I feel manipulated and hurt by religious doctrine. Why do I want to have a relationship with God?

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Tails said:
This teaching that relationships/families down here are ultimately a sign of something “better” and the rest of the narrative more generally make me depressed/sad. I don’t want to accept that it will be replaced when we get up there, no matter of how people try to dress it up. It’s such a unique relationship bond he created us to enjoy.

If that is what I should accept by wanting to follow God and Jesus.
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Well, the ultimate sign that marriage is purely designed to be an earthly thing is the fact that it only endures as long as life, and that the marital bond is dissolved by death. Remember Jesus being questioned about the man with multiple wives - “when he gets to heaven, which one will be his wife”? He gently chided them for their earthly thinking.

Marriage and sex are wonderful things, to be sure, but each comes with more than its fair share of struggles, disappointments and suffering. Just as I hope, in heaven, that I won’t have exactly the same body I have now with its illnesses, aches, pains, sags and wrinkles, so I hope my relationships with everyone will be beyond what they were on earth.

God does not wish us merely pleasant things when we can have the best, greatest and most enjoyable. If sex and marriage can be replaced by something better (and I can be confident that they can be - else Christ would have married, no?) then why should they not be?
 
Tails said:
. When I get the chance to talk to God, I want to have a firm, stern talk about how I didn’t get to enjoy certain things on this earth and how there is no opposite-sex relationships or child-rearing in Heaven (whatever happened to God saying calling sex/intimacy and romantic relationships “all good”?) or any other things here that aren’t supposed to be evil by nature. If it’s really true that we won’t get any chances to enjoy that same kind of drive anymore,
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I imagine God is looking forward to that conversation with you. And I think He might have some surprises for you.😉
You sound like someone who hasn’t been taught well, or taught by overly pious and somewhat scrupulous people. I have been exposed to the same thing, but I have also had to good fortune to listen to others who are quite faithful and knowledgeable who speak of things that I think would be more to your liking.
Take your above quoted statement. I have come to believe that God loves his creation, his matter. He loves the sunrise every day. He loves the sound of little children and the passionate sound of those married in His name making love. And I could go on. God delights in his creation.
This may raise the ire of some posters who might come across these words, but Jesus said people don’t marry in heaven. He didn’t say there was no sex. Maybe not exactly as we know it down here, it may be a glance of the soul, but for those who had reverence and respect for sex in this life in the manner God intended it to be enjoyed (and employed) there will be that wonderful interpersonal relationship. That’s just my opinion (and it may get me branded as a heretic 😆🤔). But I don’t believe His kingdom is a bunch of bored angels sitting on clouds playing a harp for all time.
I want to have the closest relationship possible with that God here and now. And I believe he wants to have that relationship with me. That’s why he sent The Son, to afford us that here and now, and forever.
Peace.
 
I would guess that a person in Heaven is a totally fulfilled person immersed in the gloriousness of God and wouldn’t need or be concerned about sex!
 
What you say is true Mary, but I think that in Heaven, God is gloriously immersed in His children and gives them everything, even an interpersonal relationship that is a mirror of what his creation is here on earth.
 
neophyte said:
As for there being no sex in heaven, that’s not true either. There most certainly will be sex in heaven: we will still be male and female. And although we will not be given to each other in marriage as we are now, we won’t miss it in the least because we will have something vastly better.
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I know that Matthew 22:30 supports your second point (about marriage), but what about your first point (about sex)? It sounds right to me, but I don’t know of any scriptural or doctrinal support for it. Do you?
 
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The strongest scriptural support would be the resurrected Jesus appearing in the flesh to his disciples. It seems like he appeared as how he usually appears. It means we get to have a better version of the body we have today.
 
Roguish said:
I know that Matthew 22:30 supports your second point (about marriage), but what about your first point (about sex)? It sounds right to me, but I don’t know of any scriptural or doctrinal support for it. Do you?
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It would never occur to me to think that we might not be male and female in heaven - that we might be a totally different specie. If someone proposed it, the onus of proof (or, at least, an argument that half passes a laugh test) would be on him.

Peter Kreeft has a talk about sex in heaven, it shouldn’t be too hard to find.
 
Tails said:
The problem is that I don’t want to reason with those who seem to take it as absolute cold reality that we will no longer have a “need” for romantic relationships and even procreation in Heaven. You can’t reason with a person who wants to callously ignore you and tell you that you won’t get a partner in Heaven, even if you can’t find one here on Earth. I was told before that I must be “obsessive” about it. It’s very easy for them to say when they rub their own beautiful relationships in other’s face.

What is also hard is that most women of most demographic groups say they prefer taller men. I’m not saying I’m totally doomed, but I remained 5’7" at the end of high school, while most other guys became taller than me. I want to be taller than I am here, I want my dream body in Heaven. I wish I could have the chance to be “normal” like other males my age.

I don’t know if I can cover all of my being frustrated, but I feel like theoretically God or cruel, arrogant people want to give me a slap in the face.
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Sounds to me you’re just frustrated about not being able to find a good Catholic wife? And that “Catholics” you meet are faulting you for seeking a good Catholic wife in the first place?
 
I remember Bishop Sheen talking about people rejecting Catholicism based on misinformation.

People are rejecting God based on misinformation.
 
Sarcelle said:
I remember Bishop Sheen talking about people rejecting Catholicism based on misinformation.

People are rejecting God based on misinformation.
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During a bull session at work, a Hindu guy from India did an outstanding job of explaining some Christian religious point. When questioned, he said that in India, they study religion.

One of the American participants said that here we learn by osmosis.
 
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