Thursday, October 22, 2009

You Can't Have a Valid Opinion... You're Catholic!

I got an email from an old friend this morning that made me a little bit sad. She had posted a link on facebook last night that I will repost here (I saved it because I thought it would make a great addition to the NFP posts that I never have time to write). The article is about how a study found that taking the pill impairs muscle gains in young women. She had posted the link twice, so I wrote a quick comment back saying, here's another link (it was at an NFP sight) and if you scroll down to "side effects" you can read all about some of the other really bad side effects that go along with taking the pill.

This morning I saw that I had two (not one but two) emails in my facebook inbox. I had a bad feeling. What I wrote agreed completely with what she wrote, but, coming from a Catholic (or anyone who is known to be a practicing Christian), you never know how people will take your words and discard them or twist them to suite their own vision of life.

A little back ground on my friend. In junior high she was a wild child and self proclaimed atheist that shocked all of us with crude statements. In high school she went to a Bible Camp with one of my friends whose father was a pastor and became a born again evangelical. She was suddenly a completely different person (it really was an amazing transformation). She said she was going to save her next kiss for her wedding day and could preach all lunch period on her experience and Jesus' love. After high school she went into the army, met a soldier, got married and had a little girl (we haven't talked in years, with the exception of facebook, so this part is vague). A few years ago her status changed from "married" to "divorced" and then she started posting picture after picture of herself in string bikinis (most shots focused on her cleavage).

Anyways, back to todays email. It started:

"I had a funny thought tonight. When I saw your comment about natural family planning, and read the article... I felt inclined to make several counterpoints. I understand that you an Paul are both Catholic and this fundamentally fits with your belief system. I certainly have a different opinion on the matter. Anyway, that's not exactly the point. I quickly decided that facebook may not be the best format for debate, especially one so based on personal choice, and ultimately futile."

My first though was that I wasn't trying to start a debate at all. My second thought was that this seems strange coming from a girl who spent four years trying to cram her religious beliefs down our throats and telling us that we could never be pure enough to get married if we'd even kissed our boyfriends (at this point I was 15 had never been kissed and wanted to be a Baptist missionary when I graduated from high school).

I guess the actual medical facts in the article are automatically put aside because it comes from a religious source. In the same way my opinion on any subject, religious or otherwise, would be put to the side simply because it's coming from someone who's Catholic and who's entire worldview is colored by those beliefs.

I wrote back and said I wasn't trying to start a debate, I was agreeing that the pill is dangerous and offering more information on the subject (although it was in the form of a religious site). Personally, having done the research I have done and noticed the difference between how my body feels when it's full of artificial hormones and not, I would not let one of those little pills touch my lips even if I had a complete crisis in faith and didn't know what I believed in anymore.

Now there are quite a few things I wish I didn't have to see on facebook everyday and they include: All the anti-republican comments, all the anti- Christianity comments and all the "you're an idiot if you don't agree with Obama" comments. But making those disappear would involve deleting half of my friends from high school and college and I'm not quite annoyed enough to do that yet.

4 comments:

  1. i am so sorry this happened to you! it happens to me all the time!!!

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  2. I think since I live in a little town I've been sheltered from it for a few years, although I shouldn't be considering some of the anti-religion status updates my "friends" put on facebook. It never ceases to amaze me how this type of discrimination can be deemed "okay" and even seems a little trendy these days.

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  3. Found you through the headcovering blog...

    I'm sorry this happened to you though. Awful. I've been there... usually on this subject though, its people being convinced that contraception is comp safe and no amount of health info will convince them of anything other than me being a religious nut. Oh well...

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  4. Hi Kalila- Welcome to my blog! I was so excited to see the link at the headcovering lblog when I checked my sites stats.

    The thing about ignoring all the health info is so true. Her response to everything was "at least I don't have a baby bump!" I would prefer a baby bump (or just having self control) to breast cancer and all the other ailments that go along with the Pill!

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I love comments and I read every single comment that comes in (and I try to respond when the little ones aren't distracting me to the point that it's impossible!). Please show kindness to each other and our family in the comment box. After all, we're all real people on the other side of the screen!