First things first: love
your commentary, love your site. I check you every morning along
with Buzzflash
and Democratic
Underground for my daily fix of fire-breathing reality. It
serves as a political shower
every morning, washing away the previous
day's neocon funk. Dear God in Heaven, keep it up.
And so, in the interest of balance,
I gotta comment on the wee screed from Stephen D in volume 1094.
I'm a Catholic. I can count
the number of mean nuns I've met in my life on two fingers, and knew priests
who were such a positive influence on my
life that at one time I seriously considered the priesthood
(Got pretty close, then met the girl who
is now my wife).
Dude, I grew up in a Catholic POW camp. Sure, lots of the
nuns were nice, but some were Laura Schlessinger.
You've only met two mean nuns? I remember having back-to-back
classes with Sister Nancy Grace.
That's why I've got a lot of trouble swallowing
this guy's story. If I'd heard a priest say that to me,
I'd be checking the closets for Ashton
Kushner, because there's no way I could take that seriously.
Besides, if that priest was being a putz,
I'd just go to another church where the pastor was a
REAL Catholic Christian. Sorry, but
this story strains credibility.
I disagree and I'll tell you why:
He wrote, " but he wouldn't do it unless
I went through 6 months of conversion classes and paid the
parish $3000."
I doubt he'd add that caveat if he just wanted Catholics to look
bad, Besides, that makes it a "tuition fee,"
instead of an outright bribe. Maybe that's how they justify this
stuiff to themselves?
If this kind of thing doesn't happen, explain Ted Kennedy's second
wife and Giulinia's then-slut Judith Nathan?
Did they pay a $20,000 "tuition fee" to get their new wives up
to speed? I'll bet Ted had to pay even more.
Besides, I've seen the smaller scale stuff a dozen times.
If Grandma is having heart surgery, you slip a twenty to the priest
before the mass ($50 if it's a High Mass) and he includes her
in his prayers. Would they do it without the $20?
I don't know - Mom always paid up.
It has always amazed me when people
give one and only one reason for jumping ship on a religion.
"One clergyman or woman did or said something
bad to me, so I'm going to reject the entire belief system despite
the millions of its adherents who are pretty
good people." Usually, there is a way around that one person or a
way,
however hard, to heal the damage that's
been done. There's almost always something else going on behind the
curtain,
and this sounds like it's no exception.
Well sure, and I don't know Stephen. That could've been the straw that broke it, y'know?
On the other hand, religion, despite claims
to the contrary, ain't for everybody.
As my desparately Catholic mother once
told me, "We all follow a different path to God."
One could consider nature the true God, so I can agree with that.
So, I hope you'll accept these comments
in the spirit they are offered: from someone who just happens
to believe in God in a different way, but
who still thinks Shrub should be impeached and Bin Laden should
be trussed up and tossed onto a New York
subway platform to receive the stomping he so richly deserves.
Thanks for everything you do,
Todd H.
Todd, I'd always want you to have religious freedom.
I'd fight, but not die for, your right to believe in anything
that doesn't hurt the kids.
I mean, if you were an Oklahoma snake-handlers or one of those
"no doctors" nuts,
you'd want me to step in before your kid was bitten or in a car
accident, right?
Thanks for the conversation.