Religion Sucks!

Growing up, I had no religion at all. Well, at least not with GOD. I didn't know who Jesus Christ was except for for colorful pictures drawn in the family bible. I didn't go to church. I pretty much lived my life as a kid with no spiritual meaning at all. As I look back, I remember we had a lot of traditions during religious holidays,but they did not glorify God. In fact, they kept me occupied and away from God. Don't get me wrong. There is nothing wrong with tradtion, but if it is separating us from our maker, then it cannot be good. The way I see it, religion was tradition.
I'm much older now and I have found God and walk with Him every day. I have tremendous friends in my life who are believers as well. I go to church on a regular basis, read the bible and other spiritual books and practice decipleship outside of the church during the week. One of my close friends, who is also the pastor of our church, was teaching on religion one weekend and pointed something out to me that I will never forget. He said that Jesus spent his entire life trying to get us away from religion. That is pretty powerful stuff to me. Why is it, that a lot of the religions out there have rules that only a high priest can talk to God for us? Why can't we have a personal relationship with Jesus? Why is it so many of us feel like we are separate from God? I think religion does that to us.
Last weekend, a woman came forward in our church and gave her testimony. I could not have been any less prepared for what I was about to hear. She grew up as a Jehova's witness and the life she lived was everything short of a crucifiction. I will not go into details as to what she testified, but some of the things I heard included sexual assault, physical abuse, mental abuse, loneliness, rebuked, homeless and the list goes on and on. She talked for about thirty minutes, but it seemed like an eternity to have to sit there and listen to this. I wanted to get up and walk out but I couldn't. I was anxious to hear if this story had a happy ending. I experienced every feeling or emotion that a human can have, but the most was anger. Anger for people committing hideous acts and hiding behind their religion. I personally wanted to ask this lady who and where these people are so that I could avenge her. I sat there and sorted out my feelings and processed everything to my best ability. All I could come up with was that, RELIGION SUCKS! As her story approached it's end she shared with us the power of forgiveness. I would like to say that this was the happy ending, but her story is not over yet. She still has a great amount of work to do. Recovery from any abuse is a life long event. We all stood and applauded her courage and one by one, we walked up to her and thanked her for her testimony.
My attentions here are not to offend anybody. But a wise friend once told me, "If somebody says or does something that offends you, then let it stick for a while. There must be some truth as to why it offends you." My hope is, that anyone who is stuck in a religious or traditional life style that is preventing them from truly knowing God, can break free and find their salvation in Him.