Contemplating criticizing people
I go to church here on China on a regular enough basis that people know who I am at church. Despite the language barrier, I try my best. There are maybe two other foreigners whom I am friends with who also attend mass regularly. The other foreigners come and go. Sometimes some Indians and these two Italians pop up, but they also seem pretty sporadic. I also go to church on Tuesdays because I work on Sundays so for the most part I am often the only foreigner with a bunch of old Chinese people.
Christmas is about two weeks away, and I get the suspicion that some foreigners I know will be asking me about going to church. There are actually quite a number of foreigners here, but they do not seem to be religious at all. The United States is mostly Protestant, and I know there are Protestant Evangelicals here so there are options for whatever denomination one is. I´ve even posted on WeChat if anyone would be interested in attending mass in English as one of the new priests speaks it very well, but not one person responded.
Every year around Christmas the churches always get packed. Even in the US in my Hispanic community the packed churches get even more packed. I´ve always had mixed feelings about it, but as I learn more about Catholicism, I´ve started to grow more defensive of it. One foreigner I know says that he goes to church "out of tradition" despite not believing in God. I guess his family used to take him or something when he was younger, but he is not here in China with his family now so I do not get his reasoning. I even asked him what is the point, and he started talking about if I had ever done pancake fridays. I had no idea what he was talking about, and just told him it didn´t make any sense.
So if anyone asks me about going to church or I actually see some of them on church around Christmas time (I might have to work on Christmas day, such bullshit) I do not know if I will get angry about it. Like it just seems so fake to me. Why bother to go only one day out of the whole year? What is so special to YOU about this day? Can you even say you are a Christian still if you have this mindset? I feel conflicted because I know in certain "what if" scenarios I would not say anything yet in others I would which would make me a hypocrite. Then however I reason that these what if scenarios would probably never occur because said people would never even ask me. I still have not figured out what I would do since this might not even happen at all. If the person coming to mass had absolutely no idea the most basic of things like making the sign of the cross, I would probably chastise them. I cannot help it. You´re just using church to feel good about yourself at that point so yes I will call you out on your bullshit.
Or maybe no one will ask me, and I´ll just be chilling with the Indians at mass on Christmas day.
Christmas is about two weeks away, and I get the suspicion that some foreigners I know will be asking me about going to church. There are actually quite a number of foreigners here, but they do not seem to be religious at all. The United States is mostly Protestant, and I know there are Protestant Evangelicals here so there are options for whatever denomination one is. I´ve even posted on WeChat if anyone would be interested in attending mass in English as one of the new priests speaks it very well, but not one person responded.
Every year around Christmas the churches always get packed. Even in the US in my Hispanic community the packed churches get even more packed. I´ve always had mixed feelings about it, but as I learn more about Catholicism, I´ve started to grow more defensive of it. One foreigner I know says that he goes to church "out of tradition" despite not believing in God. I guess his family used to take him or something when he was younger, but he is not here in China with his family now so I do not get his reasoning. I even asked him what is the point, and he started talking about if I had ever done pancake fridays. I had no idea what he was talking about, and just told him it didn´t make any sense.
So if anyone asks me about going to church or I actually see some of them on church around Christmas time (I might have to work on Christmas day, such bullshit) I do not know if I will get angry about it. Like it just seems so fake to me. Why bother to go only one day out of the whole year? What is so special to YOU about this day? Can you even say you are a Christian still if you have this mindset? I feel conflicted because I know in certain "what if" scenarios I would not say anything yet in others I would which would make me a hypocrite. Then however I reason that these what if scenarios would probably never occur because said people would never even ask me. I still have not figured out what I would do since this might not even happen at all. If the person coming to mass had absolutely no idea the most basic of things like making the sign of the cross, I would probably chastise them. I cannot help it. You´re just using church to feel good about yourself at that point so yes I will call you out on your bullshit.
Or maybe no one will ask me, and I´ll just be chilling with the Indians at mass on Christmas day.