Your friends who are of various beliefs and faiths, from Western Buddhist to New Age, will scoff and correct you, if you should voice any apprehension about, say, meditation. That will be because they do not know what those concerns may be, and let’s not get into them now.
Being dominated by people who do not know anything, never mind respect anything, about your faith, is something you will by now be accustomed to. The culture is with them, not with you. Their ideas are common, so if you stretch out your hand, you will encounter one.
They will, for example, not even be aware that the Christian prohibition against (don’t like the word so I will say “sex with self” instead of the word, that starts with an “m”) is not rooted, as common bias holds, in Christians being uptight, Puritanical, or “anti-sexuality.” Rather, the idea is: “Give the sexual offering to your partner, (wife/husband;) “Sex with self” allows it to be given to a demon that has shown up for that purpose.” So, you see, Christians take sex very seriously, in a way. Except of course, the Shakers in Maine, who genuinely were opposed to all sex, and did die out. (If I got that right.)
Novice Christians—we, have to learn these things. I began studying some 16 years ago and am still very much a novice. Step by step, I try to find my way.
People criticizing Christianity incorrectly is a pet peeve of mine. Also! Between factions inside the faith—fellow Christians shoot all kinds of wrong, slanderous arrows at one another. Evangelicals claim, for example, that praying the Rosary, is a form of idolatry. One of their claims is that the prayers of the Rosary are not in the Bible. Not true, they are.
To wit:
“When the angel Gabriel was sent to Mary by the Father, he greeted her, “Hail, full of grace; the Lord is with you” (Luke 1:28). When Mary visited Elizabeth, Elizabeth exclaimed, “Of all women you are the most blessed, and blessed is the fruit of your womb” (Luke 1:41-42).”
Criticize Catholics to your hearts content, but do it from solid ground, in such case.
Here is the best video I found on how to meditate as a Christian:
I am going to let everybody have their say, and assume there is no right or wrong. This post is about wishing different Christians were more interested in what the "other" believes. And why. Just as one wishes US Presidents spoke foreign languages.
I started this argument but I'm not going to stay in it. Just glad we could air it out. I now pray The Jesus Prayer on the Rosary, as of today. Prayers are prayers. Aren't they?
If you think about it, Christianity, which is a personal, individual relationship with Jesus the Christ, is not a religion. There are no rituals involved. The thief on the cross didn't have to qualify once he claimed the gift of salvation.
That doesn't mean there are not a lot of religions that self-identify as Christian. That's where the rituals are found; big religion is as corrupt as big government!