I just re-read this and realize it is really long. I am sorry about that, but I hope you can take the time to read it through. It comes totally from my heart.
What you are describing is sooooooooo understandable.
And exactly why I personally do not like organized religion.
I do not and would not speak for anyone else, just what I have learned along my life's journey.
I used to go to church when I was young. I loved going with my grandmother, who died when I was 10. She was exactly what I think of when I think of someone who follows Christ. Everyone loved her. She was so wonderful and loving.
As I grew older, I resented hearing the Bible being told from someone else's point of view. The Bible says that you should read it with the heart of a child, and that is very hard for many people to do, they take things out of context and twist them to suit their own agendas. Not all are like that, but I have encountered enough like that to know they are not serving God...
Jesus said that there will be many who will say they KNEW him, but he will tell them HE does not know them. There are many who pretend to be followers, but they are not. This is to confuse people so they don't know what to believe.
"Religion" is like filthy rags to God/Yahweh. Whenever I hear that someone is extremely "religious" it makes me want to run the other way.
I respect all people, and certainly don't force my views upon them. I think that we all have enough on our own plates, and don't need to tell others what to do or believe, if you want to make it a better world then I think a person has to work on themself, not anyone else. And if the way you live your own life has a positive effect on someone else's then that is great.
I tithe by giving of myself, of my own resources and time. The 10% tithing that so many often quote is being taken out of context. If you give 10% and you are mad that you have to do it, or act like it is a big burden or a chore, then that is worse than giving nothing. If you are giving in the spirit of love, you give 10% and usually more. It doesn't just mean giving MONEY. And that is something else I don't like about these big churches.
I saw some ugly things in churches. I stopped going regularly when I was 18. I would go from time to time. About 6 years ago, I had a friend who invited me to her church and I really liked and admired her. She is definitely Christ-like. We went to the church for a while, but I saw things I did not like. Then when this friend's baby died of SIDS at only a few weeks old, I saw/heard something very disturbing. I had visited my friend in their home and brought food, as many did. They did not attend church for a couple of weeks. The Sunday after the baby's funeral, the pastor's wife and my friend's supposed good friend were in charge of the nursery. (my friend's husband was usually the one in the nursery, he was great with kids.) I left my then toddler in the nursery with these two and went to Sunday school. When I came back, I looked in the window to check on him, only to see him crying on the floor and these two women gossiping. I waited a minute to see if either would pick him up. NO, they did not. So, I sent my older two down to the chapel without me, and I went in and picked up my child and sat with him in the rocking chair. They just basically said how good he was and how he just started crying when he saw me. (yeah, right) So I nurse and rock him as they continue to gossip. They were gossiping about my friend whose baby died. The "good" friend said to the minister's wife that she was over at the house, helping with some cleaning and how the house was a big mess! Then she said something that ripped my heart into pieces. Still talking to the minister's wife (like I was invisible) she said that my friend kept holding, cradling and smelling the baby's car seat cover because she said it smelled like her baby, but that she (the "good" friend) went over when my friend wasn't looking and picked it up and smelled it herself and it did not smell anything but MUSTY! I gave them both a glare and took my son and left that nursery, gathered my children and never went back. THOSE PEOPLE WERE FALSE CHRISTIANS!
What did it for me also, years ago, was seeing the Bakker's on TV, my MIL would watch them. Tammy Faye in her $1000 leather suit, with her black mascara tears running down her face, begging for money. And then when her husband takes the rap and goes to jail, what does she do? She leaves him, like she had no responsibility in everything they did.
There are "false" christians... Plenty of them.
In the scripture, over and over again - we are commanded to "love one another". In the book of John, Jesus says it many times.
Some examples in John:
John 13:34 - A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another.
John 15:12 - This is my commandment, That ye love one another, as I have loved you.
John 15:17 - These things I command you, that ye love one another.
MORE:
1 John 3:11 - For this is the message that ye heard from the beginning, that we should love one another.
1 John 4:7 - Beloved, let us love one another: for love is of God; and every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth God.
1 John 4:12 - No man hath seen God at any time. If we love one another, God dwelleth in us, and his love is perfected in us.
In the book of Romans, Paul talks about how we are to live. Romans 13:8 says: Owe no man any thing, but to love one another: for he that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.
And older women are to be examples in love for younger women, to help encourage and equip them in their own path. EXAMPLES, not telling anyone else what to do. The only thing we are supposed to do is LOVE.
I hope I did not go to overboard on LOVE... But it really is the most important thing. And sometimes people can be very unlovable. Usually it is the case that when someone is the most unlovable, that they need love the most.
MY DH tells younger people, what it is all about is helping other people, when you get to heaven that is what God is going to want to know about, and we will all be dead in 50 years, what difference will it make then? It is less about why are we here, as who are we here for.
I don't know if this answers what you were talking about - I hope I am making some sense.
I am very spiritual, I want to feed my soul... I don't have a "religion" and the world is my church. I feel God's presence at the ocean and in the mountains or just looking out my back door, then I ever did sitting in a "building".
Much love and hugs~
Wanda
Anyone have anger that comes and goes regarding another religion?
) in the same section. Of course, right now in my lack of caffeine, head cold stuffed brain, stayed up too late last night state of being I cannot seem to type out the eloquent explanation that he gives. lol. I will come back after my head has cleared a bit and expound on what he says. In the meantime know that feelings of anger are no more 'good' or 'bad' than other feelings. Feelings are what happends when we attach our stories to situations. Begin by just noticing your feelings of anger, but giving them no more and no less attention than your other feelings. Just notice it. Oh - lookie there - I feel anger. huh. yup. ... just notice. 
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