people who are overly religious.
i am catholic.
and that is due to my mexican roots. my parents were born and raised catholic in mexico and they owe it to their parents who got it from their parents and so on, going so far back until the 1500s when spain took over latinamerica.
so the spanish forced the natives to give up their gods and godesses to worship this religion called catholicism, which they believed was THE LEGIT SHIT. like THEE TRUE RELIGION.
thanks spain.
you totally helped us dodge a bullet there.
there are people out there (it happens with any religion), who take it too far.
my own mother is one of those people.
she used to be this sweet woman and church used to be a place of love and happiness for me. when i was eight, up until i was seventeen, we used to attend church ALL THE TIME. we went on tuesdays, thursdays, and sundays for service, where i was an altar helper. on saturdays we went to church again for practice on how to become a better altar helper. and in fridays there was youth group and adult group for the parents.
i stopped going to all of that my senior year of high school because i was busy doing my applications and going to college events that year.
and i kinda never returned.
my mum started hanging out with this really nice guy who's a priest. they formed a bible study group and then they'd go have lunch together, the whole group was happy.
but there, my mum learned THE TRUTH.
cause in youth group and in her other group, they would say god is love and all that stuff.
but now she believed god is vengeful and he punishes people for any little thing. so this new group kinda brainwashed her to believe everything is a sin and i think its a cult. cause all the members of the group literally put the priest on a pedestal like he's some kind of holy being come to save them from the fires of hell. i mean, the priest is a really nice guy. like he's always buying food for homeless people or buying toys for children. so i don't know if he's the one brainwashing them or if he just teaches them things from the bible and they come up with their own crazy notions. who knows.
so she spends ALL DAY WITH THEM.
leaves at seven in the morning and returns at nine at night.
and they sell merchandise like rosaries and religious posters on the streets and none of them keep any of the money, THEY GIVE IT TO THE PRIEST and when i ask my mum why they don't keep some of the money, she says, "the money belongs to god. he's paying me in blessings."
this must be some kind of exploitation.
but my mum won't listen cause when my sisters or my dad or i try to tell her they're brainwashing her, she gets mad.
and she constantly tells us EVERYTHING IS A SIN.
cause "the priest said so, and he's a messenger of god."
so she wanted us to throw out any article of clothing that is the color black. cause "the satanists dedicated the color to satan".
and i told her, "but mom, almost anything can be dedicated to satan if you think hard enough. what if a satanists dedicated the sidewalk to satan? would you always be forced float above the ground then? or how about...if a satanist dedicated all forms of food to satan? would you let yourself starve because of it? what if a satanist dedicated a catholic church to satan? would you stop attending church?"
and she was like "you don't understand."
so basically, everything is bad and everything is a sin if you talk to my mom.
like, if you are a decent person who doesn't steal, kill, etc...you're still a sinner if you don't go to church every sunday and you will go to hell.
and you also have to pray every single moment of your life and read the bible forever because if you don't, you will go to hell.
and she has this poster, of the two roads, the one that leads to heaven and the one that leads to hell. and the one that goes to hell has drawings of clowns, gypsies, magicians, and stuff like that. so apparently the whole world is a rotten place and the only way to save yourself is to practically live at church.
so yeah, the things i live with.
-clary xx
