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A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 1:16 am
My family is VERY catholic, to the point where they invite a priest to lunch at least once a week. They do not know im an atheist so i try to suffer through that. However last week an interaction caught my attention.
The priest was talking about a Romanian homeless guy who still came to his Church every week, apparently not for shelter but for belief. He did not even beg for money there. But the priest said he was troubling the rest of the people (smell, mostly) and ended up getting him thrown out by the police, and they were laughing about it with all the ever-present immigration jokes...
Isnt the Church the ONE place on Earth where this guy should not be persecuted, judged by what he looks like and should be helped ? To me this was not much, but it was enough to know that hypocrisy is the key word in Christianity. It disgusted me.
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 5:16 am
Well, how I understand it - Religion as whole generally seems to be more likely to do things like that. Because religious, theistic, beliefs can sometimes be bigoted - and there's nothing about atheism that does that because it isn't even a belief system. So this gives Religion the power to be more bigoted. Anti-homosexuality, racism, sexism, these things have been endorsed by holy books and their believers for centuries.
Religion has a pretty big history of bigotry does it not?
EvF
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 5:54 am
@Rwandall;
My 84 year old mother is a devout Catholic.She would have torn the priest new one one. I've seen her do it,once to a bishop she thought was a bit up himself. Always polite,always devastating. With respect,your parents seem to have behaved like a pair of sycophantic arseholes ---nor does it reflect well on you if you were present and said nothing.
Do take care with sweeping generalisations,there's a good chap.
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 6:39 am
I agree with Rwandall that Hypocrisy is certainly a key word with Christianity lol. But not just Christianity. Hypocrisy seems to be one of the covers that religion hides behind, how it justifies itself. It sickens me somewhat indeed.
EvF
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm
Rwandrall, is it possible you might debate the issue with your parents? I'd be interested to hear their defence.
 A man is born to a virgin mother, lives, dies, comes alive again and then disappears into the clouds to become his Dad. How likely is that?
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 1:22 pm
(May 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm)bozo Wrote: Rwandrall, is it possible you might debate the issue with your parents? I'd be interested to hear their defence.
I would, but 1) i live abroad for my studies and 2) They do not know i am an atheist...of course i know that this isnt about being religious or not, its about common human decency, but still to them a priest is almost the highest authority they know. Critisizing a priest is blasphemy to them.
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 1:25 pm
(May 4, 2010 at 1:16 am)Rwandrall Wrote: My family is VERY catholic, to the point where they invite a priest to lunch at least once a week. They do not know im an atheist so i try to suffer through that. However last week an interaction caught my attention.
The priest was talking about a Romanian homeless guy who still came to his Church every week, apparently not for shelter but for belief. He did not even beg for money there. But the priest said he was troubling the rest of the people (smell, mostly) and ended up getting him thrown out by the police, and they were laughing about it with all the ever-present immigration jokes...
Isnt the Church the ONE place on Earth where this guy should not be persecuted, judged by what he looks like and should be helped ? To me this was not much, but it was enough to know that hypocrisy is the key word in Christianity. It disgusted me.
It is hard to stand up to bigotry within your own family, I've only just started to pick up my dad for his casual racism and I'm 42.
You can fix ignorance, you can't fix stupid.
Tinkety Tonk and down with the Nazis.
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 1:56 pm
(May 4, 2010 at 1:16 am)Rwandrall Wrote: My family is VERY catholic, to the point where they invite a priest to lunch at least once a week. They do not know im an atheist so i try to suffer through that. However last week an interaction caught my attention.
The priest was talking about a Romanian homeless guy who still came to his Church every week, apparently not for shelter but for belief. He did not even beg for money there. But the priest said he was troubling the rest of the people (smell, mostly) and ended up getting him thrown out by the police, and they were laughing about it with all the ever-present immigration jokes...
Isnt the Church the ONE place on Earth where this guy should not be persecuted, judged by what he looks like and should be helped ? To me this was not much, but it was enough to know that hypocrisy is the key word in Christianity. It disgusted me.
It's baffling to me that your parents can combine extreme right wing point of view (I guess they're MPF or FN voters...) with catholicism and not see their hypocrisy. Don't they remeber the teachings of Jesus ?
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 1:58 pm
(May 4, 2010 at 1:22 pm)Rwandrall Wrote: (May 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm)bozo Wrote: Rwandrall, is it possible you might debate the issue with your parents? I'd be interested to hear their defence.
I would, but 1) i live abroad for my studies and 2) They do not know i am an atheist...of course i know that this isnt about being religious or not, its about common human decency, but still to them a priest is almost the highest authority they know. Critisizing a priest is blasphemy to them.
Seems to me that eventually a debate around both matters must happen..or it'll fester and breed resentment on your side.
Good luck however you tackle your problem.
A man is born to a virgin mother, lives, dies, comes alive again and then disappears into the clouds to become his Dad. How likely is that?
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RE: A discussion around family table.
May 4, 2010 at 2:58 pm
(May 4, 2010 at 1:58 pm)bozo Wrote: (May 4, 2010 at 1:22 pm)Rwandrall Wrote: (May 4, 2010 at 12:18 pm)bozo Wrote: Rwandrall, is it possible you might debate the issue with your parents? I'd be interested to hear their defence.
I would, but 1) i live abroad for my studies and 2) They do not know i am an atheist...of course i know that this isnt about being religious or not, its about common human decency, but still to them a priest is almost the highest authority they know. Critisizing a priest is blasphemy to them.
Seems to me that eventually a debate around both matters must happen..or it'll fester and breed resentment on your side.
Good luck however you tackle your problem.
Believe me i tried but some people just have their mind set on things. They have never lived outside of Paris, never went anywhere outside of France for over a month. For them things are purely black and white. Immigrants are bad. Atheists are soulless. Priests are holy men. People who work for the State are lazy. Muslims are evil terrorists... the list goes on. Just like Christians say about a "sinner", some people are just too far gone to be saved.
And i know how roughly i describe my parents, i know i should be more grateful to them than that, but i guess its just how i view things.
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