Monday, April 09, 2007

My girlfriend cracks me up.

She went to a Catholic high school in the heart of western Cincinnati, and much of what she experienced there turned her away from Christianity. However, she found solace in a youth group of a Methodist church, and she became a Christian during her high school years. While holding protestant views, she continued to go to the Catholic high school. Being the type of girl who is always eager to speak her mind no matter the consequences (for better or for worse), she often got herself into much trouble. In one class, she was taught a certain doctrine she disagreed with, and when she asked why the teacher believed that doctrine to be true even though it went against certain elemental Christian beliefs, the teacher replied, "Because the Pope says it's true." To that, Courtney viciously responded, "Well, who the hell does the Pope think he is?!" She was quickly cast out of the class. Another time, in Religion Class, the teacher said, "The cross is great and everything, but we still need to do good works in order to find ourselves in God's good graces." She hotly denied this, but was told she was wrong. She returned the next day with scripture passages from various New Testament letters and refuted the teacher. She was put in the hall for the rest of the year for "disturbing the peace."

Courtney is not a big fan of the Catholic faith, primarily because she has been so torn by it. She does confess, though, "I know there are so many good Catholics out there. Most of the nuns I've met were extremely mean to me, but I remember a couple who were the sweetest ladies in the world. I just wanted to hug them and never let go!" My favorite writer on the Christian faith, N.T. Wright, is Catholic himself. I don't agree with everything Catholicism teaches, but I am not going to play the role of God and count them out of the "league of orthodoxy." In fact, I will go so far as to say that there are things that attract me to Catholicism--the aesthetics, for example.

Anyways, my girlfriend cracks me up. As we were walking Newport on the Levee one night, I told her, "You're like the feminine Apostle Paul. Your sarcasm is deep, you speak your mind no matter what, and you're not afraid to offend people with what you think is the truth. It's admirable." Although, let's not forget, the Apostle Paul didn't have many close friends. Nevertheless, I like this girl and am proud to call her my girlfriend.

1 comment:

agapetos said...

I enjoyed reading this! I am quite an opinionated person myself, and have gotten myself into trouble more then once in my life due to my passion about a topic! My poor family just never got me! I lived in Greece for a few years, and it was a breath of fresh air compared to Canada... it was okay to be opinionated there, more so then here!

Some of my favorite authors are Catholics too. I'm usre, just like there are nutso Protestants, there are crazy Catholics! Dang, we're all human, hey?!

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