Saturday, July 19, 2008
Not for Prophet
"Atheism: A non-prophet organisation"
What a brilliant slogan for a t-shirt. I would wear it, to church, out on the streets, to the corner shop, to the synagogue, or the mosque (if I'm allowed in. Which... probably not)
Last night the boyfriend came over and instead of whisking me away from ultra-conservative mother, as he usually does, he sat down on the couch and watched the World Youth Day Stages of the Cross pageant on tv with my mother.
We should have remained in the house for two minutes; instead we stayed for two hours. We chucked a pizza in the oven, made hot tea and snuggled under a blanket in front of the tv.
It was a strange sight: him on the left going "yeah! that was a good one" whenever the actor playing Jesus was kicked or prodded, my mother closing her eyes in meditative prayer, tears collecting in the corner of her eyes and lips moving in silent prayer. Then there was me in the middle torn between wondering if I could hold his hand under the blanket without my mother noticing and wanting to comfort my mother when she started crying and recounting the circumstances of my aunt's death.
Early on, when the pilgrims' spirits were high and the mood in my house accordingly so, the conversation went something like this -
Boyfriend: "Ah I get it! This is the part where they put Jesus on a motorised barge to cross the river"/ "And this is the part where the Roman soldier meets the Aboriginal man"
Me: "How very ahistorical"
Mum: "SHH... Hail Mary, full of grace..."
Like I said, atheism is a non-prophet organisation. Deities on motorised water transport vehicles and daring ret-cons with history are there to be ridiculed and made fun of.
But I'm not entirely comfortable with that. The church and whoever cares to know might be pleased that watching the play on television actually moved me somewhat, nearly to tears, and even more so when my mother started weeping for my aunt.
I don't want to go to church anymore, I still disagree heartily with the Church's stand on many issues - abortion, contraception, women's rights, physical relationships, homosexuality, the death penalty, marriage and divorce; and I would not raise my children Catholic (assuming I have any). But maybe there is truth to the saying, once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Long after one ceases to step into a church, the guilt lingers on.
What a brilliant slogan for a t-shirt. I would wear it, to church, out on the streets, to the corner shop, to the synagogue, or the mosque (if I'm allowed in. Which... probably not)
Last night the boyfriend came over and instead of whisking me away from ultra-conservative mother, as he usually does, he sat down on the couch and watched the World Youth Day Stages of the Cross pageant on tv with my mother.
We should have remained in the house for two minutes; instead we stayed for two hours. We chucked a pizza in the oven, made hot tea and snuggled under a blanket in front of the tv.
It was a strange sight: him on the left going "yeah! that was a good one" whenever the actor playing Jesus was kicked or prodded, my mother closing her eyes in meditative prayer, tears collecting in the corner of her eyes and lips moving in silent prayer. Then there was me in the middle torn between wondering if I could hold his hand under the blanket without my mother noticing and wanting to comfort my mother when she started crying and recounting the circumstances of my aunt's death.
Early on, when the pilgrims' spirits were high and the mood in my house accordingly so, the conversation went something like this -
Boyfriend: "Ah I get it! This is the part where they put Jesus on a motorised barge to cross the river"/ "And this is the part where the Roman soldier meets the Aboriginal man"
Me: "How very ahistorical"
Mum: "SHH... Hail Mary, full of grace..."
Like I said, atheism is a non-prophet organisation. Deities on motorised water transport vehicles and daring ret-cons with history are there to be ridiculed and made fun of.
But I'm not entirely comfortable with that. The church and whoever cares to know might be pleased that watching the play on television actually moved me somewhat, nearly to tears, and even more so when my mother started weeping for my aunt.
I don't want to go to church anymore, I still disagree heartily with the Church's stand on many issues - abortion, contraception, women's rights, physical relationships, homosexuality, the death penalty, marriage and divorce; and I would not raise my children Catholic (assuming I have any). But maybe there is truth to the saying, once a Catholic, always a Catholic. Long after one ceases to step into a church, the guilt lingers on.
Labels: Family, Relationships, Religion
# posted by me lah @ 11:58 pm 
