tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post8625809131322373729..comments2024-03-28T17:53:43.541-04:00Comments on DarwinCatholic: A Catholic Goes to Backyard Bible CampDarwinhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08572976822786862149noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-89498224848192090302012-08-16T04:19:28.709-04:002012-08-16T04:19:28.709-04:00I can still remember the Silver Burdett books used...<i> I can still remember the Silver Burdett books used for sacrament prep in second grade: banal and blithely content-free. From teaching second-grade classes at church when Eleanor was preparing for her first communion three years ago, I know that even the poorer textbooks under consideration made more of an effort to communicate a Catholic worldview, even if their paucity of vocabulary meant that the mass was described as a "celebration!" on every other page.</i><br /><br />About the best religious education I got was from the all-Christian-flavors "Sunday" school on Wednesdays, when I was little. It ended when some bright bulb in the "teaching" staff noticed that the Catholic Priests were an hour away, and started teaching all the little Catholic Kids that our Church...wasn't, so much.<br /><br />I can't remember anything from solidly from the Church education that would be unusual from a Protestant coloring book, other than a few discussions with the Priest after youth group about the <br />X-Files.<br /><br />Considering how much <i>really neat</i> stuff I managed to find once I had internet access to find... that's really pathetic.<br />If the priest that drove my mom out of teaching CCD was still alive, I'd probably go yell at him. Not only did he screw up the entire class my mom was teaching-- "Sex outside of marriage is just fine if you really love them" to 14 year olds-- but he made my mom so she's STILL reluctant to do jack for spreading the faith. This, from a woman who still has a huge collection of books both for and against a ton of Catholic theology, since you should be able to argue against anything you argue for. GG breaking it, big guy. <br /><br />(Do you have any idea how frustrating it is to realize that your MOTHER had a good understanding of the theology you painstakingly pieced together over the course of MORE THAN FIVE YEARS, but never said anything because she thought you'd get the good stuff from your teachers, and that her very solid education was inferior from some random blanker that promoted emotionally sympathetic fortification and thus was sent to a "meaningless" parish that "only" shaped the entire theological view of a few hundred people? I'm very slowly building her back up to fraking going to church regularly-- but I'm just her daughter. I'm actually more pissed about the damage done by liberal blankers to my mom and family than I am about them not bothering to respond to my attempts to be married in the Church.)Foxfierhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10161683096247890834noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-38829697150250452082012-08-15T18:45:16.869-04:002012-08-15T18:45:16.869-04:00Jenny, Thank God that Protestants hesitate to tamp...Jenny, Thank God that Protestants hesitate to tamper with the creeds. As long as Protestants are saying those words, "one, holy, catholic, and apostolic", they're getting a tip-off to look above the parapet for once. I remember asking my mother, "Why do we say "catholic" when we're not?" and getting no very good answer. And quite recently, I heard a sermon on baptism from a very respected reformed preacher who said that we should regard the creed's "one baptism for the forgiveness of sins" as strictly advisory, and that perhaps we should think about changing the wording... (This should have been a bigger red flag to me than it was.) Otepotihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12315317923902957130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-86196185878248960792012-08-15T11:12:39.345-04:002012-08-15T11:12:39.345-04:00Ahh, Protestant Bible Camp.
The best one in my ne...Ahh, Protestant Bible Camp.<br /><br />The best one in my neighborhood was at the local Presbyterian church. They had a big piece of land with an old log cabin and they had plans to build but actually met in a local school. Since they had no church building, camp was in the evening after the heat of the day on the land. <br /><br />Mostly I remember spaghetti suppers and crafts and running around like crazy people. We also sang songs, but I don't remember them. Everyone was there. The only denominational thing that stood out in my mind was their communion and the creed. <br /><br />We went to services on the last night of camp. They had communion by passing out little crackers and cups of grape juice on platters that were passed around the sitting congregation. I thought that was quite bizarre. They also said the creed which says, "the holy catholic church" and I thought it was strange that they said they believed in the catholic church, but were presbyterian. Shouldn't they have said "the holy presbyterian church?"<br /><br />The "are you saved?" stuff didn't start until high school with the Baptists.Jennyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12507330852895229468noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-28964623002719756782012-08-15T09:25:47.744-04:002012-08-15T09:25:47.744-04:00I did have some hesitations about sending them to ...I did have some hesitations about sending them to the Bible Camp, which is why I didn't make up my mind to do so until the weekend before it started. My neighbor is a member of an evangelical denomination which has several churches in the area (don't know if it's only a regional chain or a national one). Last year, while sitting in the waiting area at Expensive Ballet Academy, I heard a woman, who said she was the wife of a pastor of one of these locations, expressing the most invincibly ignorant opinions of Catholicism to someone else. This was stuff that anyone with a glancing interest in either ecumenism or history would have been ashamed to spout. I would have had to cross the room, interrupt the conversation, and make an issue of it to correct the misconceptions, which struck me as inappropriate in the circumstances, but it really put me off the idea of having anything to do with this group -- I didn't participate in some local homeschool activities that were held at one of their churches. <br /><br />However, my neighbor knows that we're Catholic and it hasn't been a problem between us, and I spent my own time in various Protestant camps and clubs and came out none the worse for it. As have the kids, so all's well that ends well.MrsDarwinhttp://darwincatholic.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-61658457616443749562012-08-14T23:36:24.758-04:002012-08-14T23:36:24.758-04:00I sent our oldest two with some of our Protestant ...I sent our oldest two with some of our Protestant friends to two days of bible school last week. I went to several Protestant camps as a kid, and I have memories of arts and crafts and bible passages. All the same, I was nervous that they might run into questions about being "saved" or whatnot. That said, I was also nervous that RE class would be as banal and bereft of solid catholic teaching as CCD was when I was a kid.Skywalkernoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-6766609966848365322012-08-14T20:36:25.886-04:002012-08-14T20:36:25.886-04:00Deeply fascinating post, MrsD. I've also been...Deeply fascinating post, MrsD. I've also been pondering the ethics of allowing the possums to attend our local Holiday Bible School. On the one hand - our separated brethren. On the other hand, sadly deluded about things that really matter. It's a conundrum.<br /><br />In the meantime, I've been using the famous Youcat with the lads, and it seems to be going down alright. Catachesis was such an imperative in our lives as Reformed christians, that it's second nature for me to get out and push, so to speak. As if the Holy Spirit needs a hand-up. Otepotihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12315317923902957130noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-19656685211950008962012-08-14T17:30:25.369-04:002012-08-14T17:30:25.369-04:00Ah, Vacation Bible School; that brings back memori...Ah, Vacation Bible School; that brings back memories. It's true, too, that one of the big attractions is that it's a place parents feel they can drop off their children where there will be lots of adult supervision and nothing too insane, without the cost such things usually have; I knew several friends whose parents didn't ever attend church but made use of VBS quite consistently.Brandonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06698839146562734910noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-88847275082215037792012-08-14T12:26:42.846-04:002012-08-14T12:26:42.846-04:00on the cover *of the bulletin*on the cover *of the bulletin*MrsDarwinhttp://darwincatholic.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-53226981480868679812012-08-14T12:25:50.240-04:002012-08-14T12:25:50.240-04:00"Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed!
Boys and ..."Approved Workmen Are Not Ashamed! <br />Boys and Girls for his ser-vice claimed!<br />Hail Awana! On the march for youth!!<br />Hail Awana! Holding forth the truth!<br />Building lives on the word of God, Awana stands!"<br /><br />I can't believe I sang that every week. I think we had live piano accompaniment, too.<br /><br />Oddly enough, though I can't remember any of the songs from my levels, I still remember the Sparks song, perhaps because I had to help younger siblings learn it.<br /><br />I was a good memorizer, and could rattle off my verses each week, after which I'd sit and try to memorize as many more as I could to recite during the meeting period -- with the result that I don't remember any of those verses. The ones I remember best are the ones I helped my siblings or others memorize. <br /><br />On the other hand, there was no Catholic equivalent at all to the Protestant scripture clubs, especially in our Virginia town, a fact my parents acknowledged. There were no Catholic schools shy of Roanoke, more than an hour away. The diocese was lax, and the children's programs ludicrous. It probably did us far less harm to be enrolled in the local Protestant clubs than to participate in CCD, and I say that with sadness. Eventually we started homeschooling and moved out of the area -- in great part because of the poor Catholic atmosphere.<br /><br />I remember the old ladies at church who prayed their rosaries and recalled the beauty of the churches they used to attend. Our parish was St. Mary's, and on the cover was a line drawing of a wooden statue of Madonna and child that stood in the vestibule, One of the favorite occupations of various children during coffee and donut time was to color in the drawing. One Sunday, as I was giving Mary a plain blue robe and a drab veil, on the theory that she was a Jewish peasant, and that's how people really dressed then, an elderly lady with a Mitteleuropean accent sat down next to me and started directing my artwork. "No, no, you give the Blessed Virgin a golden crown! And a purple robe and red dress, and the little Jesus in ivory with gold!" I had never seen such a statue of Mary. I can't even describe to you how devoid of beauty our big boxy church was -- many locals mistook it for a bowling alley.MrsDarwinhttp://darwincatholic.blogspot.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-13522238.post-22665253099153831652012-08-14T11:03:56.509-04:002012-08-14T11:03:56.509-04:00Growing up an evangelical, I was in Awana from Spa...Growing up an evangelical, I was in Awana from Sparks through JV's, then 5 years as a Leader. I led the songs and can still do a mean "Only a Boy Named David" with actions.<br /><br />Don't know how universal this is, but our chapter earnestly tried to get kids SAVED every week, no matter the age. The memory verses were never the Catholic ones either :DAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06534825533948115912noreply@blogger.com