I guess that if you are a really devout Catholic and your 80 year old relative passes away, and at the funeral ceremony the priest condemns that relative to hell and damnation during the last rites, that could be a little disturbing. I am not a Catholic but my grandfather was and if this kind of thing had happened at his funeral, I would have shit a stack of bricks! If it happened at the funeral of anyone that I have loved who has passed away, that someone said something mean or condemning about the deceased, I would have to take the jackass outside and teach him a lesson. I am not afraid of being a sinner, and I am apparently not living in fear of being damned to hell, so I wouldn't think twice about kicking some clizzerical izzass.
My favorite line from this article is:
"One of the plaintiffs said the townspeople 'are staring at her, thinking her father is in hell,' their lawyers said."
That just makes me laugh. Totally reminds me of something out of an old silent movie or that song "Buenos Tardes Amigos" by Ween: "In the niiiight, I still hear mama weeping, mama always dresses in black..." The last thing I'd be worried about was whether my nosey neighbors were looking down their nosey noses at me and the first thing I'd be worried about is seeking my revenge. Maybe the priest was really drunk...
Posted by Maria at July 17, 2003 11:34 AM | TrackBackI am not a devout Catholic. I was baptised Catholic but my mother does not believe in the Catholic church and raised us more by the "Be a good person" motto than the "Repent and fear" creedence.
A few years ago, a former friend's father died. During the funeral service, the priest was going on about how wonderful it was that he died a Christian and how horrible it must be for families who don't have Christianity to seek comfort in at the loss of a loved one. Then he said something along the lines of, "Anyone who isn't Christian buries their dead as they'd bury a pet in the backyard."
I can't tell you how insulted I was. I was silently cursing this priest... and then I was made because he had me cursing him in a House of God. He did not convince me at all that I'm missing any sort of spirituality in my life by not going to church.
Anyway, your post reminded me of this instance. While I've read the Bible and I believe in some of the stuff in there, I still believe that organized religion has some very serious cons to it and if I had to categorize myself as anything, it'd be agnostic.
I think Kevin Smith put it well in Dogma when he said that beliefs are what's wrong with religion. Ideas are much better.
Posted by: Daria at July 17, 2003 04:30 PM