Religious Discrimination in the USA

[DanaC]

See this is what happens when observing from the outside, you completely miss the part about all you have to do is ask to be forgiven and you get a get-out-of-going-to-hell-free card.

From the outside? My dad was a RC and my Gran was devout. I spent a lot of time growing up around my gran. Been on more pilgrimages than you can shake a stick at. When she was wheelchair bound I would on occassion take her to the local church for mass (the Father would come out to her when she couldn't make it, but she did get some comfort from attending with the rest of the congregation when she was able to). So....no I wasn't raised a Catholic. But nor was I entirely observing from outside.

I fully understand the get-out-of-jail-free card. But....there are complications to that which a seven year old will tend to pick up on. For instance, what if you sin and are knocked over before you get the chance to go to confession? What if there is no priest around to deliver the last rites? When i was about 9 years old my next door neighbour and best friend (also occassionally best enemy ;P) Maggs, used to really fret about stuff like that.

The premise is, if you be bad you'll burn unless you realize and admit you be bad.

I have some difficulty with the idea of teaching children that they are bad if they do something wrong. This may just be a word usage thing, but to me the idea of a child 'being bad' as opposed to 'doing something wrong' is potentially damaging. Just the way I look at things. That's one reason I don't like most religions and moral codes, they employ too many value judgements about the person rather than the action.