Look, I know what I said in this post about Canada Day and The Catholic Church, and for the most part I stand by it 100%.
HOWEVER, in no part of that post did I recommend that people go out of their way to destroy the buildings who house current and practicing Catholics as they go somewhere to find solace and peace in this bat crap insane fucking world that we are living.
I get the anger, and I stand beside you, but as I stand beside you, I will be putting water out on those torches you are carrying, because if there is one thing that we don’t need, it’s the destruction of property that could only cause more damage to this planet via wildfire spreadage.
I like many many people on this earth, hear the message loud and clear: You do not want the Catholic Church in Canada, and frankly neither do I, but so the fuck what? That doesn’t mean that you get to burn these buildings to the ground.
Thinking nothing of the history that they offer our Canadian story, they are places of solace for some people who desperately need to escape the world that they live in. Whether you like it or not, these churches, are places of worship that bring people a sense of peace and order, a sense of belonging and understanding.
I don’t necessarily agree with the written history of the Christian God, but I do understand the psychological need for people of all races, creeds, nationalities, orientations, sizes, and colors, to have something bigger than themselves to believe in.
For some people the trauma is so so great, that the idea of a God, any God, who loves you enough to give you the strength you need to carry on, is what keeps you alive. I get that, and I respect it because I know what it feels like to want to die.
I walk by churches with a sense of bitterness, because I want that. I want a place that I can go to, where there are people who believe in the world the way that I do, who see the things that I see just beyond the corner of my eyes. I want a place where we can go and meditate together, and think about all the good things the universe has provided, instead of being bomb barded with all the negative.
I understand to enter a church for some people is very much like coming home, it’s like “this is the place that shields me from all the darkness of whatever is on the outside of these doors.”
The people who go into these buildings to pray, meditate, ask for advice, are not the same people who crossed the shores from Europe 300 years ago, they did not capture the children of innocent Indigenous folk and imprison them in the residential schools.
The people you are punishing by destroying these monuments of faith, religion, order, and sanctuary, are not the same people who destroyed the lives of your people. They are innocents who came to find faith helps them to move forward.
It doesn’t punish the church organization because they have insurance, they pay millions of dollars of insurance every single day, so they aren’t worried of paying out of pocket for the money you’ve cost them – and the churches who won’t receive funds from the Vatican, will have to fundraise on their own, which means you’re punishing the parisoners again, for crimes they didn’t commit.
I know there is an argument to be made that if you support the church by attending weekly service, then you obviously support what they did to Indigenous and Black folk around the world for more than a quarter of a century, HOWEVER.
That’s not true.
There are plenty of people who lean on God by attending church specifically because it helps them deal with their own traumas and abuses, that doesn’t mean they support the entire history of the church, and no you can’t have it both ways, but you have to understand that each of us deal with our trauma in different ways.
Some people:
- use drugs
- use booze
- use both
- use religion or faith
You deal with your trauma by burning down buildings that offer people hope and sanctuary because your trauma is sooo much worse than everyone else’s…right?
Yes I know that people working for the church did abhorrent things in the name of God, but that doesn’t mean that every single person who celebrates the various religions of the world are evil.
That’s like saying that every single person who practices the Sikh faith, or who is Muslim, or Jewish, are evil people.
I think back to about 2000 years ago when Jesus walked the earth, and I wonder if he knew there were people around the world who practiced different faiths. I know he said that God was the way, but that’s according to a group of men who bred an entire world filled with the idea that if you don’t believe in God, you’re going to Hell, which you also don’t believe in. Because it was the Christian’s who followed Jesus who manifested the idea of Hell, not Jesus himself.
There are things in this world that we may never fully understand. I don’t know why if there is a God, He/She/They/Them didn’t just come down and wipe out evil in their tracks, maybe they are locked behind doors they can’t cross. Maybe they’re tired, maybe they exist in a world that we can’t yet touch because we still have our physical bodies.
But what I do know, what I absolutely know, is that causing harm to anyone, doesn’t make you feel better about what was done to you. It will for a moment, and then the consequences will sink in, then the reality that you set out to hurt someone who didn’t deserve it, in the name of someone who does, will sink in, and it’s going to make you feel like a piece of shit.
Don’t burn the churches, use the money you’re spending on supplies to destroy, and put them toward something good.
Only you get to decide what your legacy is going to be on this earth, and if you want your legacy to be one that matters, than allow the people around you to know that you did the best you could, to offset the darkness of this world, instead of adding to it.
Sending all my love,
Devon J Hall
Loud Mouth Brown Girl 