a matter of change, a sort of grand adventure, rather than immersion in fixed, rigid, religion dogma. I assume that my journey will continue, and never end. The Christian heaven to me sounds like eternal boredom. Fortunately, it sounds fictional. I'd rather come back in an althogether different form in the next incarnation of the universe, and try it all over again.