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Elementary School
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My mom taught me to pray before each meal. I even believed that you would go to hell if you forgot or neglected enough times. Whenever I'd skip a prayer my brain would begin racing to remember the last time and calculating my running ratio. Most times my ratio looked good. A figure that God wouldn't throw me to hell for.
There are many classifications of kids. Trust-fund babies who never have to work a day in their life and can get by doing art and humanitarian deeds. Upper class kids who are expected to get a respectable profession with enough salary to retire with a decent investment portfolio. Middle class kids who are expected to get un-terrible jobs that afford them decent salaries and get them hooked on vacation time. Working class kids who's parents proudly proclaim that come their 18th birthday they'll going to be on their own and that it's time to learn how to work.
If you were to rank religious privilege on the standard of how difficult it looked to get into heaven then I was upper class. I never even knew how hardcore and shameful the catholic upbringing was until I got to college and became close friends with catholic backgrounds. Until then I honestly thought that the pathway to heaven was as simple as following most of the ten commandments, and praying before each meal and before going to bed. If you did that you wouldn't burn.
Doesn't seem bad deal now. But when I was a kid I remember this deal becoming harder to uphold with each passing year.
Elementary School
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My mom taught me to pray before each meal. I even believed that you would go to hell if you forgot or neglected enough times. Whenever I'd skip a prayer my brain would begin racing to remember the last time and calculating my running ratio. Most times my ratio looked good. A figure that God wouldn't throw me to hell for.
There are many classifications of kids. Trust-fund babies who never have to work a day in their life and can get by doing art and humanitarian deeds. Upper class kids who are expected to get a respectable profession with enough salary to retire with a decent investment portfolio. Middle class kids who are expected to get un-terrible jobs that afford them decent salaries and get them hooked on vacation time. Working class kids who's parents proudly proclaim that come their 18th birthday they'll going to be on their own and that it's time to learn how to work.
If you were to rank religious privilege on the standard of how difficult it looked to get into heaven then I was upper class. I never even knew how hardcore and shameful the catholic upbringing was until I got to college and became close friends with catholic backgrounds. Until then I honestly thought that the pathway to heaven was as simple as following most of the ten commandments, and praying before each meal and before going to bed. If you did that you wouldn't burn.
Doesn't seem bad deal now. But when I was a kid I remember this deal becoming harder to uphold with each passing year.