Can someone help me explain Mardi Gras to a Fundamentalist?

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uofl19

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I have a friend who just thinks there is nothing worse on the face of the Earth than Mardi Gras. I try to explain that is was originally a Christian celebration before Ash Wednesday and unfortunetly now it does cause some very wild behavior and yes that is wrong. Just like Halloween some of the stuff that goes on were not taught by the Church and they were brought on by Pagan behaviors.

As he always says, just another reason why you Catholics don’t get it!! You think you can do anything and then be OK because you are Catholic and you just go to Confession. HELP!! I’m sick of the Fundamentalists, they have done what they can to take Halloween away from us and now Mardi Gras. Oh by they way he told me I should leave my Parish because they are going to have a Spaghetti Supper after the 5PM Mass tomorrow night with a Mardi Gras theme. Not to mention he thinks “REAL” Christian’s should protest in front of every Parish every time there is a Parish Picnic or some type of Monte Carlo night.
 
By your friend’s logic, if some people abuse and misuse marriage, then the whole thing should be done away with.

Also, if some people abuse and misuse Sacred Scripture, I guess we should toss the entire thing out the window, too.

It’s not reasonable.
 
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JimG:
He’s right. We should never party. :rolleyes:
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I guess someone forgot to tell Jesus at Cana.

In all seriousness, I’ve heard this argument many times not just about Mardi Gras but the whole thing that ‘Catholics think they can so anything and then just go to Confession’. I follow it up with 2 comments:
  1. How is that different from the OSAS philosophy if you really think about it…hmm, except with the exception that we actually have to be repentant of what we’ve done wrong! OSAS takes it to the very extreme of you can do whatever you want and it really doesn’t matter in the end as long as at some point during your life you’ve accepted Jesus as Lord and Savior.
  2. Anyone who says this about confession obviously has never been and doesn’t realize the humbling experience it is, and that the mere thought of having to tell a priest am embarassing or horrid think you’ve done wrong is an excellent deterrent. The Sacrament of Confession makes you want to NOT sin both from a human perspective and the spiritual graces you receive. Funny how God knows how human we really are and instituted this means to help us as we make our journey towards heaven.
I’m usually met with silence when I point out these 2 things.
 
I suppose it wouldn’t help if you started singing that little ditty that my Dad used to sing:

In heaven, there is no beer;
That’s why we drink it here.
 
and when we’re gone from here,
our friends will be drinking all the beer!

Woo Hoo! LOVE THAT POLKA!
 
Phenominal Posts folks, THANKS!!

I’ll try and remember the 2 points Elzee/
 
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uofl19:
As he always says, just another reason why you Catholics don’t get it!! You think you can do anything and then be OK because you are Catholic and you just go to Confession.
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It sounds as if this guy isn’t really a friend. As someone else said, OSAS can be said to lead to this same thinking without the confession part. They have even less reason to avoid sin, it is already forgiven and they don’t have to face a confessor.

His implication that confession is easy shows a profound ignorance of what confession really is. I’ve not known it to be easy. In fact I’d be embarrassed to tell you how many times I’ve gone in that past year. It isn’t enough because of that reluctance to admit what I’ve done to someone. It would be much easier to sit in my bedroom, say “God forgive me” and be on my merry way.

Ask him how many times he has been “discipled” (a popular mentoring arrangements in many evangelical/protestant churches) and admitted his sins to his mentor. I bet not often.

I would be sure that you at least gently correct him about his mischaracterization of catholic belief regarding confession. His claim is not what the church teaches any more than OSAS means you can freely sin and it is already forgiven (in spite of the logic that leads to that belief).
 
I heard an interesting clip on our Christian Radio station (Protestant) yesterday and thougth about this thread. It was a clip from a PromisKeepers rally and the man was speaking about adultery and he was giving all these statitics about men who commit adultery - this percentage of them do not read scripture daily, this percentage doesn’t attend church regularly, and, what caught my attention…a huge percentage of them do “not belong to an accountability group where they are accountable to other men for what they do”!!! ** I’ve heard of these ‘accountability groups’ before in fundamentalist churches. Ha! Funny how Jesus figured out a long time ago we needed this …“Confession - the original accountability group!”
**
 
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