things that confound me

[atomicduck]

Of course, London is an English-speaking city, so I can't say that there's culture shock of Japan proportions. I can at least mostly read the signs and speak to the natives (one would hope...), so for the most part, I don't feel like the move has really hit me yet. I mean, it feels even less foreign than Quebec. I think, also, that all major first-

Comments

[deadtree]

wow, idiosyncrasies! But I guess everyone has them xD

I can't imagine Pope-protesters though ._. That sort of thing would never happen in America xD

[atomicduck]

lol, I don't know if you mean the city has idiosyncrasies or I do, but I think both are true anyway.

Wouldn't Americans not like the Pope? Most Christians in the States are Protestant, aren't they?

[deadtree]

the city of course! Hahaha! Though I'm sure you have them... I just don't know if I know what they are xD

I guess most Americans are Protestant, but you can't PROTEST the POPE (which is funny, given the word "Protestant" lmao)... it just seems wrong! Most Americans just think of the Pope as a benign old man riding around in a golf cart wearing a funny hat. They don't think of him as having any real influence.

[atomicduck]

lolol, that is odd, given that a big root of Protestanism is anti-Papism. I think he has way more influence than any old man should, really. Having said that, I feel like at least 75% of the people who showed up to see him last weekend were just rubbernecking and nowhere near Catholics.

[deadtree]

most Americans aren't anything related to religious :P I live in the Bible Belt and I can say that xD The religious fundamentalists know less about Christianity than I do, and I more or less slept through my religion classes in elementary school.

[atomicduck]

ooohhh~ you have religion classes in elementary? like... world religion, or just christianity?

[deadtree]

I went to Catholic school ^^; There's NO RELIGION AT ALL in public schools (there's even an ever-present debate about whether to take the word "God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance that kids used to salute the flag with in the mornings-- but as far as I know, they just stopped doing the Allegiance altogether). I switched to public school for middle school and on and I didn't hear a word about religion again until I went to college.

[deadtree]

I went to Catholic school ^^; There's NO RELIGION AT ALL in public schools (there's even an ever-present debate about whether to take the word "God" out of the Pledge of Allegiance that kids used to salute the flag with in the mornings-- but as far as I know, they just stopped doing the Allegiance altogether). I switched to public school for middle school and on and I didn't hear a word about religion again until I went to college.

[harmlessbondage]

"Most Americans just think of the Pope as a benign old man riding around in a golf cart wearing a funny hat. They don't think of him as having any real influence. "

this is so, SO not true. like, absolutely not even a little. it's true most american christians are protestant, but by that bearing alone most of them are opposed to the pope. for a historical example, in the 1960s people were petrified that kennedy, being a catholic (and the first non-protestant president afaik), would act as the pope's hand and turn america into a catholic country. of course that was foolish and paranoid, but it goes to show that distrust of the pope has long been a part of america's history and plenty of educated people, none of whom believe the pope is "a benign old man riding around in a gold cart," would have no hesitation expressing our distaste for the very institution of the pope, let alone this specific pope and his ideas.

[atomicduck]

Hey, I think I'm paranoid about the Pope, but given that his infallible ass keeps misinforming a huge percentage of the world and tying them down to archaic, misanthropic, misogynist values, it's probably justified.