Response: Theological Curiosity

In response to Ryan Walters' post "Respect" (April 8, 2012):

I do not think that attending a church, and/or participating in its activities, without belonging to that church's denomination is disrespectful at all.  Unless the church states that only members of the religion are allowed within, you are simply taking advantage of an open invitation.  In fact, I think that many churches would probably welcome visitors, due to the chance of gaining new members of the faith.  Curiosity about other systems of belief is an indication of an admirable sort of open-mindedness, I think.  As long as you do not take the opportunity of being in a church to cause disruption amongst the other attendees (for example, a member of the Westboro Baptist Church shouting and throwing rotten fruit in a Unitarian Universalist church), there is no reason not to attend churches (or other places of worship) for all the religions you wish to investigate.