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[BobbyRobby]

Catholics are insane too. My dad sent me and my brother to see the Pope for World Youth Day. The amount of awkward moments was unreal. Most of the time there was constant singing of religious songs, and girls constantly talking to us. I didn't even know how to respond to it though, because I'm not sure what they wanted. They would do stuff like ask for our e-mails, offering to become pen-pals. And since they assumed we were nice, Catholic boys, we would get a lot of fat girls talking to us, who normally don't have enough self-esteem to confront boys. It was painful.

At one point though, my brother and I met these two cute girls, who unlike almost everyone else, seemed normal. We hung out for a while, and the prospects of hooking up seemed good. Then they started to show their true colors, and got all religious on us. They were genuinely shocked that my brother and I never heard of some rapping priest. "What?!, You never heard of him. He's from New York, you live right by him!" Once they asked us if we wanted to go to a prayer session, we told them we had to go somewhere else, and escaped.

The trip was salvaged though, because of the fact I was able to drink, and this beautiful game that allowed me to kiss hot, Polish girls.

 

[megateto]

^^ I live in a catholic country. Things are going pretty downhill for them right now, but believe me when I say that our catholics aren't like that. Heck, I went to ¿Sunday school? until I was 14, but it was just an excuse for meeting people. We had some, I wouldn't call them religious but moral and ethics conversations, us the young ones and our teachers, but nothing of that stuff.

 

[Drensch]

http://forums.gaming-age.com/showthread.php?t=32486

 

[shuri]

I was talking to a girl from school and started talking about some other girl everyone hates. she says this "I'm going to show her the love." I say what does that mean and she replies "God's Love"


wtf moment there

Potential steamy lesbian situation: defused

 

[crisdecuba]

Catholics are insane too.

Wow...

It's often surprising to me how people will continue with short-sighted knee-jerk generalizations despite the logical posts made throughout this thread (not because they defend a certain view, but because they remind us that we should be more thoughtful in our reactions). Some Catholics are crazy, as another poster put it, because *people* tend to be crazy, regardless of creed, race, or religion. Same with atheists, polytheists, agnostics, pagans, satan-worshippers, etc. The validity of the faith or belief (or lack thereof) should not be determined through these types of generalizations.

~Cris

 

[kumanoki]

I don't feel the need to make sweeping generalizations about religious groups.

I do, however, want to point out that Americans currently live in a Coulter, ....I mean culture which promotes the distinction between religious and non-religious peoples. (Among other things.)

Those people (who are out there, we've met some of them) that have come to their faith for the wrong reasons see the ever-widening gap as either a) proof that they are 'righteous', making them smug and impossible to talk to, or b) proof that their fears are completely reasonable.

I worry about people who are so convinced they are right that they are willing to ignore fact.

I respect people's wish to raise their children as they see fit, but some people go beyond the point where the religious aspects overshadow the regular child-rearing aspects of parenthood. That, in itself, is creepy.

I understand nightly prayers, prayers before meals, scripture readings, and life lessons in which personal religion can be utilized to stress the lesson.

I do not understand using religion in punishments, public displays of parenthood, or fundraising with kids.

 

[Drozmight]

If I saw anyone do that Olimario, I wouln't have been able to contain my laughter. The woman would've probably then cursed me as Satan and damned me to the fiery furnaces of hell, resulting in even more laughter.

 

[Dsal]

It's not even so much that she asked the kid to thank Jesus for ice cream, but to thank baby jesus

 

[Fresh Prince]

Catholics are insane too.

Yeah I think Baptists got Catholics scared so they tried to incoporate some Baptist shit as well. Catholics used to solemn ceremonies now they sing and have tambourines and stuff.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

Yeah I think Baptists got Catholics scared so they tried to incoporate some Baptist shit as well. Catholics used to solemn ceremonies now they sing and have tambourines and stuff.

Oh dear god don't even get me started on the religious folk rock crap. The church I went to, when I went to church tried to start a youth music group. I was signed up against my will. It was awful.

My mother did some pretty horrific stuff in the name of raising us as good catholics. Nothing social services worthy but still.

I was at this girl's birthday party and they wanted to see my penis so I obliged (I was 7 or 8 at the time). Anyway my mum finds out, and tells me I've commited adultery. Of course, in a catholic upbringing, it's not long before you find out that adulterers burn in hell for eternity. So that's a nice thing for a kid to have on their mind.

Then she also used to force us to be altar boys. We hated it so much. Because we were living abroad we got extra long holidays, so when we came back for the summer, the Scottish schools were still in, so we had to be altar boys ever single day. After a while we really started to kick up a fuss about it, but got emotionally bullied into doing it. It all came to a head at my Uncle's wedding. It was the lowest, most embarassing, horrific experience of my life. It was so bad that even my mother, who usually prefer to be encamped firmly within denial, realised how miserable we were. That fortunately ended it.


I never had to thank baby jesus for ice cream. I think we tried saying grace for about a week. It never caught on.

 

[CajoleJuice]

Shit, the worst is not being brought up a particularly faithful Catholic (I got confirmed and everything but barely ever went to church)...and then suddenly as you are a teenager your father becomes ultra-religious. His brother (my uncle) died a few years ago and ever since he's been absolutely insanely religous. My dad is seriously one of the people you are all talking about. He watches a fucking Catholic network all the time, preaches to me all the time about crap, he doesn't believe in evolution, he's against gay marriage, all he does is listen to whatever the Catholic church says. But I just let him talk and do whatever he wants. I don't feel like arguing with him. As long as I have to live under his roof, I don't feel like messing with his beliefs. If I ever somehow manage to get a girl pregnant though....oh man, that's going to be bad.

And for the record, I'm friends with two pretty religous kids my age. They are two of the nicest kids you'll ever meet, and they are not crazy fundamentalists.

 

[Fresh Prince]

. If I ever somehow manage to get a girl pregnant though....oh man, that's going to be bad.

He'd proably ask you to marry her and take care of the child. :lol

From my experience I have a gathered that Catholic priests like to tell stories some are funny and somewhat touching and others are boring as watching paint dry. Irish priests for the most part are cool- they believe in a sort of real world Catholicism.
What I hate is when religious people try to out do each other in piety and other crap. Extended family gatherings (Communions, Anniversaries etc) someone will say a prayer and then someone else will do a prayer and to top that person someone will say a prayer that no one knows. Then they say a rosary- end it I want to eat or piss now.
Then you get people saying how many saints they pray to each night and how many pilgrimages they have gone to.

Religious music is really weird too. I prefer hymns to any contemporary Christian music. You know if I wanted to listen to soft rock I can listen to Nickelback or Creed but I really don't. I went to one of those Charismatic masses, people having tambourines, lifting hands to the sky singing joyful Jesus songs. I just stood there blankly.

I used to argue with my mother she said she'll get a priest to try and win me over- I say bring it on. Of course it never happens

 

[crisdecuba]

I respect people's wish to raise their children as they see fit, but some people go beyond the point where the religious aspects overshadow the regular child-rearing aspects of parenthood. That, in itself, is creepy.

I understand nightly prayers, prayers before meals, scripture readings, and life lessons in which personal religion can be utilized to stress the lesson.

I do not understand using religion in punishments, public displays of parenthood, or fundraising with kids.

What do you mean by religion in punishments?

Regarding public displays of parenting, what's wrong with it. If someone believes in something... something that is ultimately the foundation of their lives and what they deem important, it wouldn't make sense to hide this while in public. In fact, I'd be more critical of someone's faith if they weren't bold enough to *not* act different in public than in private.

Fundraising - what sort do you mean?

~Cris

 

[kumanoki]

What do you mean by religion in punishments?

Regarding public displays of parenting, what's wrong with it. If someone believes in something... something that is ultimately the foundation of their lives and what they deem important, it wouldn't make sense to hide this while in public. In fact, I'd be more critical of someone's faith if they weren't bold enough to *not* act different in public than in private.

Fundraising - what sort do you mean?

~Cris

I mean, I don't believe in making a child sit and read a Bible as punishment, or striking fear in to a child's heart by telling them that if they do soething one more time, they'll go to hell.

I do not understand using religion in public displays of parenting.

Fundraising- hauling your child door-to-door in their Sunday best as a tool to illicit people to join your organization, or sell something. Not cool.

 

[ScientificNinja]

I remember this one time, back when I was still in university, I was walking home from the station when I spied through our living room window a pair of Mormons sitting at our dining table having tea with jam and bread with my sister. Apparently there were allowed into the house by my sister (who knows wtf she gets up to while the parents are away).

They refused to leave when I instructed them to, so I took great pleasure in forcibly throwing them out.

 

[crisdecuba]

Reading the Bible as punishment doesn't seem strange. As a similar example, Thurgood Marshall was forced to copy down the constitution as punishment in school and he ended up in the Supreme Court (after winning Brown vs. BOE to get rid of "separate but equal").

Threatening w/ hell - not cool at all. Fear should not be the motivation for belief.

I do not understand using religion in public displays of parenting.

I thought (and still think) I understood the comment. It doesn't make sense to alter how you act in public vs. private, *especially* in parenting. If I missed your point, please let me know.

Fundraising- hauling your child door-to-door in their Sunday best as a tool to illicit people to join your organization, or sell something. Not cool.

Agreed, it should be up to the kid to decide if they wanna do it or not .

~Cris

 

[kumanoki]

Threatening w/ hell - not cool at all. Fear should not be the motivation for belief.

I thought (and still think) I understood the comment. It doesn't make sense to alter how you act in public vs. private, *especially* in parenting. If I missed your point, please let me know.

~Cris

I think we're on the same page here. I agree that public vs. private child rearing should amount to the same thing.What I am not making clear is my distaste for examples like Olimario pointed out at the beginning of the thread. I find that creepy.

Being made to read or write as punishment only reinforces distaste for those actions, ans is therefore retarded. Thurgood Marshall was just an extraordinary human being.

 

[Die Squirrel Die]

I think we're on the same page here. I agree that public vs. private child rearing should amount to the same thing.What I am not making clear is my distaste for examples like Olimario pointed out at the beginning of the thread. I find that creepy.

See I just don't get why you find that creepy? If anything it's nice to see a parent instilling a sense of gratitude into a child. So she chose to frame it in a Christian context, but do you find people saying grace before eating to be creepy? 'Cause it's just an extension of that.

 

[crisdecuba]

I think we'd all agree that those that feel it's creepy feel this way due to how different that sort of thing is to them. To those raised in a Christian household, it more than likely wouldn't seem creepy. It's important to keep this in mind when we judge things to be creepy or weird.

Regarding the Bible-reading as punishment, after thinking about it further, I agree with you. It would associate a negative connotation with what the Christian should instill in their children as the most important text.

~Cris

 

[kumanoki]

Gratefulness is wonderful. "Thank baby Jesus" is creepy. WTF?

Exactly. I have no problem with the family next to me in the restaurant saying Grace before they eat. That's upholding their family's Christian values in public without it being strange or upsetting.

It's the 'thank baby Jesus' kind of people that worry me. The kind of people that tell their kids, in the middle of the mall, that they will go to hell if they don't obey their mother. That goes a little bit beyond what I concider decency.

I guess you could liken it to breast feeding in public. To me, it's a not a big deal, so long as the mother doesn't use the entire food court as a stage by which to show us all that she's doing the right thing for her baby. I guess what I'm saying is, is that type of display is gratuitous and unneccesary. It makes me think the person displaying that kind of behaviour has some issues, and it weirds me out.

 

[FightyF]

The woman turns to the girl and with an evil look on her face says, "Show Grandma how we thank Jesus!... Thank the Baby Jesus for our Ice Cream!".

Heheh, I'd like to see this look.

And why Baby Jesus? Why not Adult Jesus? I preferred Adult Link to Baby Link...

 

[crisdecuba]

I'm sorry, but you can't equate thanking baby Jesus with you're going to Hell if you don't obey me. Once again, your concept of weird or odd is extremely subjective. One could more than likely make similar comments about any foreign group. Drop you in the middle of Iran and I'm sure you'd do many things that are weird.

The point is that it is not up to the outsiders to dictate what "normal" expressions of faith are and aren't. According to your standard, saying grace is acceptable, but according to someone else (for example, myself back in high school) saying grace would be something weird... *especially* if it was a Christian person among non-Christians, because they'd take a moment to silently pray to themselves and I'd be weirded out. These types of subjective standards of what's "normal" tend to result in closed-mindedness. Certainly we should have our own beliefs and whatnot, but that should not come at the expense of being able to see something different and not going "eww."

~Cris

P.S. Yes, the woman in the mall using the obey or hell tactic is screwed up in her approach. I'm sure if she wasn't Christian, she'd have other screwed up ways of child-rearing.