The first burned bridge...

So, in my pathetic type of rebellion, I decided that I will no longer attend church. I've been going to church (the good old Catholic kind) since I was a born. I was baptized as soon as my parents could book an appointment. I went through all of the sacraments, all of the religious education, and yet their brainwashing couldn't penetrate my mind (disturbing choice of words, noting recent events of the church...). Indeed, they do try to brainwash you as a child...

Here is the type of brainwashing they instill on you- One of the first things you learn in religious ed is a few very catchy songs, songs that I could still sing word for word today. As a child, they distill the more disturbing parts of the Bible to little cartoons and omit some other parts all together. During the reading of the Gospel, the religious ed leaders gather all the kids from the church, taking them from their families, into this room in the school where the leaders recite the Gospel and then discuss it. Of course, they call this active participation in the word of God.

However, through all of this and among other things, I managed to form a much more critical opinion of the church. I cannot pinpoint the exact time when I began to question what I was learning every Sunday, but I know it must have happened when I began reading a larger breadth of books, which was around 5th grade or something like that. Why would reading different books distance me so much from the Bible? Lord if I knew... But one thing I do know is that the universal truths the Bible parades around in its allegorical fashion can be learned from other sources, especially in this day and age.

And this brings me to the reason why I decided to never attend church voluntarily again. Attending a Catholic mass in my area now, one would love to scream out loud "preaching to the choir" throughout the mass. Why? Well, it seemed that every single mass I've attended seemed like ever other mass. The only difference being the normal rotation of the priests who spit this bullshit. Well, not all of it is bullshit, but most of it is.

Indeed, I did not really have a problem from the priests. Well, I did not have a problem with the main priests, some others I just hated for their holier than thou attitude. Ironic? Yes. Anyway, I hated church because of all the jackasses that attended it. Barely any of the these people practiced what they preached. For example, my own parents. They listened to all this preaching of love and peace, but when they came home, they always talked about how they hated their neighbors and their animosity towards the people they feel have wronged them over the years. Excuse me? But isn't one of the main teachings of the Bible is forgiveness?

Yet, it wasn't just the jackasses (and yes, I just implied that my parents are jackasses). It was the climate of the times. From the issues with gay marriage, the ongoing and pointless evolution debate, and the wars in the Middle East and elsewhere that seem only to be fueled by religion, I just couldn't bring myself to identify with religion. People use religion for things it shouldn't be used for and was never intended for use in the first place. I've formed a more objective view of religion in the past few years, from which I concluded that people created religion, created their own gods, in order to bring peace and a sense of security in this scary world. I believe there have been times where religion had it's place; the early days of man up to the Civil Rights movement of the 1960's. But, increasingly, people have been using religion as more of a crutch to uphold their believes that may or may not be a part of the beliefs of the religion in the first place.

But what the hell do I know. The only thing I'm sure of is that I've decided that I can no longer attend mass with my family. Indeed, I do think I got some good things out of my experience with my church, but most of the things have nothing to do with the belief in God. The things being; presents on Christmas for celebrating the birth of Christ, talking it up with really hot Catholic girls (it's not a stereotype, seriously), and the courage to ask questions. Of course, the courage I gained eventually led me away from the church.


-Cecilio