I re read my last post.. and I am going to leave it there..but in a way I wish I could take out the name of the religion... the same way I took out the last name of the girl in the story. I don't want to sound like some sort of a bigot. I live in Mesa, Arizona. There is a large community of people from The Church of the Latter day Saints-Mormons. In my story, I explained... how upset I was.. and I guess I am still upset.. not at the religion, not at the girl, but in how some people view religion. I know that you cannot judge the actions of the Bishop that made a mistake back in 1979 and paint a picture for an entire religion... and thank you Odin, for making that point.

I am however upset that my stepfather doesn't have a relationship with his children and hasn't since he got a divorce. It's none of my business.. I know, maybe he doesn't want a relationship either.. maybe he doesn't go out of his way to communicate with them. The thing is, I know that part of it is because he married a person that wasn't from his religion. His children were married in a Temple and he didn't see it because he couldn't bring his wife there.

It's none of my business, but why does religion.. seperate people. I don't want to pick on any one religion.. because, you have to know that they all do in some way. On one hand.. people from the same religion band together and help each other, but there is also a level of seperation from others as well.

Yes.. they all seperate.. Muslims, Buddists, Jews, Catholics, Christians... are all labels.. and by taking that label, you seperate yourself don't you? I call myself a Christian.. although I was raised a Catholic.

One night.. about 10 years ago, I was in my hotel room.. I don't remember where.... it doesn't matter. I was also online, chatting away with people on the internet that I did not know. I started talking to this one woman that told me her very sad story. She had a drug problem and she lost her children. She was not allowed to see her children anymore.. she told me. She told me that she was crying.. that she missed her babies. She also said that she had been saved... she started going to a church and started speaking in tongues and handling snakes.. She vividly shared with me that first night that she walked into the strange little house of worship and how she didn't believe, how upset she was at the world and at God for ruining her life.. she said. that when she was forcibly brought up to the alter,she started to speak in tongues and she felt a light go through her. I have had an experience in which I felt what I would call The Holy Spirit but I remember how I judged her and thought that it all seemed crazy... the converstation stuck with me, becuase I had chills when she told me to go to the nighstand and take out the bible. I did. She told me to read from different pages. I did. I saw how you could read something into a single line of the bible and then extract it to an entire belief system. I asked her if she thought I was going to hell, becuase I didn't go to her church. She said that if I didn't accept the things that she had accepted..then I would be going to hell.

For the next 6 months.. she continued to write me emails.. telling me that she felt sorry for me and that she would pray for me. I wondered why she would think that I was so bad.. she hadn't even met me.

I don't think that any one religion is responsible for the seperation.

Do you think that the religion that you belong to.. welcomes everyone?

Really?