Religion

It surprises a lot of people to find out I am quite religious. I try to pray each night and I go to church quite regularly.

In fact a lot of us working girls are religious – the Thai girls are mainly Buddhist, the Filipinas Catholic and the Indonesians Muslim. Somehow they have reconciled their religion and their work. Religion forms a base of support and survival for many girls in face of the challenges they face. Often they cling desperately to religion as a light.

My religion is really quite private and less desperate – it is a more of a feeling that the world without a god is incomplete. I have found most organised religions off-putting because of their intolerance and claim to be the only truth. I have found a church where they are accepting of difference and attend there.

From my perspective, I believe in a compassionate god who does not moralise but accepts and guides. My God is not male or female to me but transcends gender - I find it easier to use “He” when speaking of God. Given the beauty and pleasure of sex, I believe God regards it as good in its purest form – the only trouble I have is whether I am perverted away from God by being so promiscuous – but I half believe that He would approve as long as I never harm and always try to please.

John disagrees with me on religion. He asks me how a compassionate God could allow the suffering of so many people – the starving, the downtrodden, those exposed to domestic violence or diseases. This is a hard point to answer but I believe they are due to the force of evil opposing God. John asks me why not accept a God who is indifferent to us, a “Mother Nature” as you might say.

I do however feel that there is a force that is not indifferent to me and guides me to know what is right and wrong – not unambiguously but overall. I am not wise enough to fully comprehend God’s wishes but I can be guided. For me, the Bible is a starting point for this understanding but as a human document it is not infallible.

If there is no God, how can such an amazing place as this world come into being? Surely there is some intelligent design (but not at all in the way that Christian fundamentalists describe it)?

Sunday 30 November 2008 - 08:43AM (EST)