[IvyRose]

I live in the "Bible Belt" of America in a backwards, but slightly larger city than Hillbilly Central. It is almost impossible to escape the subject of Religion when you have men yelling on street corners, "You're going to Hell!"

You have schools here who aren't suppose to pray, but they do. Not everyday, but enough to influence the new generation. It seems that here, where we live, one of the first things when meeting someone new; the question of "What Church do you go to?" pops up. We've learned to just lie.

The majority of the Religion taught here, is prejudice, biased and downright scary at times. Most of the men of cloth I've been exposed to, don't believe they've had a good sermon until someone is scared of Evil. The sweat, the tears and the red face of the man behind the podium - it was all for a "Good Show" to warm the seats and fill the collection plates.

Where I live in the city, there is a Church about every 10 blocks. All different, yet have the same agenda. Make it interesting!

I tried to believe like the others did when I was young, but I had too many questions. I still don't think I believe strong enough to call myself a Christian nor have any want or need to convert someone in the way I believe.

I don't believe the same way the vast majority of the Churches around me do and I have to keep it quiet. No, I'm not going to die because I believe differently; at least I hope. I will get snubbed, turned down for a job, thrown out of a Church establishment or function if I am to discuss with my community how I really feel. How do I know? All of this has happened to me before.

I have had the added benefit of having a child that is physically disabled. The first time I tried to take him to Church, we were promptly kicked out and my son was called a "Demon Seed." He was too young to remember and I had only wanted to join a community function to get to know my new neighbors.

What I didn't know at the time, was that this specific Church believed that if a person is handicapped, they have done something Evil in a past life. We have run into them quite a few times over the years, usually trying to put Church pamphlets on our door.

I actually had one guy who had brought his daughter with him to my house and when he seen my son, he just about jumped out of his skin. He demanded his pamphlet back, explained that my son had done something Evil and I was being punished as well.

I traveled with my son to Texas to see his favorite wrestlers. I can't even remember where we were, but it was definitely a small town. I took him to get ice cream before another long stint on the highway. We sat down and began eating when I noticed there was a gathering around us.

The employees had called their families to come to the Ice Cream Shop to look at this poor crippled boy. They started chanting Biblical chants and asked me to please let my son go into their Snake Pit to cure him.

My son and I have been approached on many occasions to be Healed. Some days it gets so bad, we just decide not to leave the house for a few days.

I decided that I wanted to raise my son free of "Religious Belief" so that he didn't have the same fears I had growing up. I didn't want him conditioned to believe. I wanted him to come to his own conclusions in time.

Despite all the negative things that he has been subjected to, he knows not to blame the entire Religion(s). He did choose his own Religion and can not talk about it near his relatives or in mixed crowds. I'm proud of him and it has helped him relieve his physical pain when it becomes too much to handle.

I feel what I feel and know what I know. I can't explain it, but there was an event in my son's life that changed my perspective and I began trying to find out who Jesus really was.

My son almost died in a hospital. He went into a coma and the Doctors didn't know if he would awake and if he did, he probably wouldn't remember who he was. My son did awake and had some strange stories to tell me of his experience.

He was too young to lie and I could tell he really believed what he had seen. He described the things I was doing while out of his room, who he met, where he was. It was a surreal experience just listening to him. He talked about this for three days and then no longer. In fact, today he can not remember his experience at all.

I'm not going to lie and say that I have blind faith, but I have a healthy respect. I do pray at home and not just when something is wrong in my life. I believe that it is possible that all Religions with different Deities could be true to an extent and I don't expect anyone to think the same way I do.