Why don't you come on and join us?

Take your nose off the grindstone,
oh, oh oh!
Take, take your hands off the keyboard
and put down your iPhone!

My friend Amanda and I are always teasing each other about our religions. I'm a devout Catholic, born and raised, and she is Assemblies of God (although she leans towards a more Calvinistic point of view). While joking around a while back we realized that beyond the stereotypical jokes that society offers for each belief system we really knew nothing about the doctrinal position each had to offer. We made a pact to visit each other's place of worship, if only for perspective reasons.
Amanda came to me a few weeks ago with an even better idea. In addition to our own religions, why not look into other beliefs represented in our community to try and dispel the myths that surround them?

It's called The Project.

Or rather, it's nicknamed The Project. An Investigation Into the Fundamental Similarities and Differences in the Various Christian Denominations and (If We Have Time), the Three Major Western Religions was too long.

We hit the library and made a basic plan of action. Starting with the more traditional religions and moving on to the 'American' and sectarian beliefs, we will attend at least one place of worship every week and hopefully be allowed to speak with the priest/minister/leader of each place to present our plan and ask our questions. If we have time before the end of the summer, we will also try to attend a mosque and a synagogue. After each service we will blog about our experiences and observations regarding each religion.

Before anyone gets any strange ideas about this I'd like to make a few things clear:

1. We are in this only for ourselves. This isn't a school project, it isn't set up by our own churches. We are simply curious.
2. We are not trying to gain converts, nor are we trying to convert. Both of us are firmly grounded in our own faith and seek only to understand and accept the various belief systems without prejudice.
3. We aren't trying to prove or disprove anything. Everything we post here will be simply from our own observations and not directed towards attacking any doctrines or convincing any people.
4. Despite all that, we do hope that you learn something during The Project. Whether it simply be factually or something a little deeper, we'd love to hear your thoughts about what we're doing.

That's it! We start this Sunday with my home religion, Catholicism, at the nine o'clock Mass. At the same time, I'm being initiated as a communion minister within my church. It should be interesting, so stay tuned!

Hey, hey, oh, oh!
We're not getting caught in the undertow...
We're never gonna follow...
That's how we roll!