St. Clown
Liberal Rebel Scum, apparently
Re: Religion Thread: That's Me In the Corner...
Growing up, my mother was very serious about her Catholic faith, and her teachings were handed down to each of my four older brothers. They were raised in the Church, and attended Mass at least twice per week, sometimes more. When I was young (youngest of the five boys), my mom had a falling out with the local diocese and parish (I'm not even certain that the right term for the Catholic hierarchy) over how donations were to be given. My mom always made cash donations, as was the common practice in the Pittsburgh area throughout her younger years, and was never questioned in all the other churches she attended as my father's job had them hopping across the nation until our time here in MN. With all that said, because of her little schism with the Church, she stopped attended, my younger brothers all got their desperately sought after reprieve from attended, and I never was introduced into the Church in any sort of proper manner. She still tried to impress upon me the whole concept of God, Jesus and the Holy Trinity, but I was skeptical from the start. Ultimately I decided that no god willing to allow the atrocities in the world that I'd seen to that point, just to play out some game or plan, was worthy of worship, or he was simply no god at all.
I work with a guy who is finishing up his PhD in Religion, focusing on some esoteric thing or another. Smart man, loves to dive into the nitty-gritty details, and has 100% faith in God. What he's doing here, I'm not entirely sure other than he needs to pay his bills and PhD courses ain't cheap.
Growing up, my mother was very serious about her Catholic faith, and her teachings were handed down to each of my four older brothers. They were raised in the Church, and attended Mass at least twice per week, sometimes more. When I was young (youngest of the five boys), my mom had a falling out with the local diocese and parish (I'm not even certain that the right term for the Catholic hierarchy) over how donations were to be given. My mom always made cash donations, as was the common practice in the Pittsburgh area throughout her younger years, and was never questioned in all the other churches she attended as my father's job had them hopping across the nation until our time here in MN. With all that said, because of her little schism with the Church, she stopped attended, my younger brothers all got their desperately sought after reprieve from attended, and I never was introduced into the Church in any sort of proper manner. She still tried to impress upon me the whole concept of God, Jesus and the Holy Trinity, but I was skeptical from the start. Ultimately I decided that no god willing to allow the atrocities in the world that I'd seen to that point, just to play out some game or plan, was worthy of worship, or he was simply no god at all.
You know, now that I think about it, maybe this goes further back. There is one moment from my junior HS year that still sticks out in my mind. During Lenten confession, I told Fr. Strasz that I was questioning God's existence. He told me that wasn't necessarily a sin, and explained, but I can't remember exactly what he said, other than it wasn't the standard, "Get behind me Satan!" response.
I liked him. He could be a harda55, but was very smart. Looking back, other than his lack of tolerance for bullsheet - he famously made our entire Catholic Morality class re-write our term papers after we collectively failed to meet his academic research/source citing standards (Turabian/Chicago format, BTW) - I can't figure out how he ended up a Catholic priest. He should've been a college prof.
I work with a guy who is finishing up his PhD in Religion, focusing on some esoteric thing or another. Smart man, loves to dive into the nitty-gritty details, and has 100% faith in God. What he's doing here, I'm not entirely sure other than he needs to pay his bills and PhD courses ain't cheap.
