Written by Wes Annac, The Culture of Awareness

I just received an email from a reader who recently renounced Mormonism in favor of general, openhearted spirituality. She’s dealing with a lot of backlash from the Mormons around her, and one person in particular (who she’s very close with) now thinks she’s given her soul to Satan and must be re-converted to Mormonism and ‘saved’.

She says she’s practically had to hide the spiritual articles she reads on the internet, and she feels unloved by the people around her who don’t accept that she’s exited Mormonism and embraced a broader understanding of spirituality.

Like I’ve said before, no belief system determines our spiritual ‘worthiness’ or our ability to go to heaven. It doesn’t matter if we follow contemporary religion, the ascension movement, eastern spiritual philosophers, etc. We’re all trying to go to the same place, and what we do with our beliefs is far more important than what our beliefs actually are.

I’ll venture as far as to say that the beliefs we have really aren’t important. It really doesn’t matter if you believe that there’s a bearded man up in the sky or that a self-professed ‘prophet’ received a bunch of scrolls from ‘God’ that he used to form a religion.

It doesn’t matter if you think this planet and its people are about to experience a full-on collective evolution from the third to fifth dimensions.

You can be Christian, Catholic, Mormon, Hindu, Muslim, New-Agey – none of it matters. Humans have established belief systems for the purpose of using them to understand spirit in a greater way, but the belief systems themselves really aren’t important.

Why aren’t they important, you ask? Because they’re only beliefs. They’re ideas we created so we could glimpse what no man has glimpsed, and when we’re in a higher state of consciousness (what some religions call ‘heaven’) we’ll realize that it’s nothing like we thought or imagined on earth.

This goes for every belief system, whether they’re religious or generally spiritual. For example – those of us who are heavily involved in the ascension movement believe that the Company of Heaven exists and is guiding humanity along our physical and spiritual evolution.

When we reach a higher state of consciousness, however, we’ll probably find that life there is absolutely nothing like we expected. We’ll see that the Company of Heaven is indeed real, but all of our limited, preconceptions about them will be shattered.

The same can be said for religion. Everyone on this planet who reaches the higher realms will realize that they’re unperceivable and indescribable with our limited human understanding. We can only understand heaven when we’re in heaven, and no belief system is 100% accurate.

We humans are doing the best we can to interpret the higher realms, but when we’re actually there, we’ll find that all of our interpretations fell short. This, in my opinion, is why belief systems aren’t inherently important, and they certainly aren’t an excuse for self-righteousness.

This takes us back to our reader’s problem. I don’t want to sound harsh here, but she’s basically dealing with a group of people (and one person in particular) who are so entrenched in their spiritual beliefs that they can’t accept that she believes something different.

These particular people are so assured that their beliefs are the right ones that they even think other belief systems (such as the ascension movement) have been designed by Satan in an attempt to take Mormons off of their paths.

That’s a harsh level of close-mindedness, and with this mindset, I don’t think humanity will get very far in our spiritual exploration. I’m not trying to pick on religion, and a believer in ascension and the Company of Heaven could easily express the same self-righteousness. In fact, I’m pretty sure a lot of seekers have.

How many ‘conscious’ people have fallen into the same trap: fixing themselves on their beliefs and telling others who think differently that they’re ‘wrong’? This problem isn’t just with religion, but religion seems to be its biggest employer.

The issue here isn’t religion or spirituality – it’s the fact that humanity can’t accept one another. You’ve heard the phrase ‘never discuss religion or politics’, and this is exactly why. As individuals, some of us are so convinced that our beliefs, our ideologies are the only correct ones, that we can’t accept others for believing different things.

No matter what you believe, if you can’t accept another person for who they are and how they feel, that reflects on you. Whatever religious or spiritual belief you have is just a scapegoat for your hatred, judgment, and condemnation, and to judge or condemn in the name of spirituality is to hold yourself back more than you would’ve ever thought possible.

God doesn’t want us to fight over our respective interpretations of Him/Her. God wants us to love, respect, and help each other, and I’d imagine He/She especially wants us to support each other spiritually. Personally, I don’t understand how anyone who claims to have an advanced religious/spiritual perspective can descend into judgment and hatred.

Honestly, it baffles me. How do so many religious souls still not understand that what they do with their beliefs is more important than the beliefs themselves? How has humanity still not opened up to the idea that love and acceptance are all that are required to get into heaven?

I feel for our reader, who’s made to think she’s ‘wrong’ for thinking differently than the people around her, but their condemnation says something about them, not her. I’m sure our reader doesn’t go around claiming Mormonism and other religions are ‘wrong’, so why should she (or anyone else) be told she’s wrong?

Our actions will always be more important than the beliefs they’re bred from. If Mormonism or any other religion gives someone incentive to act judgmental or self-righteous, then that person should look within and find what’s missing before they can live in harmony.

I wish I could offer more advice to our reader, but the best advice I can give is not to let the condemnation of others get her down.

Millions of formerly religious people who were just like her have exited (or rather, broadened) their faiths when discovering spirituality and the ascension movement, and nobody should have to feel like their interpretations of God or heaven aren’t good enough, because every interpretation is distorted.

I’ve said about all I can on this subject, and I hope our reader’s able to find some lenience from the people around her.

This problem is all too common with religion, general spirituality, and even atheism, and small-mindedness is one of the biggest obstacles on our path to collective enlightenment. I envision a world where people can live in harmony and respect each other’s interpretations of God and heaven, but until that day comes, we clearly have a lot of work to do.

Wes Annac – Ready to see humanity transcend our unproductive ways of division and hatred.

I’m a 21 year old awakening seeker and creator of The Culture of Awareness daily news site.

The Culture of Awareness features daily spiritual and alternative news, as well as articles I’ve written and more. Its purpose is to awaken and uplift by providing material that’s spiritually inspired and/or related to the fall of the planetary elite and our entrance into a positive future.

I can also be found at Conscious Oneness, The Golden Age of Gaia, Lightworkers.org, Ashtar Command Crew, Facebook (Wes Annac and The Culture of Awareness), and Twitter.