Why do you listen to your parents when they give you the lowdown on an organization? When is the last time they participated with the organization? Or are they just telling you tales of the organization when they were younger of 70 years ago? What if their thoughts affected your beliefs?
When I was a little girl my parents had different views on many organizations. Take the Catholic Church for instance. My father made us go on Sundays because "that's the right thing to do." (no personal conviction there, just went as routine, like a doctor check up--who really wants this?) My mother allowed this because the Church made her feel young again (she grew up in a Catholic school but left the Church when on her own.) So, naturally, growing up in the Catholic Church I neither felt it necessary, spiritual, nor uplifting. It was just a routine you did so others won't judge you or call you a bad person.
What I don't get is why people let these preconceived notions of our parents affect their adult life? I grew out of this notion as a college kid on her own trying to find life itself. But I know a lot of people who keep their parents opinions as their own and really have no personal ground why.
For instance, there's a couple of people I know whose mother was raised as a Catholic. She grew up, married a Jew and left her faith behind--seeing no reason to continue and a dirty image of the Church. The problem is she never searched for the reason "why!" She didn't like the way the Catholic Church was mainly because she was told many negative things (which I found to be incorrect) but then left it as it was...looked for no answers. That would've just been her bad but where it gets dirty is when she had kids and passed on this opinion to her children, giving them a preconceived incorrect notion about this organization: Church. So she raised them as nothing really and let her husband, who later left her, take the punch and raise them as little Jews.
Now they are adults and STILL see the Catholic Church as something negative! I don't know about you guys reading this, but when I find something negative about something, I do research to find out for myself! How can you live 30 something years of your life with a wrong notion? Well, it's being done by many.
What I don't understand is why you would even say negative things about an organization if these things were merely hearsay!!(?) I mean, if my neighbor told me the lady across the street was fat, but she never left the house for me to know...would I tell other people she was fat? NO! (I hope you didn't say yes.) I have no evidence, so why would I want to give someone or something a bad name if I had no evidence?
Now these two people are grown adults with the same mind of a child in regards to this institution: the Church. It just really bugged me that these people wouldn't find out for themselves and therefore are spreading negative rumors about my Mother, (the fat neighbor) the Church.
To everyone who has these preconceived notions about the Catholic Church: you need to step inside and get to know the Church before spreading any kind of rumor about it. No matter what you've heard, you need to invite yourself into the fat lady's house across the street in order to see if she's really fat or if it was all just hearsay. Only then may you be given privilege to talk smack.
Peace and Happy Eastertide, y'all! Wahoo!
-Hope
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