Kurari Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I have to vent, because I've had a long day and it involved a LOT of talk about Lent and this rant's been building up for a few years. Lent's coming up, which means the discussions of what incredible pain and suffering Christians wish to inflict upon themselves have started. You know, all the dirty little vices in life. Usually, food or favorite activities. Which means 40 days of listening to Christians around me whining about not being able to have chocolate, or coffee, or alcohol, or video games, or TV, or pepperoni pizza with friends on Fridays, or some other incredibly stupid frivolus thing I can't imagine any god giving a rat's ass about. For the love of your god Christians, PLEASE SHUT UP. For a great many of you, sacrificing or abstaining for Lent is a choice, not an obligation. Not that the whole thing isn't patently ridiculous anyway, but I see so many freakin' Christians do it more as a method to save face and look strong and pious to everyone around you so you HAVE to do it otherwise people are going to whisper behind your back. Then you proceed to talk about it as if you're getting 40 lashes every day the entire time. "OMG, I AM SOOOO GOING THROUGH CAFFINE WITHDRAWL BECAUSE I HAVEN'T HAD COFFEE IN A WHOLE THREE DAYS! OMG! PRAISE THE LORD, I WILL BE STRONG. LULZ!" UUUUUGH! True pain and suffering is having to LISTEN to this constantly all spring or watch you make the puppy dog eyes and lip tremble while I try to eat a brownie or sip my Friday latte. It's like having an overly large and especially untrainable dog begging at the table. Quit it. If you choose to do it, suffer in silence. The rest of us don't care and don't want to hear it. Giving up coffee doesn't really do much but make you crabby and annoy the rest of us. You want to connect with the poor and find out what it's REALLY like to do without? Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Work with the homeless. Teach the illiterate to read. Do something productive and help somebody who is REALLY suffering. This is probably the only Lent tradition I endorse and ever WANT to hear about, but sadly, it's the option I almost never see anybody choosing to do. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mikefight Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I know, I hate to hear people whine. I especially hate to hear someone whine about people whining about lent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amethyst Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 If you choose to do it, suffer in silence. The rest of us don't care and don't want to hear it. Giving up coffee doesn't really do much but make you crabby and annoy the rest of us. You want to connect with the poor and find out what it's REALLY like to do without? Volunteer at a soup kitchen. Work with the homeless. Teach the illiterate to read. Do something productive and help somebody who is REALLY suffering. This is probably the only Lent tradition I endorse and ever WANT to hear about, but sadly, it's the option I almost never see anybody choosing to do. Almond to that! So many Christians complain that giving up some minor luxury, like their $3 cup of Starbucks coffee, for a brief period of time constitutes suffering. Then they piously pray for everyone who doesn't have these luxuries and donate a few dollars to church. Most of them haven't actually volunteered at a homeless shelter or even a nursing home or some place where people actually are lonely and/or sick and without all the little luxuries that the Christians give up for a short period of time. A little community service goes a long way. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
LadyFeline Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Meanwhile, I like Lent. Lent means 2-for-$4 fish sandwiches at Arby's Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Astreja Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Complaining/boasting about what one gave up for Lent is just a seasonal flavour of praying in public. *sigh* (makes mental note to be more self-indulgent for the next forty days, to keep the universe in balance) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sarahgrace Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 The hilarious bit for me, about Lent, is that according to tradition the lenten fast may be broken EVERY SINGLE SUNDAY within the Lent period. Sunday is ALWAYS a feast day - there is no fasting allowed on Sundays. EVERYONE I knew who practiced lent was completely ignorant to that fact... so there I was, chowing down on Chocolate every sunday, thinking "hahaha, SUCKERS!" Don't believe me? count the days. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Eccles Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Is LENT still observed? Holy Shit, how stupid. I remember the bad days when I was a wee bedraggled Roman Catholic and we were not allowed meat on Fridays in Australia. I think the fish shops made a deal with the Church. Silly part of it, it meant that eating out was a pain in the ass. You had to ask if there was any meat in the soup, even meat stock. The waiters and waitresses sometimes gave you a dirty look and probably muttered under their breath: "Bloody Roman Catholic". My aunt did a despicable thing one Friday. She was eating a meat pie forgetting it was Friday. She committed another sin by throwing away that pie thus wasting it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Casey Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 If you choose to do it, suffer in silence. Agreed. However, it's not all that silly an idea if looked upon as a method of self-discipline, ie if you live in an overly material world then it's perhaps not so bad to forgo some luxury or other once in a while, or better still, devote some time to working for the homeless or some such. I think the fish shops made a deal with the Church. Close. It was the medieval fishmongers who got that sweetheart deal with the church regarding abstinence from meat on Fridays and during Lent. This created an artificial shortage which boosted their sales during Lent and on Fridays. Casey Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 So many Christians complain that giving up some minor luxury, like their $3 cup of Starbucks coffee, for a brief period of time constitutes suffering. Then they piously pray for everyone who doesn't have these luxuries and donate a few dollars to church. Compare with their "persecution" babble also. Yeah right, there must be fucking much persecution of jebus cultists in a country where their cult is a multi-million-bucks business. Almost makes me wish we'd left at least one of hitler's death camps fully functional, just to teach these morons how real persecution feels like. Most of them haven't actually volunteered at a homeless shelter or even a nursing home or some place where people actually are lonely and/or sick and without all the little luxuries that the Christians give up for a short period of time. A little community service goes a long way. Yup. Call me arrogant if you like, but as I see it, I've done more for people in need than a morontheist who's preached for 50 years... in just about eight years. How? By actively serving as a volunteer medic. And for most of this time I was only technically christian and really cared a rat's arse about any religious stuff in this case, I helped because deep inside I felt obliged to and because it was fun seeing what good you can do with just a little training and goodwill. Go figure. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Thurisaz Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 (makes mental note to be more self-indulgent for the next forty days, to keep the universe in balance) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garrisonjj Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I have to vent, because I've had a long day I experienced all this at work yesterday! Such fuckin pious suffering! As I ate my turkey sandwich and being an ex catholic the looks of astonishment were great. I said, "I know I'm going to hell if such a place existed! Also, don't forget the proud looks people receive when they wear their stupid fuckin ashes. Like,Fuck! I'm so holy! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Vixentrox Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Yes, I had read somewhere before that the Catholic Church had a lot of fisheries they owned and in an effort to increase sales they mandated this fish on friday. Dont know if it's true or not. Wasnt today Ash Wednesday? Anyone see cultists running around with ashes on thier head? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
StewartP Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I must confess to having a soft spot for saint days and traditions. We've just had Mardi Gras - fat tuesday. All the schoolkids here make masks and have a little parade. What's cool is France has complete church/state separation. So the kids know it's Mardi Gras, they know the masks and dressing up and parade thing, but are completely ignorant of the churchy stuff behind it. Back in January it was epiphany. How did we know? because there were gallettes des rois in the shops. Delicious tarty things filled with aple or marzipan. Inside is a little porcelain figure. traditionally this figure had a religious theme, but these days it's just as likely to be a smurf! I quite like tradition for tradition's sake. It's nice when your older to see kids doing the same stuff you used to do, the same playground games, the same corny jokes, the same ghost stories and rumours. I lump church traditions in there as well. - corny stuff that we do because it's always been done. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kelli Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Around here, we don't have Starbucks. Well, maybe 1 or 2 of them in 30 miles... We have Tim Horton's on every corner. They're like churches are down south. Everyone here worships their caffeine and donuts. This area is very heavily Catholic. Which makes me wonder -- for the next month will I actually be able to get in and out of Tim Hortons for my hot cocoa (which I frequently drink when I'm out working in a 100 acre field of towers with a 10 degree, 30 MPH wind whipping up off Lake Erie) in less than 10 minutes? And I wonder how many people in the office will be whining about Lent? Maybe this is the perfect month to work at transmitter sites as much as possible. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nude Disintegrating Parachutist Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Never been religious and so have never had to deal in dogma and rituals of any stripe...so I don't like or hate LENT, but I can see the sheeplike stupidity to the process. Now LINT on the other hand, that crap is a pain in the ass, I really hate it when it is all over my clothes when I take them out of the dryer, I have to pick all the little bits of lint off, especially with the dark clothes, now really hate that! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rhia Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I think it's equally as stupid as anything else the fundy's do. There are evangelicals who will go on TRUE 40-day fasts... and claim they have visions and shit from god. Instead, it's just hallucination from lack of anything substantial going into their systems. There are a few catholics at my evangelical college, but yesterday we were able to pick them out of a crowd. They were the ones that had huge grey marks on their foreheads, their nicest black clothes on, visibly ruined by dragging themselves around on their knees to the alter, and had purposely put on eyeliner early that morning so that when they would weep in church, they would look like stupid emo kids. And to think when I was younger I actually toyed with converting to RC because I thought the rituals looked "cool". Now they're just stupid. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Beowulf Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 For Lent this year I have decided to give up abstinence. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Carolyn the Red Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 I kind of like the idea of mindfully giving something up for a short time, as an exercise. Whining defeats the purpose, though. I missed pancake Tuesday this year (not going to church means I miss days on that calendar). The little kid in me likes an excuse to eat breakfast for dinner. Maybe I'll just make them tonight. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sage Nabooru Posted February 22, 2007 Share Posted February 22, 2007 Well, back when I was willing to eat animals, Lent wasn't so bad. I don't know what it is about frying fish, but there just doesn't seem to be a way to do it wrong. Lent is a great time for cheap fried fish with some corn and green beans on the side. And mashed potatoes and gravy, too. Love the mashed potatoes. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woodsmoke Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 For Lent this year I have decided to give up abstinence. If this were the RPGnet forums, I'd tell you to take a laugh point. Brilliant! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Piprus Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Lent is a great time for cheap fried fish with some corn and green beans on the side. And mashed potatoes and gravy, too. Love the mashed potatoes. Mashed potatoes with FISH gravy?? Not for this avid consumer of swine flesh, thank you. But those twofers on Arby's fish sandwiches sound good...ROAD TRIP! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
twincats Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Meanwhile, I like Lent. Lent means 2-for-$4 fish sandwiches at Arby's And then there are the cheap (but good) home-made tamales at El Pollo Loco during Advent. So, it's not all bad! (makes mental note to be more self-indulgent for the next forty days, to keep the universe in balance) That is SUCH a good idea, can I copy? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sage Nabooru Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Mashed potatoes with FISH gravy??Not for this avid consumer of swine flesh, thank you. But those twofers on Arby's fish sandwiches sound good...ROAD TRIP! No, I think it's usually the stuff that comes out of the packet, the just-add-water variety. Yes, it's fake food, but it's also vegetarian and I'm sorry, but I love the flavor. Even after the gravy's been sitting awhile and it's turned sorta green. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PaulQ Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 I was recently at a family gathering. We were sitting around the table playing Rummoli, enjoying some drinks. I had a beer, as did my father. My brother did not, but his girlfriend/fiance thought she heard him say he did. When he clarified that he didn't, she said, "Good, because I'd dump it down the drain if you did." He told me a few weeks prior that he did her hair for her, so my immediate response to her recent comment was, "If my wife ever dumped my beer down the drain, she'd be doing her own damned hair." She backpedaled and said she wasn't really controlling, and my brother told me they have each given up one vice. Drinking beer is not a vice. Believing in a fictional god and a non-existent afterlife is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SilentLoner Posted February 23, 2007 Share Posted February 23, 2007 Went to work at the lab today and had to go through three hours of two other students talking about their Lent sacrifices: Alcohol, Soda, Junk food and apparently worst of all, Facebook. SHUT UP!!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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