Why I Rejected Organized Religion

I fully anticipate being called the anti-Christ, but I have to get this off my chest. Before you plot my demise, hear me out.



Ten-Year-Old Me: “I want to be so rich one day that I don’t have to look at price tags.”

My Family: “You’re not supposed to want that. Bible says it’s harder for a rich man to enter the gates of heaven than it is for a camel to enter through the eye of a needle.”

Ten-Year-Old Me: “What the hell?”

Hearing this type of bullshit used to piss me off. As young as ten, I rejected it. Some ridiculous excuse shot down every dream I had, and misinterpretations of the scripture were usually at the core of it. Those misinterpretations and archaic belief systems were and still are driven by good ole’ fashioned fear.

Although I am unsure of how old I was, I remember this vividly. I had laid a magazine down on top of a Bible. My mother found it and came running to me. “Paula, you can never lay anything on top of the Bible. God will punish you for that.” I was scared to damn death forever over doing that because I had been socialized to believe that God would throw me into a lake of fire for deviant behaviors. Looking back, my fears were ridiculous and a complete waste of my energy.

I’m not beating up on my mother. She truly believed that, and I respect her beliefs as I do anyone’s. But that does not mean I have to comply or conform to beliefs I consider to be ridiculous. God gave me free will so that I can decide what’s right and wrong for me.

If you go to church, and it feeds your soul, that’s wonderful. I’m not lashing out at you. This article is for those who rejected organized religion and feel like they have nowhere to go. Rejecting organized religion and dismissing the beliefs I was taught about God is what led me to spirituality. If you’re like me and you’ve rejected organized religion, I want to give you a new perspective and a new set of commandments to live by. We can believe in God without participating in organized religion.

I don’t know what religious beliefs you were taught, but if they resemble mine, I’d love for you to read my article in its entirety. Throughout my lifetime, I’ve watched organized religion cause wars, drive people mad, and divide us all. Even though I always believed in God, and right now, I believe in God more than ever, I never accepted any ideals that came out of organized religion, and here’s why.

My Beef with Organized Religion

Each denomination claims to be right and condemns other denominations for their beliefs. Have you noticed that?

Have you ever gone to a church where everyone argues all the time or was cliquish?

Have you ever gone to a church that mandated that you look a certain way?

The Holiness denomination heavily influenced my upbringing, and their beliefs are outlandish. For example, they require women to have long hair. The women aren’t allowed to cut their hair. They claim you can’t get into Heaven if you are a female with short hair. Did you know that?

That’s absolute insanity. Do you remember Casey Anthony? She killed her daughter. She had long hair.

Take a look at the people in the Catholic church. Women wear their hair in many ways: short, long, bleached, straight, curly, and so on. Same situation with Methodists, Baptists, and various other denominations.

And think about this one… the Church of Christ forbids musical instruments in the church. So, are the Methodists, for instance, wrong to have a full choir backed by an orchestra?

My question has always been, “Who is right?” No one can answer that question.

The Bible: Hell, Hair, and Havoc

What gets me is that each denomination gets its playbook from the Bible, and they claim that’s where the truth comes from. How can it be the truth when it has been interpreted differently by everyone who has read it? Have you noticed that? The Holiness and the long hair mandate for women came from scripture that says a woman’s hair is her glory. I interpret that as we can wear our hair any way we want.

I mean, how do you interpret that? I would really love to know.

I was taught to fear God. The God I was raised to believe in was revengeful, jealous, and punitive by nature because if I didn’t behave a certain way, I would be thrown into a lake of fire to burn for eternity. And if I loved something too much, God would take that away from me because I was not to put anyone or anything above “him.”

Yes, I thought God was a white man throughout my entire childhood.

But the same people that believe in hell will say, “God is good. God is good all the time.” That doesn’t even make sense. If you think that God will throw you into a lake of fire for wrongdoing, how can you possibly love “him?” That’s not love. That’s fear and hatred. Love and fear, and hate cannot co-exist. So, do these people who conform to organized religion love or fear God? I think that question merits some serious pondering. I used to fear God, but now I am overwhelmed with love for God.

Now, I can keep going. I could write about this for days on end. I am talking to you about this because my new book is based on my original Thought Snob (Search for New Objective Beliefs) concept, and many of you are familiar with it by now. The book isn’t published yet, but it will be soon.

Thought Snobs search for new objective beliefs because the beliefs instilled in them have either ruined their lives or greatly hindered their growth. My parents always told me that it was harder for a rich man to get into heaven than it was for a camel to go through the eye of a needle. So, I grew up thinking that a person had to be poor to get into heaven. And that was based on actual scripture from the Bible.

Based on the teachings of my socialization, rich people don’t have much need for God. That’s some judgmental shit right there. I thought we weren’t supposed to judge.

Whatever. It hurts my head to even think about it.

I’ve known poor, rich, and wealthy people, and the only thing I base my beliefs on about their characters is how they treat me and others. Either you have good intentions, or you don’t. The amount of money you have has little to do with the color of your soul. And when natural disasters happen, who comes to the rescue? Who starts foundations to help the underprivileged and the underserved? The wealthy do because they have money.

And I’m here to tell you that the wealthy do not have to give anyone anything. Those who choose to do so do it out of kindness, compassion, and empathy. By giving money to improve the lives of the less fortunate, they act like God. In my opinion, that’s what we are supposed to do. If I show up with a large check that removes thousands of people from poverty and homelessness, would it matter what my hair looked like?

The answer is NO!

Thought Snobs and the Ten Commandments

Through being a Thought Snob, you basically reverse everything to escape havoc and reach sustainable happiness. Notice I said sustainable, not fleeting happiness.

Writing this book caused me to reflect deeply on organized religion because I couldn’t disagree with it more. So, during my research stage of the writing process, I pulled out the Ten Commandments and read through them. I wrote a new one for each one, and the ones I wrote make more sense to me. They make more sense because of these three facts:

1. God gave us free will. We wouldn’t have free will if we weren’t supposed to make choices.

2. The Ten Commandments from the Bible are rooted in fear, not love.

3. The Ten Commandments are written in a way that separates us from God, and that makes no sense because we are God. None of us are separated from God. Period. We’re all from the same source, so why are the Ten Commandments written this way?

I believe the Ten Commandments are a source that divided everyone from the beginning. Division has always, in my opinion, been the problem. Unity is the solution. Moreover, life isn’t black and white. There’s a significant grey area.

One of the Commandments states that we should honor thy father and thy mother, but what if our parents don’t honor us? People stay in abusive relationships with their parents because they believe they have to based on that commandment. This is why I say organized religion drives people mad because situations and relationships aren’t black and white.

This inspired me to write a new set of more loving and less punitive commandments. As you read each one, think about how each one coincides with the Ten Commandments written in the Bible.

1. I am God, so I will act like God.
2. I will love everyone even if I don’t like them.
3. I will be keenly aware that my words create good and bad karma, and I will always try to speak from a place of love.
4. I will treat every day as a gift.
5. I will associate with respectful people and care for them as they do me.
6. I will view myself as a loving being that is not disconnected from my Source.
7. I will embrace loyalty and receive the rewards of being loyal.
8. I will use my innate manifestation abilities to obtain anything I want.
9. I will practice gratitude daily.
10. I will honor my intuition and pursue any burning desires my intuition communicates.

If I had been presented with these statements early on in childhood, I wouldn’t have been so confused and wouldn’t have made fear-based decisions. Frankly, the Bible scared me to death, but I can’t think of one spiritual book that ever scared me.

Since my newest concept is based on objectively seeing things, the facts are that the spiritual path has never scared me. Ever. It is where I found the real God and felt the most profound love and forgiveness I’ve ever known. I never got that from organized religion because it removes the power of the individual and separates the individual from its source.

For those of you who left organized religion and feel like you have no place to go, you’re who I am speaking to. I hope this helps you gain clarity and confidence with your decisions. Look at the facts and get in tune with how YOU feel versus allowing scripture to dictate your lifestyle.

Let go and let God. The best way for us to do that is to see organized religion for what it is. If your heart is in the right place, you can worship God anywhere. You don’t have to be on the Amen Row every Sunday. If a person only acknowledges God on Sunday, well, that’s a conversation for another day.

Thank You

If you made it all the way to the end, thank you. I appreciate you giving me your most precious asset, your time. Please visit paulaswope.com sometime. I have a free monthly newsletter that thousands of people enjoy. Sign up for it while you’re surfing around.