The Old Baguette is being challenged by events to analyze her affiliations. She is NOT a member of any of the Mafias, perhaps because she's never been asked or forced to join. She neither owns nor uses guns. She doesn't know how to make shoes, pants, skirts, underwear, or other articles of clothing out of cement. She has no affinity for violence. She's never been the "type" that has widely publicized affairs that titillate the public imagination. The Mafias are interested in women who are tens; they could care less about fours. Actually, she wouldn't be eligible for membership. Her ethnicity is too confused. She's never had to agonize over whether she should or shouldn't remain a member of a Mafia Family since she's never been a member of a Mafia Family.
She is NOT a member of the KKK. She doesn't even know if the KKK has female members. Who can tell what's under all those sheets? The KKK, like the various Mafia families, has shown
no interest in recruiting her, so she has never had to agonize over whether she should or shouldn't join. Or resign.
She IS a member of The Friends of the Library here in Hennepin County, Minnesota, a card carrying member. Should she maintain this affiliation? You betcha! The Old Baguette likes books. Some of these books should be burned according to people who are Enemies of the Library. The Old Baguette strongly disagrees. Books should be read, not burned. They should also be available to the reading public. With ideas like these, the Old Baguette is a Friend of the Library. Formal affiliation isn't really necessary, but it is desirable. The Old Baguette wants to be counted as a Friend, so she will maintain her formal affiliation.
The Old Baguette IS a member of the Catholic Church. Can a person in good conscience be a member of the Catholic Church of today? THAT is the question of the moment, and the Old Baguette is agonizing over her answer.
Is this a crises of faith or a crises of the church? If your fight is theological, it is time to depart. If your fight is political, your departing is a victory for the clerics and a defeat for the congregation. What is the real Church? In my mind it is the congregation and God. I believe that the major flaw of the Catholic Church is that they insist on placing a series of middle MEN in between God and your Soul. They are always men are they not?
ReplyDeleteBecause they believe that they are the only true path to God, they maintain the arrogant belief that they have the right to control one's life--hence their unhealthy interest in human sexuality.
I doubt it to be the case, but Old Baguette, my dear, if you are worried about needing the church to make it to Heaven, worry no longer. There are many paths to the top of the mountain. Catholicism is but one of them, and for some it is an easy path. For others the briers of sexism, the old boys club, the feudal governance, and the notion of required middle men between God and Soul make it an impossible path.
As you know, I am going to Hell. My pride in that fact is a flaw, a bit of arrogance that I really should reign in, not for God's sake, for I doubt that God much cares what a silly twit like me thinks. It is just time to grow up and not take so much pride in the fact that I no longer believe what men tell me about God.
Your Soul will be fine no matter what you do, we can't interfere with the Divine. It is the Church that will suffer your loss, not the pack of old men wearing silly hats who think THEY are the church, but the real Church, the women and men in the pews who need a crazy Old Baguette to assure them that they are not going to go to Hell because they use a birth control pill.
I am a fine one to lecture. I jumped ship 46 years ago and do nothing more than take a smug satisfaction that I am going to Hell. Yet it is the freedom of going to Hell that has allowed me to find God...my own version that I can love far more than the scary old man with a lightening bolt in his hand ready to condemn me forever for having impure thoughts over a girl.
If you can make a difference, stay.