Lighting a cigarette from the Easter candle?!?!? How dare you! Show some respect, literally, for Heaven’s sake! Who do you think you are? An ignorant, immature little girl it sounds like, who wasn’t reprimanded nearly enough growing up. Had I been there I would have plucked that cigarette right out of your mouth and thrown out the door. Who the hell smokes at Church?!? If you find Mass so bloody amusing, stop going before you offend other parishioners. Church is not a game- it’s a place for those who are adamant and serious about practicing their faith. If you’re there to just screw around without any intention to worship The Lord, leave His house until you can be mature enough to attend Church.
“appalled” no email address was noted, or this editorial reply would have gone directly to our fire-and-brimstone righteously indignant reader.
editorial reply: a little appalled myself
appalled, there are many sins in the book of sins, but not having a sense of humor is certainly among the worst. let me tell you a little something about me, appalled -
i’m not religious. i don’t believe one sees god in a church any more than one sees god in the faces of loved ones, in the heroism of humanity, in the curl of a leaf, in the swirl of a galaxy. i believe, too, that we see god in sin – we see god in the betrayal of trust, we see god in greed and vice, we see god in negligence and abuse. if there is a god, my friend, it has created everything around you.
including me. just. as. i. am.
i go to church, you self-important wanker, because i pay my respects to the deities i cherish – love and friendship and respect. the greek church means a lot to my father. he has lost most of his family and the greek orthodox church is his last connection to his childhood and his country. i go, every year, at easter. my father does not pretend that i go to seek salvation from god. he himself does not go to seek salvation. he goes to pay tribute to his ancestry, to say a silent ‘i miss you’ to his mother, and his father, and his brother. he goes to honor tradition. and he knows that i go with him, to honor him.
and his judgement, his understanding, is what matters to me. the judgement of those who matter to me is the only judgement that has an effect on me. not the church. not a thousand-year-old holy book written by gifted men who had an agenda, albeit an honorable one, of bringing morals and principles into the world through the tenets of religion. not even jesus, whom i regard as a right stand-up bloke with a good head on his shoulders and some very good principles…. and certainly not your judgement, my cowardly stranger friend.
so, yes, i lit a cigarette with an easter candle. in truth, i wasn’t paying attention and automatically did it, only realizing later with a laugh what i’d done. but you know what, you sodding windbag? it’s a candle. it’s not my Light of God. and it’s not your place to judge, or chastise, or despise me for my actions.
but you know what? we’ll all hold hands and forgive you, my appalled close-minded reader, because you know not what you do. how’s that for blasphemy?