Before I get started let on what I want to talk about in this post, let me back it up a second. I made the decision on January 1st that I was spending WAY too much time on my phone. I've set the time limit restrictions for my social media apps and end up hitting the "ignore" buttons which ultimately defeats the purpose of setting up those time limits. I set my screen time downtime to start at 7:30pm and end at 10am. I can do a separate post on this but two of the apps that I have allowed for use during this downtime is Spotify and The Bible App.
Here's where I want to get into my title. I was listening to an episode of Candace Cameron Bure's podcast called "Drawing Up Your Space" (listen on Spotify or watch on AccessMore) from May 2023. At one point Candace is talking how her faith has led her to be more open about it on her social media and in the projects that she does and some of the feedback she gets is along the lines of I enjoy your work but I just don't care for the religious stuff and it got me thinking about something and maybe this is too deep but here it is:
At what point do the stories [in the Bible] translate into religion?
To dive a little deeper, and I know I'm still very new in my journey with God and Jesus (see my related posts about the start of my journey), but I'll venture that some, maybe not all, of the stories in the Christian Bible are told in various forms in other religions right? Vaguely putting it, we know that the Jewish believe that Jesus was born but that he wasn't the Messiah. My husband told me the other day that in the Quran, Jesus and Mary are held with the highest regards but they don't necessarily believe that He is the Son of God or believe in the Holy Trinity (he could be wrong, I could be wrong, please don't beat me up if I am). What I am getting at is when do these stories become religion?
I guess a follow up question could be is it certain words that have been deemed "religious" words that automatically turn people off? Is it the mention of God, someone saying faith? If you go back to "My Journey To Church Part 2" I talk about how I bought "Choose Joy" by Kay Warren and it was only after receiving it that I noticed it was a devotional book. Devotional was a religious trigger word for me. I was not expecting that and I almost returned it and I am so glad that I did not! Since that first reading in January 2021, I have read that devo multiple times and even sent it to a friend that I felt could use it!
I could be way off my topic and please let me know if I need to pull this down and edit it to be on topic. I am curious. For someone who doesn't know that the story of David and Goliath is actually part of the Old Testament just knows it as a story about an underdog beating the unbeatable in an impossible situation. Is it when we add in that this took place in 1 Samuel that it becomes a religious story and suddenly it turns people away from what happened before and after this scene?
I would love to hear what you think! I am asking this 100% out of curiosity. I am 3 years into my journey and learn more every day. I want to hear from those who consider themselves religious as well as those who are like the people that told Candace that they won't watch her stuff if it has to do with faith and religion. Thank you for taking time to read this!
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