Reincarnation Though Trials & Tribulation

Childhood Innocence:

Christianity, it was the religion Julia was born into and chose to believe. Partially growing up amongst said religion, she attended Sunday school regularly at a church in her small hometown. She loved bible study on Wednesday’s. She even participated in Vacation Bible Study[1] during the summers. She always brought in an abundant amount of friends to VBS and became one of the group leaders of the program when she got older. Julia loved surrounding herself with people who loved the Lord as much as she. These types of things are ordinary cultuses[2] within her religion: attending church on Sundays, Bible study on Wednesdays, communion on the first Sunday and so forth.

Some of her main beliefs include obeying the Ten Commandments, always forgiving whether or not you feel you had been wronged, treating people the way you want to be treated, and always repenting. She doesn’t believe in divorce because marriage is a union/promise made with God. Certain aspects of her beliefs fall under ordinary religion[3] while others meet the criteria of extraordinary religion[4]. For example, she stands firm by the belief that if she follows her God and obeys His commandments, she will have a place in Heaven and her spiritual form will live forever. 

There were inconsistencies with her church attendance during her adolescent years. It wasn’t that she had become disinterested; it was that her family just stopped attending consistently. By default she did as well. There were times she would call up one of her friends whose family was heavily invested in the church and ask if she could go with them to service. However, that venture was short-lived. Church had become fairly absent from her daily existence. Oftentimes she would attempt the 365 Bible challenge: a special type of Bible that broke up books and verses to read each day for a year in order to complete the sacred text. She viewed reading the Bible as necessary to become closer to God. Also, it was her only form of learning about Him since church had fallen from her life. The only problem was she never stuck to it.

High School Woes:

Upon starting high school, the role religion played in her life started to change once again. Her sister had begun dating a boy who invited Julia’s sister to church with him. She accepted his offer and following service that morning, Julia’s sister invited the entire family to attend the next week. They accepted. It was a new environment, very strange from what she was accustomed to; nevertheless, it was reminiscent of home. She had grown up in a predominately white church and the one her sister had taken her to was predominately black. It was much livelier, cheerful, and family-oriented.

At this point in her life, Julia had begun dating a boy who she openly explored different sexual activities with, except for the act of sex itself. However, after she began to attend church again, Julia started to feel as if she was sinning anytime she engaged in sexual activity seeing that it was premarital. She felt as if she was breaking the written code[5]. She explained this to her boyfriend and he respected her beliefs.

College Breakdown:

Julia became happy at this church and attended service religiously. She felt a newfound sense of community[6] with a new group of kind, dedicated individuals; they became her second family. Three years later, Julia went away to college. Upon entering this new stage Julia sought to keep religion and her religion-based moral code as part of her life, but failed on multiple occasions. She attended church once in awhile with friends but it became a similar situation as with her first church home; it just did not feel like where she belonged. Julia stopped attending church altogether and simultaneously begun to feel as if she was losing some of her values. She started partying on the weekends, getting drunk, and becoming sexually promiscuous. She looked at her behavior as perpetually destructive[7] but felt there was no way to stop it. At this point in her life prayer was obsolete, church was nonexistent, and Bible study went unattended. The day she got pregnant became the turning point in her life.

She cried and cried and begged of an answer from her Heavenly Father. Was it punishment for her behavior? She couldn’t face telling her parents, family or community what she viewed as a mistake. For this reason, Julia decided to have an abortion. Again, defying the moral code she once held so firmly. After following through with the abortion Julia felt there was no way God would ever love her again because she took away a life. Despite this mindset, she remembered one teaching that was always instilled growing up; God will always forgive your sins, He died for them.

A few months later Julia still had not found a family-like church, so instead she began attending a weekly bible study with a new community of dedicated individuals. Through them Julia found a religious family once again, and not long after, she found a church family. There were times when Julia felt as if she was regressing, but never entirely back to the reckless lifestyle she once lived. It was a struggle at first to give up the worldly things she was so invested in, but the more she attended to church, started reading her Bible, and engaging in daily prayers, the easier it became to remember her values. Most of all it also became clearer what she truly wanted out of life and what life meant, the creeds[8]. Today Julia considers herself a newborn Christian; restorative religion took place in her life[9].

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[1] A week long program during the summer for the youth to become closer to God, shortened form is VBS

[2] Albanese 8. Rituals to act out the understandings expressed in creeds and codes

[3] Albanese 5. Religion that is more or less synonymous with culture. It shows people how to live well within boundaries

[4] Albanese 5. The religion that helps people transcend, or move beyond, their everyday culture and concerns

[5] Albanese 7. Rules that govern everyday behavior

[6] Albanese 9. Groups of people either formally or informally bound together by the creed, code, and cultus they share

[7] Albanese 10. Negating life as most people understand it

[8] Albanese 7. Explanations about the meaning of human life

[9] Albanese 10. Works to bring back a sense of order and safety, of tranquility and peace, when these seem eroded