Quote:
quote:Originally posted by Saphiria:
I was born catholic and went to a catholic school my whole life. I was really into my faith at one point...
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I read the earlier posts mentioning certain clergy as being
"Big Shots" as though that's an excuse for what they've become... namely, lazy and non-participatory aside from their vacuous ramblings and social climbing escapades...
that's a con and young people shouldn't buy into that for a second. In the view of Christianity (proper)... when people walk into a church,
each and every one of them is merely another human, and Christ said- above all else- one should love his fellow man, and treat them the way one likes to be treated. Not just the doctor, or big-shot lawyer or their wife and kids. They should treat the kid of the plumber- or the town drunk- with equal respect and kindness...
or greater because they're probably struggling and might need a helping hand. If a church leader doesn't...
don't buy into that "Big Shot" nonsense,
especially if they call themselves "Bishop", "Monsignor" or the like. Believe what you see-
they're just hippocrits and liars. They don't deserve your respect. Whether you just wandered into the place, or your great grandaddy was baptized there- don't waste your time around such schmucks-
go elsewhere.
You've travelled a path that's pretty common to many of us. I was born into a Catholic family and went to Catholic schools during my gradeschool years, but most of my classmates had the same attitude that I did... "Why am I here? Well, because they sent me here." Mass was boring, and I didn't have enough life experience to understand it, or judge whether what was being said made any sense. Now... as an adult... I know that from a rational, and usually from a worldly standpoint-
it doesn't.
Still, although I'm an atheist, I strive for honesty and try to give credit where credit is due. I'm not on a quest to "chew on religion" as atheists are sometimes accused of (and a few actually are that way)... in fact, I honestly try to see and emphasize the good points of churches whenever I reasonably can.
The better churches offer social activities, and they can be a decent source of camraderie (beyond youth sports teams, where the fun might center around riding around to parties, getting loaded, kicking the crap out of people, and talking about which of the ethically void cheerleaders would be fun to bang... at least that's the way it was when I was young, since the local churches were awful lame- but still, I know a lot of us- who weren't happy with the ignorant, bigoted, sadism-celebrating Neanderthal culture we were stuck in, thought... "There's gotta be something better than this bullshit
somewhere" as we played along with all of the mindless stupidity and brutality.
There can be... it's just that too often the local churches (especially Catholic) are run by pompous and pathetic phonies, with any personal interest they ever had in their congregations (beyond the social climbing aspects, like rubbing shoulders with doctors and businessmen) long dead.
Young people lack life experience, but they're not stupid- and they sense it when people
talk a lot, but when you put aside the blabber and examine
what they actually do... meaning,
their actions... there's little or nothing behind it. There are too many people like that in religion, and they're particularly over-represented in the Catholic organizations... if they even had any genuine interest in members of their congregations
as human beings- especially young people- it's long gone. They're now burned-out and ROAD (Retired On Active Duty) assuming they didn't take up "The Cloth" for other reasons to begin with... like because they were homosexuals and the life of the ministry provided a socially convenient sanctuary for their sexual peculiarities. Or because they once were ambitious and envisioned themselves as eventually "going places" in the Catholic organization, or becoming politically influential (just like some of their peers did of IBM or General Motors) but they were passed over, so now they're content to sit on their fat asses and attend social functions. In the final analysis, whatever they once were (if anything) they've now become, for all intensive purposes,
good for nothing.
[This message has been edited by Surf_Bum (edited 03-16-2006).]
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