My Biography I guess, chapter 2
Religion, why can't I hold on?
I've been skeptical of the Catholic religion for a while now, so long I can't even remember. I was raised Catholic, but my dad never came to church with my mom and my siblings but he never steered us against the religious beliefs my mom instilled in us. My dad is atheist. Anyway, I've been losing my faith all together for the past, let's see, six months.
This morning I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing, moments later my sister comes into my room saying that my mom just called from wherever she was running morning errands and she said for us to get ready for church. I was tired of living this lie. You see for the past six months I've been sucking it up and going to church for my mother's sake. It's like she believes the only thing keeping me from a hardcore life of alcohol sex and drugs is my faith. So I didn't get out of bed, I stayed there and went back to sleep, at least I tried to. The question of what I was going to tell my mother when she got home and saw me still sleeping was burning through my head. So when she did get home to take us to church she came to me and asked me if I was sick. I said no, I said that I stopped believing in what they were saying in the building with the cross at the front. She start babbling on how I was part of the youth group and mentioned something about community. It was too early in the morning to argue with her so I went back to my room and got dressed for church. In case she hadn't noticed I've been skipping the youth group meetings with lame excuses like saying I'm tired or I have a project due Monday.
My issues with the Catholic Church.
Well firstly, they don't accept homosexuals, it's not their fault their homosexuals. It's not like people who rob a bank or kill their neighbor that's just the way they are, like being left handed. They're also still sexist to women. Secondly, they expect us to believe the in the bible, it's not written by this so called "God" it's written by man. Not just any man, it's written by rich, powerful, greed driven man. Until Pope John Paul the second, Popes had a more glamorous life then royalty and the church was corrupt. It's like living your life by what Martha Stuart says, it's practically impossible. Everyone knows the Old Testament is complete bull, it's just stories that were passed along by mouth then at the time the bible was written they added those in. The New Testament isn't too accurate either, for fuck's sake it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there was something going between Jesus and Mary-Magdalene (if they indeed existed). And if the Catholic Church tried to hide that from the public, then what the hell else are they hiding? Also in the Catholic faith there are the sacraments (baptism, reconciliation, communion, marriage, blessing of the sick)
I'll try to go in order, baptism is generally understood as welcoming a family's new bundle of joy into the Catholic Church. Oh isn't that sweet, except it's also to cleanse the baby of original sin. Original sin is the 'dirt' passed onto the child by the parent's 'making' the baby. This ties into when the parents get married the priest makes sure the couple plan on having kids. Contradicting right there- the priest wants them to sin? Why is sex a sin? Man made it a sin. The must figure anything so umm 'interesting' must be work of the devil. But when you watch Dr. Phil you see that a healthy sex life is important in a serious relationship. Another aspect of marriage is to stay with that person for the rest of your life, funny only having sex to have your children. Secondly, even if you do follow the past statement, how could sex be evil if it brings new life?
Confirmation, a right of passage in the church, you're supposedly given the choice whether or not to become an official member of the church. Well that's complete bull. Your confirmation takes place when you're eleven years old, right before you start high school (middle school) and right before you hit puberty. At that age your parents still have a huge influence on you and you haven't learned to think outside of how you were raised. That's how they trap you, so even if in your teenage rebellion you 'drift' from the church, when you're older, probably when you choose to get married, you'll come back to the church. You'll think to yourself, I was raised Catholic, I should get married in a church. So you do, but before you can get married you go to the church's pre-marriage counseling which brings you back to the weekly marriages, then you have a kid and the cycle continues.
I have no problem with people who believe or are an active part of their religion, I'm just stating that it's not for me. So how did it work out with my mom? Well after the mass I was tempted to tell her "they could've been reading from Harry Potter for all I believe." But I didn't, for some reason I know that it would break her heart, so until I can build up the confidence to face her, I guess I'm stuck going to the building with the cross at the front every Sunday. My mother didn't talk to me for a better part of the morning but when she did, she gave me a whole speech about how everyone doubts their faith at one time or another. I don't think this doubting is supposed to last several years but okay. Then she went on to say that religion is important for the soul. I don't think it's very good to spend an hour a week feeling nothing but bitter as you sit on uncomfortable seats listening to this guy who actual believes every word he's preaching.
I've been skeptical of the Catholic religion for a while now, so long I can't even remember. I was raised Catholic, but my dad never came to church with my mom and my siblings but he never steered us against the religious beliefs my mom instilled in us. My dad is atheist. Anyway, I've been losing my faith all together for the past, let's see, six months.
This morning I woke up to the sound of the phone ringing, moments later my sister comes into my room saying that my mom just called from wherever she was running morning errands and she said for us to get ready for church. I was tired of living this lie. You see for the past six months I've been sucking it up and going to church for my mother's sake. It's like she believes the only thing keeping me from a hardcore life of alcohol sex and drugs is my faith. So I didn't get out of bed, I stayed there and went back to sleep, at least I tried to. The question of what I was going to tell my mother when she got home and saw me still sleeping was burning through my head. So when she did get home to take us to church she came to me and asked me if I was sick. I said no, I said that I stopped believing in what they were saying in the building with the cross at the front. She start babbling on how I was part of the youth group and mentioned something about community. It was too early in the morning to argue with her so I went back to my room and got dressed for church. In case she hadn't noticed I've been skipping the youth group meetings with lame excuses like saying I'm tired or I have a project due Monday.
My issues with the Catholic Church.
Well firstly, they don't accept homosexuals, it's not their fault their homosexuals. It's not like people who rob a bank or kill their neighbor that's just the way they are, like being left handed. They're also still sexist to women. Secondly, they expect us to believe the in the bible, it's not written by this so called "God" it's written by man. Not just any man, it's written by rich, powerful, greed driven man. Until Pope John Paul the second, Popes had a more glamorous life then royalty and the church was corrupt. It's like living your life by what Martha Stuart says, it's practically impossible. Everyone knows the Old Testament is complete bull, it's just stories that were passed along by mouth then at the time the bible was written they added those in. The New Testament isn't too accurate either, for fuck's sake it doesn't take a rocket scientist to see that there was something going between Jesus and Mary-Magdalene (if they indeed existed). And if the Catholic Church tried to hide that from the public, then what the hell else are they hiding? Also in the Catholic faith there are the sacraments (baptism, reconciliation, communion, marriage, blessing of the sick)
I'll try to go in order, baptism is generally understood as welcoming a family's new bundle of joy into the Catholic Church. Oh isn't that sweet, except it's also to cleanse the baby of original sin. Original sin is the 'dirt' passed onto the child by the parent's 'making' the baby. This ties into when the parents get married the priest makes sure the couple plan on having kids. Contradicting right there- the priest wants them to sin? Why is sex a sin? Man made it a sin. The must figure anything so umm 'interesting' must be work of the devil. But when you watch Dr. Phil you see that a healthy sex life is important in a serious relationship. Another aspect of marriage is to stay with that person for the rest of your life, funny only having sex to have your children. Secondly, even if you do follow the past statement, how could sex be evil if it brings new life?
Confirmation, a right of passage in the church, you're supposedly given the choice whether or not to become an official member of the church. Well that's complete bull. Your confirmation takes place when you're eleven years old, right before you start high school (middle school) and right before you hit puberty. At that age your parents still have a huge influence on you and you haven't learned to think outside of how you were raised. That's how they trap you, so even if in your teenage rebellion you 'drift' from the church, when you're older, probably when you choose to get married, you'll come back to the church. You'll think to yourself, I was raised Catholic, I should get married in a church. So you do, but before you can get married you go to the church's pre-marriage counseling which brings you back to the weekly marriages, then you have a kid and the cycle continues.
I have no problem with people who believe or are an active part of their religion, I'm just stating that it's not for me. So how did it work out with my mom? Well after the mass I was tempted to tell her "they could've been reading from Harry Potter for all I believe." But I didn't, for some reason I know that it would break her heart, so until I can build up the confidence to face her, I guess I'm stuck going to the building with the cross at the front every Sunday. My mother didn't talk to me for a better part of the morning but when she did, she gave me a whole speech about how everyone doubts their faith at one time or another. I don't think this doubting is supposed to last several years but okay. Then she went on to say that religion is important for the soul. I don't think it's very good to spend an hour a week feeling nothing but bitter as you sit on uncomfortable seats listening to this guy who actual believes every word he's preaching.
Previous | Page 2/2
