re: #245 Decatur Deb

Catholics Anonymous meets here.

I’m DD, and I was very close to as Catholic as you can get. I had nuns 24/7/350 for the five gradeschool years I didn’t have them 6/5. Then I had priest instructors 24/7/305 for 5 years in a Franciscan seminary. Left there on sort of friendly terms and didn’t drop the church until years later, after marrying a highly fertile convert Catholic. The Anthropology degree finished off the remaining Catholic cosmology. Our children are 2 atheists, a Baptist, and one who goes to a doctrine-free megachurch.

My experiences left me with a fondness for the religious who raised me, and the Anthro left me with a rational respect for the cultural power of religion. (No matter how rough it might be for the human sacrifices, it’s pretty hard to run a culture without a religion.)

The art an music can be pretty cool, too.

I really like the architecture of some of the old churches I’ve been in. Stained glass and art thing that are really well done. (As a comparison there is a “new” Catholic church near the town my brother lives in and it looks like an industrial warehouse with this odd-looking and obviously artificial in workings bell tower.) (Yuck)

My friends have needled me about being the atheist who hangs out in churches. (I tend to arrive early for stuff and they’ve found me sitting there in the dark since I got to a few wedding rehearsals early. That I was enjoying the quiet and the sunset coming through stained glass windows went right past them. :p )

The internal conflict I feel about these things is that the resources spent on them beyond being functional are resources that arguably can go into programs and other sorts of service. Though there is something in attending service in something that is obviously a source of pride for the community.