The stupid, it burns!!!

[gridlore]

I just had door-to-door Christians come by.

Nice couple of zombies, repeating what they learned by rote and obviously puzzled when I failed to immediately drop to my knees and scream "praise Jesus!"

One of them mentioned that the hurricane currently swamping New Orleans was God's punishment for Mardi Gras.

"OK, but why would God punish people for holding a Christian festival?"

"Mardi Gras has nothing to do with Christ!"

"Au contraire! Mardi Gras is a traditional week of excess leading up to Lent. It has Papal sanction which is what mattered when the tradition began."

I then had to explain Lent. And that for more than half of its history, there were only two major churches following Jesus, the Roman Catholic Church, and the Eastern Orthodox.

They had no idea who Martin Luther was.

I was growing tired of them, and politely said it had been interesting chatting, but I am an atheist and really not interested. That evidently was a keyword in their little 64k brains, for it triggered another speech.

"Can you prove God doesn't exist?"

"Nope, can you prove he does?"

That stopped them for a second. So I went in for the kill.

"How about Santa Claus, is he real too?"

"Of course not!"

"Prove it."

More silence and troubled looks between them. Here they were fucking up my Sunday trying to save me, and I was shaking them up.

"I mean, I've seen Santa Claus, spoken too him, sat on his lap.. either of you ever see Jesus?"

"Well, noo.."

"And when I was eight I got the Guns of Navaronne play set! No way would my parents buy that for me, so it had to be Santa, right? So how can you say God and Jesus, who nobody sees, hears from, or gets cool presents from, is real, while Santa, who is in the bloody Macy's parade every year, isn't?"

"Well, those are people dressed as Santa, not the real thing."

"Prove it. Prove that every single person with a jolly beard and a red suit is not Santa."

It was obvious that their training in door-to-door annoying had included the lesson "never walk away when you have a conversation going". I decided to show mercy.

"Look, you seem like a nice couple of kids. But I have a burrito to feed and a cat to throw in the microwave, so i have to cut this short. Just remember that at one time you believed with all your heart in Santa Claus, the Easter Bunny, the Tooth Fairy and for all I know the monster under the bed. These were cultural lies you were told, and you got over learning the truth. Now you still believe in another being you can't actually see. I ask you to consider this: what is the difference between the stories you were told about Santa Claus and the ones you were told about God? Have a good day!"

Last I looked they were out on the sidewalk arguing.


Crossposted to gridlore and mock_the_stupid

Comments

[kengr]

Well as a (very) lapsed Catholic, I see the Church a bit differently. I fully expect that unless Rome changes its attitude soon, the American (and possibly Canadian) Catholic churches are going to break away. Or at least large numbers of them. There's just too big a dichotomy between the official policies and what even the younger priests believe.

Of course, the US isn't turning out a lot of priests these days, so we've got the problem of priests who aren't really part of the local culture.

And the recent court decisions about dioceses filing bankruptcy and the property of the parishes in said dioceses (basically, that the parish churches and schools can be sold off to pay judgements against the dioceses) are going to alter things a lot as well.

[karmabreeze.livejournal.com]

It took a long time for me to come to terms with my own Catholic upbringing. In my experience, your typical Catholic leads a nearly double life, split between the church and their daily existence. This isn't just true of the United States, but also of Ireland and Italy. We're sometimes referred to as "cafeteria catholics" because we pick and choose those aspects of the faith that appeal to us and happily ignore those that do not without batting an eyelash. In short, we're thinkers who make our own decisions about what's right for us. There is definitely a large split between the clergy and the parishioners, but I don't think it's such a large split between North America and Europe as you believe. The American church does have a reputation for being more progressive than the European churches, but overall I think that Rome mostly embraces the differences in personalities between the various countries where Catholicism is dominant. I don't think that we're anywhere close to a jumping off point, especially not before we see who Benedict's successor will be since all seem to be in agreement that he's really just a temporary pope. The clergy is strict and stodgy when it comes to doctrine, but then there's the rest of us, and we really do tend to take everything that comes out of Rome with a salt lick. I'm not a church-goer by any stretch, but I do identify myself as Catholic because I see it as my cultural heritage, much like people are ethnically Jewish - though not quite the same since Catholicism isn't as ethnically specific.

As to the various church scandals, all I can say is that the church is not immune to the criminal elements that pervade all society... I'm sure other countries have their fair share as well, but that those societies aren't as litigious as the United States, and the United States' self-centered media bubble wouldn't cover similar scandals in other countries anyway. The media does often seem to have it out for the church and likes to sensationalize anything remotely resembling a scandal. On the other hand, the upper eschelons of clergy do need to be more responsive to complaint, as well as a few lessons in media savvy.

"As to the various church scandals"

[capplor.livejournal.com]

My read on this has nothing to do with "media". What it is about is authority, and power, and the logical consequence of the doctrine of papal infalibility. These sorts of scandals could NOT happen in a Presbyterian church, not because Presbyterians are any better, but because higher authorities could NOT hush it up, and they do NOT have the power to assign the offender to a new congregation. Individuals can be rotten, but the true scandal is about what happens afterwards.