Scary Religion

I was looking through SciFi.com and reading about the new Sci-Fi shows that are on the TV air these days and came across an article about the movie “The Haunting of Molly Hartley.” I have no plans to watch this movie but what the director (Mickey Liddell) says about how he came up with some of the stuff in the movie made me sad for him. He says, “I think religion is really scary. So I have a lot of religion in there [the movie]. Overzealous people about religion scare me a lot, on one side or the other, you know? So that's a theme that goes throughout the whole film. I grew up in Oklahoma, and it was always kind of scary growing up, and I remember I belonged to a Baptist church. In the Baptist Church you get baptized when you're, I don't know, 13 or 14 or something like that. And there's this big baptism that's up on a big wall. It's very theatrical. The lights are on it and everything, and the preacher takes you in there. You wear robes, and you go underneath, and the whole congregation watches you. And I always thought that was the scariest thing. Even when I was doing it, I wasn't really sure what I was doing, but it was what everyone else did. And I just thought it was really theatrical and really scary."

The sad part about this interview is not that he put a lot of what he believes (religion is scary) in his movie, but that the church he grew up in didn’t properly explain the whole idea of baptism. Baptism has nothing to do with salvation, but it’s about a picture of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. A person is baptized after they receive Christ as Savior. Baptism is a way for a newly saved person to show the world they are different; they are a new creature in Christ. Since the church Mickey Liddell grew up in baptized children without clearly explaining things, Mickey thinks all churches do this. My fear is that Mickey has a false sense of security so it’s doesn’t sounds (through this interview) that he has more than just religion.

Religion is itself can be scary because it’s empty. Being a Baptist and/or Christian has nothing to do with religion. Christianity is a relationship with God and Jesus Christ period.