I have a memory from Junior High. I was about thirteen or fourteen. My English teacher at the time...her name escapes me right now...asked as an extra curricular activity, to write an essay on which writer we thought had the most impact on our world. Any writer, any media or format. I of course had no intention of doing any activity that wasn't "required". I hated school and did as little as possible. I went home that night over dinner I picked up the newspaper. Back then the newspaper would print a quote every day right below the horoscope section in the comics, and that days caught my eye. It read:

"My own mind is my own church."
Thomas Paine

This point in my life was very turbulent, as is every thirteen/fourteen year old's life. I was really questioning God and Church. See, I wasn't a catholic or a protestant or a jew. Many of my friends WERE however and my friends were forced into CCD class and the like. I noted it was always the MOST un-christian like families that put their kids through this wringer. My parents did nothing of the kind with me. No church. Sundays were spent watching the Red Sox or Patriots with my dad, or out running around. Of course my friends loved to pontificate how I was going to hell...along with my parents...and they were all going to get to go to heaven. Me=hellfire. Them=paradise. This of course scared me. When I read that quote, something in my head just went WOW. I quickly went to the old New England Shopping Center (I think that is what it was called) which was right where the Square One mall is today. I know most kids would have went to the library, but I was delivering newspapers, bussing tables, and still scoring a weekly allowance from my parents. I spent a fortune every week at the Walden Books that was located there. This particular day I picked up The Age of Reason and I believe a American History book that had a one page biography of Thomas Paine. Now the quote as printed in the paper was simply: "My own mind is my own church."  In the book I purchased, The Age of Reason, I was able to read the entire passage. The context. It forever changed my life. It read:

 "I do not believe in the creed professed by the Jewish church, by the Roman church, by the Greek church, by the Turkish church, by the Protestant church, nor by any church that I know of. My own mind is my own church.
 All national institutions of churches, whether Jewish, Christian or Turkish, appear to me no other than human inventions, set up to terrify and enslave mankind, and monopolize power and profit."

My mouth was agape. I read and re read and re read that passage over and over. I began at that moment to realize that I did not need the intersession of another man or woman into my spirtual life and put God's stamp on it. I could believe what I SUSPECTED about God. Or I could not believe at all! Suddenly I had an essay to write! I proceeded to write my one and only extra curricular assignment I ever wrote for any class in Junior High School! My teacher wrote "interesting" and gave me an A. Thomas Paine however became a hero to me, not only for what he wrote about American politics, but for what he wrote about religion. I was free. Free to think and act.

Mot the Blogger