Oooh, speaking of religion...
When I was a teenager my aunts and their friends went overboard (IMHO) with religion. We were all devout Catholics and started attending 'prayer meetings'. I initially went to these meetings an hour away from home on Wednesday nights. They were fun, there was lots of singing and worship, and a great sense of community. UNTIL (insert dreaded music here), the aunts got carried away and started their own little prayer group in our town, at our church. (Actually the meetings were held in the building next to the church.) Father Bob came to the first few meetings and all was well...then the dynamics changed and the aunts started talking in tongues more and more, as well as being 'slayed'. The lights would go out and they would start talking in tongues. Mikka likka hi mikka hiney ho. (that was stolen from Pee Wee Herman) But you get the idea...a made-up foreign language. They would get louder and louder and start crying and all this craziness went on around me. They would fall (collapse) as they were being slayed by the holy spirit. This was a bit much for me and I found myself either wanting to giggle or run like hell to get out of there. I stopped going to these meetings, but the aunts carried on.
They would preach to everyone within reach. Like, "gang preach". They alienated themselves from the rest of the family by doing this. In my opinion they had gone over the deep end. They were crazy, fanatical. I had lost my aunts that were at one time like mothers to me.
One day, when my parents were away for a couple days, they came to my house. My cousin and her boyfriend were staying with me. The aunts came to bind satan from us. They beat the ceilings with brooms, they chanted, they were lunatics. We ordered them to leave and they eventually did. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. My parents were beyond bullshit with their behaviour, and it seems like family ties were severed at that point.
Things were never the same after my aunts found religion. There were no more family reunions, no more visits to the pond, no more Christmas' at the farm. I lost touch with my cousins, uncles, aunts. To this day I still wonder about some of them. It's all very sad, and yet, so ironic that religion could do this to everyday good people.
When I was a teenager my aunts and their friends went overboard (IMHO) with religion. We were all devout Catholics and started attending 'prayer meetings'. I initially went to these meetings an hour away from home on Wednesday nights. They were fun, there was lots of singing and worship, and a great sense of community. UNTIL (insert dreaded music here), the aunts got carried away and started their own little prayer group in our town, at our church. (Actually the meetings were held in the building next to the church.) Father Bob came to the first few meetings and all was well...then the dynamics changed and the aunts started talking in tongues more and more, as well as being 'slayed'. The lights would go out and they would start talking in tongues. Mikka likka hi mikka hiney ho. (that was stolen from Pee Wee Herman) But you get the idea...a made-up foreign language. They would get louder and louder and start crying and all this craziness went on around me. They would fall (collapse) as they were being slayed by the holy spirit. This was a bit much for me and I found myself either wanting to giggle or run like hell to get out of there. I stopped going to these meetings, but the aunts carried on.
They would preach to everyone within reach. Like, "gang preach". They alienated themselves from the rest of the family by doing this. In my opinion they had gone over the deep end. They were crazy, fanatical. I had lost my aunts that were at one time like mothers to me.
One day, when my parents were away for a couple days, they came to my house. My cousin and her boyfriend were staying with me. The aunts came to bind satan from us. They beat the ceilings with brooms, they chanted, they were lunatics. We ordered them to leave and they eventually did. This was the straw that broke the camel's back. My parents were beyond bullshit with their behaviour, and it seems like family ties were severed at that point.
Things were never the same after my aunts found religion. There were no more family reunions, no more visits to the pond, no more Christmas' at the farm. I lost touch with my cousins, uncles, aunts. To this day I still wonder about some of them. It's all very sad, and yet, so ironic that religion could do this to everyday good people.
posted by KMR at 9:00 AM
2 Comments:
maybe you should start going back to mass.
it can't hurt.
and if you don't want to hear the homily, then you could attend a weekday service if any exists.
the catholic church has changed since you were a child.
I am catholic.
I am a Lector.
I am a Knight of Columbus.
I know how you feel, Everyone on my dad's side of the family are lunatictical pentecostals.
One day family ties will be severed. I only say that because they are pentecostal(tolerance level is very low).
If only they were Methodist, Lutherans, or Presbyterians....
km, your aunts were Catholic?
really?
only time i've ever seen Catholics behave like that was at a charismatic conference, where it's "when in rome..." so to speak.
i'm with mojoala - go to mass. see what's missing, what's different since you were a child. see what the church has grown into, but not based on what the media reports say. based on what your heart says.
**smooches**
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