Hi Tabsie,
You mention that your OP is an answer to an incorrect and stereotypical way that you feel you are classified. But is anyone actually trying to classify you? You’ve noticed some disturbing stereotypes on certain Christian websites/blogs…But none of these stereotypes fit you, as you’ve stated. So just don’t take them personally. You are who you are, your life is your own business and who the heck cares what some random strangers think about other random strangers your age? They aren’t talking about
you, are they? They can’t be, because they don’t even know you.
Claire:
Have you ever happened upon a website run by militant Muslims that claim that all Americans are selfish, unchaste, and evil, in league with the devil? I can point you to some of them.
Have you never felt a sense of injustice at those words? At being labeled without someone knowing that you’re not like that at all, that most households in America aren’t like that?
What about Evangelical websites that talk about priests raping younglings, especially boys, who make this out to be a problem that extends from the Pope all the way down, where nobody is safe around priests because they’re unmarried and ready to explode, and they’ll grab the first available, vulnerable person availabl, usually alter boys?
Haven’t you ever wanted to pull your hair out in frustration when someone calls you a Mary Worshiper?
What about when you sit down with someone who doesn’t understand Catholicism and you try to expalin that we don’t worship and we don’t worship a “cracker.” That we venerate Mary because of her role as the God-bearer, but that the emphasis has always been on God, not on her? You get a smile and a polite nod along the way if you’re lucky, but you
know that when you leave that person, he’ll shake his head, say, “Poor girl doesn’t understand her own religion and why it’s so evil. We have to save her, because she’s so close to the truth!”
Have you ever been accosted on your way to Ash Wednesday services on a college campus by someone asking you to come with them and join their prayer group and Bible study? You her politely you have to be somewhere (no mention of church or Ash Wednesday at all) and she comes back with, “Yes, I know, I’ve seen you go into the Catholic Hall a few times. I want to tell you the truth about God.” You say, “No, thank you, I’m going to be late,” and that person shouts how she’ll pray for your salvation, God help you.
Have you ever turned on Penn and Teller’s BS because you find the show moderately amusing to find them ragging on Mother Teressa and talking about who Christ really was (A fantasy) and how there’s no way that God, Jesus, Buddah, or anybody else exists and how they
feel sorry for us because we’re so inhbitied we can’t watch some of their show (like the episodes with the naked people, talking about porn stars and why sex outside of marriage is
good, and why women should be allowed to go topless in public if men can), and how we never really enjoy life, and how those of us who never marry are going to end up regretting it at the ends of our lives because we never
lived? Have you ever wanted to punch the television because these people DON’T know what they’re talking about, and yes, I agree with them that PETA is a violent organization, but I don’t agree with anything they say about sex, and they don’t know anything about Christianity!
And the problem is, these people are so out-spoken, loud, prominant and self-displaying that lots of people read them or watch them or hear about them, and then they start nodding along saying, “You’re right, those poor Catholics,” be they Christian, other religions, or atheists.
Now there I was browsing several Catholic websites talking about chastity and why it’s a shame that “all” women in their 30’s, the products of the post-baby-boom era, are wasting their time in meaningless love affairs and, because of it, unable to have children when they finally settle down in their 40’s. Or they complain about how we single women feel like we’re “entitled” to a child, and will go merrily along having babies out of wedlock because we can and who cares about the father?
Here’s me writing a dissenting opinion about single womanhood. I talk about the freedom to take care of my family and to focus on re-learning how to live with God, since I’ve always loved Him, but sometimes drift in our relationship, a problem I have in human life with human relationships as well. And here’s me getting a comment back about how if I’d married when I was younger, I’d have the stability to learn to live with God properly, through my marriage to a good Catholic husband.
Here’s me writing an opinion back about how hard it is to find a man to marry to be in a good stable relationship, especially when one is older and so many guys in my age range who are available are either divorcees (which is a good sign that the guy might leave me, too, if he did it once to someone else) or they expect a relationship not to entail bonds of any kind, so they can be ready to pick up and move at a moment’s notice.
I get back saying that, Hey, I just proved the point! I waited so long that now the chances of finding a decent Catholic husband are slim.
