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Or did your parents pick for you? How would you go about picking a religion anyway?

92 percent of Americans say they believe in God, 85 percent in heaven and 82 percent in miracles, according to a FOX News poll in 2003. In a Newsweek Poll in 2005, 24% of people polled said they were spiritual but not religious.

Merriam-Webster dictionary defines religion as: the service and worship of God or the supernatural; commitment or devotion to religious faith or observance: a personal set or institutionalized system of religious attitudes, beliefs, and practices.

Do you believe everything that your religion teaches? Everything?

I remember as a kid talking to all of the other kids in elementary school about their religions. “So that’s why we have fish on the menu on Friday! So you really can’t dance?” It would come around to me. “My parents take me to the Methodist church; we can believe anything we want.”

I wish it was that easy. Today I consider myself spiritual. I take a little piece of everything I want on the religious and spiritual buffet. That’s what Bruce Lee did when he invented Jeet Kune Do, a martial art that is constantly changing for those who practice it. He took the best from the rest and you decide what fits you best.

I’ll take a little piece out of Christianity, mostly the stuff Jesus actually said in the New Testament. I’ll really don’t have a use for the Old Testament or even the Book of Revelations. I’ll also choose the words of Jesus from the Gnostic texts that didn’t make it in the Bible. I’ll take a little bit out of Buddhism and Taoism and maybe a little out of Hinduism. I believe some of the Spiritualist teachings and most of the Native American spirituality. Serve it up hot, scoop it on a plate and I’ll take it.

I don’t like labels and I don’t like to label people. I don’t want to be judged so I don’t judge. How would you know what kind of music you like unless you sampled everything? How would you know what foods you like if you didn’t sample something other than your mom’s cooking? What flavor ice cream…You get the point?

I’m partial to the Cowboy religion. I sit in the middle seat of the pickup so I don’t have to drive and I don’t have to open the gates. Don’t give me anything that’s too hard to wrap around my thick skull. Make it easy enough that I don’t have to pop blood vessel thinking about it.

I know, I’ll just pray to the Great Spirit and let my Angels and Spirit Guides keep me on the straight and narrow path. I’ll fall down and they’ll help me back up. I’ll knock off the dust and try it again. Everybody gets throw’d once in a while. I’ve got the rest of this lifetime and some of the next to learn what I’m supposed to.

I’ll leave you with Red Eagle’s prayer: Great Spirit; give me visions to show the way. Make the medicine good. Make the medicine strong.

Far Out,

Steve “Save the middle seat for me” Spur