I think in this case it only affects practising Catholics and like most things it's up to them what they think and do about it. I'm sure if they don't agree they won't pay, if they do it's not really the concern of anyone else. Is it unreasonable? I don't know and being honest I won't spend anytime worrying or even thinking about it, it's a Roman Catholic concern, doesn't effect anyone else, certainly not me so I'm not going to say it's either reasonable or unreasonable. Live and let live.
It's certainly nothing compared to Scientology, where the charges for the top 8 levels of "clear" are
hundreds of thousands of dollars. Tom Cruise is an OT VI-whatever the **** that means-and it probably cost him the better part of half a million dollars to get there form OT V-whatever the ****
that means. :lfao:
Money, while "
a root of all evil," is also our social medium of exchange-the collection plate gets passed at churches, from the poorest to the wealthiest, and people drop money in it. I know, for a short part of my childhood, that collection plate paid my daddy's salary. Lots of people tithe-donate a tenth of their income to their church-we do, though it's a little more complicated than that, since Rita-that's the wife-is a Quaker, and I'm something else altogether.
Speaking of that "something else," though-I've been to the homes of Navajo roadmen and medicine men who had a price list on the back of their front door for various ceremonies. Anthony Davis-a Comanche/Pawnee man, one of my mentors in the Native American Church, and the inspiration for that handle (elder999 :lol: ) I go by, didn't believe in taking money, and wouldn't (and I'll tell my very last Anthony story in a moment) but thought a great deal of one of my very favorite roadmen, because he ran my first peyote meeting, the Navajo, Gerry Ettcity, who
always takes a fee for running a ceremony-sometimes even a
truck or
medical procedure. :lfao:
Here's Anthony - "White Thunder," (on the winter day in 1911, when he was born in Pawnee, Oklahoma, there was a thunderstorm, with snow, so that was his name) talking about race, in a movie (made by some
posers, but still)-he died a while back, at 94, and I miss my friend very much:
The last meeting I went to that Anthony ran was in El Paso, Texas. He'd run a ceremony for a woman down there who had cancer-shortly after the ceremony, she went back to the doctors and the growths they'd found were all gone-it happens sometimes-they call it "ideopathic"-which, just like in the case of the scarring of my lungs, means they have no idea what caused it.:lfao: She offered to sponsor a meeting for Anthony to thank him for her healing, and he said:
No, daughter-I'll run that meeting for you, and you can thank The One who did the healing. So a ninety some odd year old man traveled hundreds of miles to sit up praying-literally all night-at no charge.It was kind of awesome-those people down there, almost all Hispanic, were almost all
terrified of him: he was really
fierce-and he was in fine form, wearing his white bucksin outfit and singing just like he was famous for it-
'cause he was-it was
good to see him that way. Shortly after my first Sundance, he took my eagle feathers and made a fan for me-an Anthony Davis fan is something of a prize, even if its made of macaw feathers, never mind eagle or red tailed hawk-and he didn't charge me a dime. You can see some of Anthony's fans
here, in another documentary with a part about him.
God, I miss him.
My dad would marry people-it was his part of his
job, and a perfectly good way to screw up a Saturday, especially if you were a 12 year old boy tapped to play acolyte for Mass, if they had one. He'd take whatever the couple offered, afterward-there was no charge, but he certainly didn't turn away a "donation," and I can remember once going home with $20 myself...:lfao:
Miss my dad, too-of course.....
So the Catholic church takes money. Big deal. They're certainly not going to get any of mine, or John's, and if it offers some comfort and order to those that do give, what of it?
