Here's a must read for today....
Having grown up Catholic - complete with 12 years of Catholic school - I have to agree with Dinger on what he says. While religion provides a valuable resource for some, it is the greatest mind control device ever imagined.
Seriously if you want to convince someone to do something really awful, like oh say fly a plane into a building, you're gonna need a pretty strong argument. A promise of eternal happiness and oodles of young virgins in the afterlife is a pretty damn good bargaining chip to offer.
But let's ignore the extreme, let's go to the every day. When my dad was just a baby my biological womanizing grandfather left my grandma and the 8 kids behind. He flat out walked out on her and left her alone. Being a devout Catholic she went to the only remaining source of strength that she knew of - her faith. In return she was told that had she been a better wife her husband would still be around. The divorce was finalized but not annulled by the Catholic church - and that meant my grandmother had committed a sin. She was unable to receive the sacraments at her church.
The one moment in her life that she needed the church the most, they turned their backs on her. And despite how awful they treated her and everything that had transpired, she still holds the Catholic faith as her solid rock - even above her family. Whatever the Pope tells her to believe she does without question - the Church is infallible. In her eyes my sister and I are committing sins because we are both gay and not restricting our lives to ones of abstinence. It's just one of those things we both had to accept - no amount of debate would change her mind because her mind hasn't been made by her, it's been made by the church. It's scary the amount of absolute power religion holds over people.
(on a side note, it wasn't until the mid eighties that the church finally annulled her first marriage and accepted the marriage of her second husband (the only guy I've known as my grandfather). That means that in the church's eyes my parents were married before my grandparents were - it's an odd thought)
Anyway, I'll close with a link to another tale of just how obnoxious the religious zealots can be.....
posted by Mr. Bartender @ 4:12 PM
2 comments
2 Comments:
I remember you saying that you're not religious but that you are spiritual. Does the latter, for you, exclude organized religion and is less theistic, or just a more vague, less dogma driven Christianity. To be honest, I don't have a good understanding of the difference.
There are a few faiths that don't seem to enjoy that sort of abuse of their members, but they are few. Having grown up without religion, I view most of it with a very critical eye. Even if I'd had a stronger exposure, it would have been to Swedish Luthernism, which probably wouldn't be considered Christian here because it's so open minded.
Funny I became a Lutheran myself b/c it was close to the "Catholic" experience I was used to - but so much more progressive. I go to a very gay Lutheran chruch but to be honest, lately all the relgious crazies have really turned me off from organized religion in general (but not faith or spirituality) and I just haven't gone... I'm just in religion overload from just seeing it in life and in the media so I'm taking a timeout... ok so it's like a year + timeout...
But that is what being a Protestant is all about (coming from a former Catholic) - skipping church and it being ok! :-P
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