Tongue Tied?
I thought I had gotten used to working with people from different religious backgrounds. I think right now I'm having trouble with people from Catholic backgrounds. I am a practicing Catholic, but sometimes non practicing Catholics can have cruder, less informed, and bigoted opinions about the church than outsiders.
One woman at my work in particular was speaking of her upcoming wedding. Her family is Catholic, but she and her fiance don't "believe in that sort of stuff." So, she started talking about how her family (in particular her Mom) doesn't like it, and how she wants her brother to go online and be ordained a temporary minister to get married so she can offend everyone in her family. Then she went on to say she didn't go to her nieces/nephews first communions because she didn't believe in "brainwashing them." Then she started bashing Catholic schools, even though she had never been to one, but she said she had heard stories from her roommates in college.
As she sits in a different section from me, and I was in my cube, I thought it would be rude to butt into the conversation to say something. I was glad when someone else said that she went to a catholic school, and there were good things about her experience.
I think Catholic schools, Catholicism, and Christianity get a bad rap. I went to a Catholic school for my entire education, and most Catholics are alot more open minded then they are portrayed to be. I never had a nun for a teacher. My high school was attached to a convent, but most of the nuns were retired. Some of them visited us, and I thought they were really nice. Mom knew a few nuns and they helped us out in times of troubles. When my dad had a heart attack and when Bill had to go to the hospital for asthma, they would bring us food to help out.
Mom went to catholic schools and lived in an orphanage for awhile growing up. There were definitely some strict nuns, but she never harbored any bad feelings about them, and in fact she felt safer with the nuns than with most of the kids she went to school with. She was born with a deformed hand, and some of the kids would call her Captain Hook.
It's funny, but the whole situation reminds me of my physics teacher in high school. He was an atheist, and he was upfront about it. But no one threatened to pull their daughter out of school because of it. He would tell us his point of view, respectfully, and with good humor - not condescendingly. In turn, he was respected (and well loved). When he first started teaching, it wasn't completely smooth. He said he naturally did not have tact, and during a meeting about wiring the nuns quarters with the internet, said that they were part of a 'cult.' He apologized for that comment though. I still laugh at him telling that story. "Well they are in a cult - they practice the same religion, live together, and wear the same clothing!" But he didn't mean it disrespectfully.
One woman at my work in particular was speaking of her upcoming wedding. Her family is Catholic, but she and her fiance don't "believe in that sort of stuff." So, she started talking about how her family (in particular her Mom) doesn't like it, and how she wants her brother to go online and be ordained a temporary minister to get married so she can offend everyone in her family. Then she went on to say she didn't go to her nieces/nephews first communions because she didn't believe in "brainwashing them." Then she started bashing Catholic schools, even though she had never been to one, but she said she had heard stories from her roommates in college.
As she sits in a different section from me, and I was in my cube, I thought it would be rude to butt into the conversation to say something. I was glad when someone else said that she went to a catholic school, and there were good things about her experience.
I think Catholic schools, Catholicism, and Christianity get a bad rap. I went to a Catholic school for my entire education, and most Catholics are alot more open minded then they are portrayed to be. I never had a nun for a teacher. My high school was attached to a convent, but most of the nuns were retired. Some of them visited us, and I thought they were really nice. Mom knew a few nuns and they helped us out in times of troubles. When my dad had a heart attack and when Bill had to go to the hospital for asthma, they would bring us food to help out.
Mom went to catholic schools and lived in an orphanage for awhile growing up. There were definitely some strict nuns, but she never harbored any bad feelings about them, and in fact she felt safer with the nuns than with most of the kids she went to school with. She was born with a deformed hand, and some of the kids would call her Captain Hook.
It's funny, but the whole situation reminds me of my physics teacher in high school. He was an atheist, and he was upfront about it. But no one threatened to pull their daughter out of school because of it. He would tell us his point of view, respectfully, and with good humor - not condescendingly. In turn, he was respected (and well loved). When he first started teaching, it wasn't completely smooth. He said he naturally did not have tact, and during a meeting about wiring the nuns quarters with the internet, said that they were part of a 'cult.' He apologized for that comment though. I still laugh at him telling that story. "Well they are in a cult - they practice the same religion, live together, and wear the same clothing!" But he didn't mean it disrespectfully.