Wed Jan 17 16:55:57 2024 UTC by CrazyPaya234
On an alt because my brother knows about my main, and I don't want this attention to come towards my parents and make it to my grandparents [somehow]
I never had a relationship with my grandparents from either side of my family. On my father's side, they died before I was born, and on my mother's I barely ever saw them. And when I did, it seemed as though they had no intensions of speaking or interacting with me. I was at home for the longer weekend because my parents needed help cleaning out the attic, and in one of the old boxes there was a old picture of my grandmother and my mom when she was younger. The picture got me thinking about why my mother's grandparents always had acted so strange around me, as if they were avoiding me entirely. I brought the subject up to my mother while we were cleaning up the attic, and she told me why. She told me that my grandparents had always been hyper-religious, specifically catholic. This came as no surprise as I had deduced such from various mannerisms they had shown in the little time I had meet them. She finally said that the reason my grandparents didn't want to be around me was because I was left handed.
WHAT.
She explained further that the left-hand had been interpreted as the devil's hand as a catholic superstition. Because of this, my grandparents had always been wary of me, which grew out to them avoiding having a relationship with me entirely. I'm at a loss for words as to how these insane traditions continue to be prevalent in religious circles, especially in older individuals. It saddens me that despite how Christians often claim to be a welcoming community to all people, that many exclusive and elitist traditions continue to be practiced. I hope as time goes on, we open our eyes to realize how absolutely batshit insane these traditions, and maybe religions as a whole, really are.
My favorite extra-biblical notion in Catholicism is their weird veneration of Mary. Catholics have this belief that Mary was this divine demi-god that was not only a sinless, flawless, human being, but also stayed a virgin her whole life. Despite the fact that the Catholic Bible literally says that she had other kids with Joseph and that Jesus had brothers.
It's this super bizarre JK Rowling-ization of the Bible that a council unilaterally declared, like, 400 years after Jesus. There's no mention of any of the shit they claim Mary did in the actual Bible yet all Catholics I've ever met vehemently defend these belief.
Because they can't admit they have a goddess cult baked into their supposedly monotheistic religion.
Of course that's what happens when your entire religion is the accumulation of thousands of years of marketing scams and cultural assimilation.
We are not rational creatures. Animals actually. It's not a goddess cult, it's the goddess cult perpetuating itself.
I was taught that when the Church was converting the pagans, they grabbed a lot of pagan beliefs/rituals and repurposed them. It was just easier to turn Mary into the local Goddess than it was to eradicate the Goddess completely. See Yukle logs and the Easter bunny.
It's funny, though, that from converted natives such things went back to descendants of white colonists.
I don't know many Catholics. I would appreciate if you could explain some of the things Catholics believe Mary did that Protestants dispute.
Sure! I was raised Methodist protestant and my wife Catholic. Neither of us are practicing any more. One grain of salt I'll add to this is that Protestant beliefs vary WIDELY on a lot of subjects, so this is going off my own experience. This is all about Mary the mother of Christ, not to be confused with Mary Magdalene.
Catholics and Protestants both believe that Mary was a virgin when she had Jesus, but Catholics believe that Mary never had sex in her entire life. Protestants are more willing to accept that Mary was not a virgin her whole life and went on to have more children. In fact in both bibles, his brothers are named: James, Joseph (Joses), Jude (Judas), and Simon. Note that these are not necessarily the same as the apostles but they are mentioned in both the Gospels of Mark and Matthew. It is also mentioned that Jesus has sisters. The Catholic interpretation is that these are not literal siblings, but perhaps other family. (The Catholic assertion doesn't check out in the original greek btw).
Catholics have a concept called "Original Sin", which all people are said to be cursed with due to Adam and Eve's fuck ups. This Original Sin is why we commit sin at all. This is another Catholic extra-biblical concept. Mary, however, is "Free from Original Sin" for reasons that are never explained, and that's why she was chosen to carry Jesus. Because according to Catholicism, Mary was literally perfect and never did any sin in her entire life. Protestants generally don't believe in the concept of Original Sin at all, and subsequently believe that Mary was just a regular poor girl.
The Veneration of Mary and the other Saints is another extra-biblical Catholic special. TL;DR: If you check enough boxes and the Church has enough political will, you can posthumously be awarded Sainthood which a pagan would interpret as being elevated to the status of a minor god. Saints are a whole different class of person in Catholic cannon. Not only are they getting into Heaven first, they apparently can appear to people through miracles, and its certified Catholic kosher to worship saints as you would Jesus or God himself. Its not un-typical for Catholic households to have literal shrines dedicated to specific saints, and to pray to saints directly. Ironically they are usually praying to the saint as some sort of divine middleman because for some reason Catholics are afraid of praying to God directly. Mary is considered even better than a saint, so think all the above x100. More so than saint shrines, its common for Catholic households to have shrines dedicated to Mary. You also may have heard of the "Hail Mary"; it is an actual prayer. If you've never heard or participated in one, look up a video, its unironically like a cult chant. Seeing it in person is extremely bizarre if you aren't already familiar with it.
Protestants do not recognize the Veneration of any thing or person beyond the Holy Trinity. Worshiping saints by praying to them is considered blasphemy. The creation and worship of shrines to anything other than the Trinity is considered Idol Worship, which is a form of blasphemy. All of this extends to Mary. Worshiping or praying to Mary is not ok. Protestants also don't have nearly so many cult chants and prefer to improv praying directly to God but that's another rabbit hole.
3a. I don't feel like I got across how important Mary is to Catholics. Mary in Catholic lore is like a fuckin super saint. She has titles like "Masterwork of God", "Mother of the Church", "Queen of Heaven", Etc. She "appears" to dozens of other people who go on to become Saints. She was prayed to widely during the Black Death, has entire churches devoted to just her, and has a specific shrine in literally every single Catholic church on Earth. In Protestant lore, Mary is not much more than a footnote.
This is getting pretty long winded at this point but you get the idea. This is only the tip of the iceberg with Protestant v Catholic btw, they are astoundingly different in doctrines and practices while believing a lot of the same core bullet points.
Long, but an interesting read; thanks!
Thank you for all of that information. I love reading this kind of stuff. Growing up in the Midwest, I always heard that Jesus had cousins, and possibly one brother so this was interesting. It is surprising to hear how Mary can be treated so differently in two branches of Christianity.
Once again, thank you for this post.
The saint thing is so wild and hilarious to me. If you’re interested you should google Carlo Acutis, who is the patron saint of social media and the internet.
Hilarious.