In our house, Buddha wears rosary beads

I've said a few times that I wouldn't be discussing religion here. As we all know, I do what I want, so today I decided I will be discussing it.

MFD and I were both raised Catholic, me more so than him in that I received all of the sacraments except for marriage - we weren't married by a priest. I grew away from that belief system early in my life, but he never really did. He's always identified as a Catholic and I haven't for a very long time. 

Recently he's returned to being a practicing Catholic. Jesus is his homeboy and MFD will high five Jesus anywhere he pleases, Facebook included. He's out with his faith, which is directly opposite of how I approach religion: I feel that it's personal, private, and between me and my higher power alone. I don't even really discuss my beliefs with those closest to me. I will sort of wall you off if you approach me about it. 

A friend of mine, knowing how I feel about religion and organized religion in particular, asked me how I was with MFD's faith forward posture. 

Honestly? I'm great with it. It grounds him and makes him happy, and both of those things are extremely important to me. MFD knows I'm not interested in doing Church things, so he bops down to the parish a block from our house and I do my thing. Who am I to tell him, or anyone else for that matter, how to feed their soul?

In our house, we're accepting and tolerant of the belief systems of others and that starts right with us. Just because we're married doesn't mean we feel the same about everything and even if we did, people change over time and as long as they're not destructive changes, you have to roll with it. At the end of the day, what someone feels deep in their heart is their business, whatever deity they believe in or the absence of belief in a deity if that's how they roll.

Real life: I went to pull that weed, but when I went to do it Buddha's head fell off. Whoops. 

There's room enough in this world for the beliefs of all of us. If we really thought about it, we'd find more commonality than differences among our belief systems. We'd find that working hard, being a good person, sharing good energy, helping our neighbors and community, and minding what we're doing instead of what others are doing is where most religions rub up against one another, no matter what name that religion's higher power goes by. Which is why Buddha wears rosary beads in our house. Good is good, no matter what religion it falls under. 

My Joyful Buddha wearing MFD's rosary beads

If you use your religion to cast stones against others, I have to say I think you're doing it wrong and your God would probably be like hey...that's my job. Peaceful coexistence with people different from us is something this world sorely lacks. Let's work on that. 

 Note: since this references MFD's beliefs, I ran it by him first. He insisted I did not receive all sacraments (what it originally said) because marriage is a sacrament. I got schooled.

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