Quote:
Originally posted by Atticus Grinch
Answer for new potential friend is "Sorry, can't" three times. If that doesn't work, the Cut Direct.
Answer for priest is probably different. (I grew up Catholic.)
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2. To the extent that I had any religious upbringing (8 years of catholic school, but no real religion at home aside for attendance the once-in-a-lifetime sacraments) I was raised to believe that clergy is more or less fungible. The homilies are dicta.
I don't know how it works in other churches, but they did a pretty good job at the hard sell in convincing me that there wasn't any other place to go. And I tend to still think that even though I'm as lapsed as a Catholic can get. I'll reject, I'll renounce, and I'll sing to the rooftops how the Roman Catholic Church's stances on a variety of issues is wrong. But ultimately, I'll self-identify as Catholic, and instinctively find myself getting defensive of the Church if it's attacked in certain ways.
I don't think it really matters.
Everything I've seen of Barack Obama in the last two years or so, and especially that speech today, indicates to me that he expressly does NOT hold the views that his former pastor espoused that were so objectionable.
But even more fundamentally, I'd rather have a leader who understands that there are people in this country who think that "God damn America" is more appropriate than "God bless America" than a leader that pretends that we're all hunky dory and can't imagine a better life. Or worse, tells them to love it or leave it.
And more importantly, I think that he understands why some people feel that way. And instead of feeling hopeless about it, instead of accepting the status quo, he wants to talk about it with more candor than I've ever seen from any political figure, ever, on any subject. And I think, and I think a lot of other people think, that by talking about it and laying it all out there, we're taking a massive first step in trying to actually do something about it, instead of pretending it doesn't exist.
ETA: I once lived and worked in Berkeley, in the flats, though I never went to school there. That may influence your reading of this post.
