What's up beautiful people?
It is your homegirl Ms. Shameless
all up in your building.
[♪ music fades in ♪] This video I can't even begin to tell you
how long this has been needing to come out.
This is the most popular question
across all my social media platforms, OK,
what is my religion?
What are you Obama? [laughs] Sorry.
Yes, what is my religion?
The short answer to that is love.
["Love" repeats in synch with the music]
Jill Scott.
I love love. Love is my religion.
I believe that we are all so eager and hungry for love.
And to me I believe the greatest universal symbol of love
is Jesus Christ, his life, his teachings,
everything about him is just awesome and amazing,
and I just thought it was only fitting to do this on Easter weekend.
So a little back story as to my whole religious experience growing up.
I was born and raised by a strict Filipino Catholic mother.
I went to Catholic church, I went to Sunday school.
I was in the public school system, hence Sunday school.
And then in high school I went to a Catholic school.
It was in high school that I started to question what my
faith was, my belief, my religion.
Religion has such a negative connotation,
but for the purposes of this video, and for time
religion is the set of beliefs that I have.
And my mom was very much overbearing,
and very much shoving things down my throat,
which I am so grateful for
because it challenges me as a teenager,
and now as a woman as to what my beliefs are,
and now I have a very good, solid understanding of that.
But at the time, when I was a teenager
I did not want anyone telling me what to believe,
telling me what to do, telling me where to pray.
And going to a Catholic church, [gunshot sound effect] OK.
My pastor was boring as mmm, and I just didn't like it.
So I stopped going, because I'm like,
why am I going to go to this church that
is so uninspiring, and I fall asleep,
and I don't even believe half of the things that this priest is saying?
So I stopped going to church,
and that's when I started to discover my faith,
and my belief, and my religion.
And it was really self love and self discovery.
And I went down this path of quantum physics.
I kept seeking answers,
and I eventually got to this point in my life where everything was
being answered in the form of spirituality.
And finally I decided to pick up the Bible and read it.
So that was about three years ago.
Me picking up the Bible and starting my Shameless journey
started at around the exact same time, it was the summer of.
And, it was an interesting journey,
I had a lot of doubts with religion
because I had a negative perception of it,
it was like, it's boring, it's uninspiring, it's controlling,
and I don't like it.
But I didn't want to have a closed mind,
and just because in a phase of my teenage life
I was rebellious against it didn't mean
that I couldn't be open to it as an adult.
I wanted to read the Bible so I could answer my own questions.
So I went into reading it objectively,
or as objective as I could be
because I did come from a Catholic background.
And I was really in awe, I had so many questions answered,
and for me religion is supposed to be
a way for me to gain insight on myself and to be a better person.
I don't believe that it is a form of manipulation and control,
which people tend to do,
they tend to take passages out of a book,
whether it's the Bible, the Torah, or the Koran
all of which I'm reading.
I discovered in this whole process what works for me,
and there are so many different types of people out there.
I do believe there should be a whole bunch of different sets of beliefs,
but for me the underlying thread line through every religion
that is healthy, in my opinion is love.
People tell me that I'm a Christian
because I am a follower of Jesus Christ,
I'm a follower of love.
But, Jesus is the number one inspiration in my life.
And they say, well if you're a Christian
how can you support gay rights and gay people?
I don't know what your definition of Christianity is.
I believe everyone should have the freedom to love freely without persecution,
whether it is the same sex or not.
I just can't imagine if someone told me I'm not allowed to love this person,
and this person is not allowed to love me,
and we should be punished for that. I don't believe in that.
And I've read the Bible, I've read the words of Jesus Christ himself,
and nothing out of his mouth said
do not love your neighbor, it was the opposite.
So, if you can't grasp your head around the concept of me
supporting the right to love, and me believing in Jesus Christ
than that's on you.
We focus so much on divide,
and we use things that were designed for good
as a tool and a weapon to make others feel
insignificant and wrong.
And for me religion, and love is to grow as a person.
I want to be better,
I want to know more,
and I want that for myself,
and I don't want to punish anyone,
and I don't want anyone to feel bad for who they are or what they believe in,
that's not my job, and I don't think that's your job either.
I think our jobs are to be the best that we can be,
and make our life an inspiration for others.
It's up to someone else to learn and grow,
and I don't believe on shoving my beliefs on you.
As long as we respect one another
then it should be all cool.
I hope that answers your question.
I love. ["Love" repeats in synch with the music]
I believe in love. I'm team Baby Jesus all up in this, and team love.
So if you are Muslim, if you are Jewish,
if you are atheist, OK, more power to you, I love you too,
and I'm never going to make you feel bad
for believing what you believe in, and I hope you don't do the same.
I'm so grateful to be living in a country that allows me to embrace my faith,
and when we don't have love we do some fucked up shit.
Happy holy week! Happy weekend!
Happy whatever you do! Just do you boo, OK.
I hope that answers your question.
And remember to do you, be you, and stay true boo.
Be shameless.
[♪ upbeat music ♪]