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Going Back to Church


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Going Back to Church

Posted 11-24-2012 at 06:15 AM by STM
Updated 11-24-2012 at 06:33 AM by STM
Hey folks,

So, on Friday I went back to Church to attend a yearly service that my school/sixth form runs with our Church in London. First, attendance is considered compulsory, regardless of religion or ideology. Before I was agnostic this didn't bother me of course, I was of the opinion that it was important for everyone to go for so many stupid reasons. This year I still wanted to go because it will be the last time I ever attend the school sermon, it's something we've been doing since 2007 so it holds a lot of value to us as students, regardless of religion. Or so I hoped. Returning to Church was a bizarre experience for me. I'm not just saying that, it felt incredibly weird and I felt out of place.

When we were asked to say the Hail Mary and everyone began to drone out the lines I stood there in this awkward silence, unwilling to commit to these old ties I once held true and dear. I looked around me and wondered whether I was just being stupid, there were atheists near me who were saying it for some reason. I still stood there silence, but not it seemed even stranger to me.

The mass was overseen by the Bishop of London, he seemed quite nice and modern, he started his part of the mass with a verbose joke which he then worked into his preaching about how we shouldn't overlook the simplest of Jesus' teachings or else they will become hard to understand. Or something like that. I wasn't paying a whole lot of attention. Some things never change I suppose.

We go to a very ornate church which has been there - so I believe - in one form or another for hundreds and hundreds of years. It was gutted by fire in the Blitz and was subsequently rebuilt. Everything was so incredibly rich. Everything was pure white or gold. The furnishings were gold, the carpets were royal red and expensive too. Everything seemed hypocritical to me now. They teach you that the way to live is by Jesus' explanation: simplicity. Give up your worldly possessions and live a simple life. They preach this from behind a marble alter, standing next to a golden cross encrusted with rubies.

I found myself feeling a dislike for the church as a body more than the building. You can't hate architecture for its beliefs after all. It seemed unusual and sort of, I can't think of the right word, not right to have these feelings, I suppose. I wish I had enjoyed it more than I did but all I could think about was how long it was until it was all over.

Yesterday was probably the last time I will ever set foot in a church for religious purposes. Something I'm glad of.
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Bullet Magnet's Avatar
A vice both obscene and unsavoury
Holds the Bishop of London in slavery
With lascivious howls
He deflowers young owls
That he lures to an underground aviary
Posted 11-24-2012 at 01:59 PM by Bullet Magnet

STM's Avatar
Were you that young owl, BM? I'm so sorry.

In seriousness, I think the Bishop was the only person moderately interesting. The headteacher simply read a passage from the Bible that held no relevance to anything which was followed by another completely out-of-context passage spoken by the deputy head girl or something. Waste of an hour if you ask me.
Posted 11-24-2012 at 02:10 PM by STM

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
The bishop of central Japan
Used to roger himself with a fan.
And when taxed with these acts,
He replied, "It contracts,
And expands, rather more than a man!"
Posted 11-24-2012 at 02:15 PM by Bullet Magnet

MeechMunchie's Avatar
There was a young hooker from Crewe
Who filled her vagina with glue;
Said she with a grin
“Since they’ll pay to get in,
They can pay to get out of it, too!”
Posted 11-24-2012 at 02:39 PM by MeechMunchie

MeechMunchie's Avatar
By all accounts utterly bitchin';
We'll all miss dear Christopher Hitchens,
From the helpful midwife
Who started his life,
To the gravedigger who filled his ditch in.
Posted 11-24-2012 at 02:45 PM by MeechMunchie

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
Actually his body was donated to medical science.

The religious parts of school were always odd to me. I went along with it because it was all I'd known, though I didn't really believe it. When I was young I did, but only when the topic was brought up, if you know what I mean.
Posted 11-24-2012 at 07:10 PM by Bullet Magnet

Nate's Avatar
I went to a government school that had absolutely no religious content, with one exception: speech night began with a 'Non-Denominational' hymn. They used the 'Non-Denominational' label to protect themselves from criticism, but I realised after a while that the meant that it was not of any specific denomination of Christianity.

Bear in mind that this is a school that is particularly popular with recent immigrants, most of whom at the time were Buddhist or Hindu. Take in to account that about 10% of the students were Jewish. Note that there was a reasonably significant percentage of Atheists. I'd say that quite a bit less than half of the student population was Christian of any stripe - and yet they still insisted that we sing about Jesus.
Posted 11-24-2012 at 10:25 PM by Nate

STM's Avatar
I don't see why. If the school is religious then fine, I went to a Catholic Primary so fair enough but my sixth form is secular...why go to Church when you're a secular school?
Posted 11-25-2012 at 05:05 AM by STM

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
In the UK, religious assemblies are required by law.
Posted 11-25-2012 at 05:26 AM by Bullet Magnet

STM's Avatar
You're kidding right?
Posted 11-25-2012 at 06:41 AM by STM

Tired Glutton's Avatar
It would explain why all the primary schools i went to had the hymns and the plays that you had to take some part in, i always thought it was kind of weird
Posted 11-25-2012 at 11:10 AM by Tired Glutton

Jordan's Avatar
I've always disagreed with the fact that non-religious schools adopt the singing of hymns and prayers. I suppose you can always choose not to say anything but still
Posted 11-25-2012 at 01:48 PM by Jordan

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
That's why people fight so hard to keep it out of schools in America. Anyone who doesn't follow the particular religion or denomination of the prayer is obliged to either compromise their own religious sensibilities by going along with it, or single themselves out as different by opting out. That is not a situation any student should ever be put in, and it is illegal to do so in the States. You wouldn't believe how difficult this concept is to understand for some people.
Posted 11-25-2012 at 02:29 PM by Bullet Magnet

STM's Avatar
Wait, people fight against religion in America?
Posted 11-25-2012 at 02:36 PM by STM

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
They fight to uphold the constitution against those who don't appreciate its protections.
Posted 11-25-2012 at 03:31 PM by Bullet Magnet

STM's Avatar
I think a lot of fundamentalist Christian movements in America mis-translate the Constitution specifically to consolidate their own position and maintain wrapping religion around secularist politics.
Posted 11-26-2012 at 04:42 AM by STM

Strike Witch's Avatar
I went to a full on Catholic school, so I have a ton of hymns engrained onto my conciousness that I'm never going to be able to fully excise from my memory.

But part of me enjoys the religosity of it, the ability to sing these songs of praise and actually quote the Bible and understand this history that Abrahamic religion has weaved itself through.

I don't believe in god, but I think i understand Christianity very well at this point.

And hey, I learned how to sing competently, which is kind of fun.

Glory to God in the Highest
And peace to all people on Earth~
Posted 11-26-2012 at 04:44 AM by Strike Witch

Mr. Bungle's Avatar
I went to a Catholic school as well. It wasn't bad; best parts were skipping class to sit in the Gym and listen to a priest babble on with some slideshow of 'inspiring" imagery of lakes, rivers and other nature stuff. We got free stale bread crackers afterwards, too.

EDIT: Reading back on this it was pretty bad.
Posted 11-26-2012 at 05:34 AM by Mr. Bungle
Updated 11-26-2012 at 06:48 AM by Mr. Bungle

STM's Avatar
I learnt how to sing then my voice broke. Getting an average 17 year old male with a somewhat deep voice to try and sing a hymn is not going to work. It just isn't. And yet they god damn like to make you try.
Posted 11-26-2012 at 11:10 AM by STM

Nate's Avatar
:
I think a lot of fundamentalist Christian movements in America mis-translate the Constitution specifically to consolidate their own position and maintain wrapping religion around secularist politics.
To be fair, the constitution is actually quite ambiguous on the matter: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...". That basically just prevents an official state religion or any laws that inhibit someone from practicing their own religion. It's the courts that have defined the concept of seperation of church and state.
Posted 11-27-2012 at 01:18 AM by Nate

STM's Avatar
True, but then you have the definition of 'man', something so simple and so impossible to misinterpret as 'all men are created equally', rejected slaves and, to many extents, women, from the constitution under some jurisdiction. This, because of the religious definition of man in the respect of humankind. That's not directly aimed as a response to your point by the way, it's more of a follow on. Just in case it seemed slightly non-sensical.
Posted 11-27-2012 at 06:11 AM by STM

Bullet Magnet's Avatar
The courts based their definition on a letter written by Thomas Jefferson, who used those words. His Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom was what that part of the First Amendment was based on.
Posted 11-27-2012 at 08:14 AM by Bullet Magnet

 

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