De-Baptism

[Citybone]

well I'm 21 yr's old i have been to college and am now working at home in the family business, still living at home. working with my parents. (not nice)

My father thinks it will effect business when people find out and that i will be discriminated against. my view is that is there problem not mine.
but he want me to "tear up" the letter.

how will they find out?

I printed out a letter to send to the bishop and my father found out. The local priest would prob find out as it would be on his baptism records and he would prob be involved in deleting the records. he in turn would tell other locals! (he would be invited over to my aunts house regularly)

[davef]

Smarmy gossiping bastards.

Your attitude is exactly the right one (It's their problem, not yours), but it still frustrates me that you may be affected like that because of 'who' might say 'what' to 'whom'.

On the other hand, I think you'll find that it won't come up as often, or as negatively, as you might fear. I recently moved home to Enniscorthy after ten years in Dublin, and I am very open about my lack of religion. My family all know, my friends, even some of the people in the local Gospel Choir with whom I sometimes play (I'm a guitarist and they're desperately short of musicians. I know, I know, major personal contradictions there, and I regularly think about quitting, and probably will soon but that's beside the point). Anyroad, I don't go broadcasting my absence of faith to everyone I meet, but neither do I hide it, and I am not afraid to explain my (lack of) belief to anyone, if it comes up. Most people take it pretty well, even if they are very religious, and I haven't experienced any negative reactions so far. I reckon, aside from my atheism, I haven't given anybody one shred of a reason to dislike me, so if they DO dislike me on that basis alone, then - Fuck 'em.

[eannamul]

hi there,
i would be all up for doing this save for one concern. maybe someone might help clear this up for me - as someone who has defected can one still attend mass/enter a church - not that id ever attend a regular mass again (at least not for religious reasons), i was more thinking of funeral masses etc. in my own situation i know that in the case of a family death it would be seen as disrespectful/insulting to not attend a funeral mass etc and thinking more of them than myself if defecting were to compromise this i would rather not go through with it. particularly since the pp is involved in the process of defecting and would know that id done it and could hypothetically ask me to leave/comment on my attendance etc
cheers

[FXR]

well I'm 21 yr's old i have been to college and am now working at home in the family business, still living at home. working with my parents. (not nice)

My father thinks it will effect business when people find out and that i will be discriminated against. my view is that is there problem not mine.
but he want me to "tear up" the letter.

how will they find out?

I printed out a letter to send to the bishop and my father found out. The local priest would prob find out as it would be on his baptism records and he would prob be involved in deleting the records. he in turn would tell other locals! (he would be invited over to my aunts house regularly)

I think if you were running your own business independently and were prepared to shoulder the consequences of your actions on you own that would be all well and good. Deciding to do something that your parents might have to pay for through no fault of their own is just a tad irresponsible. Whatever you think of them they are putting a roof over your head. The CCL is not going to stand or fall based on your single defection but your parents business might well suffer adverse consequences. That seems to me to be striking the wrong target and smacks a little of cutting your nose to spite your face.

[mkaobrih]

What’s the problem – you can attend anything you want without being responsible for all the baggage that believing in the rituals entails. Nobody really cares.

[eoin]

Technically I think anyone can attend a Catholic funeral, wedding etc, including the church part - you don't need to be a Catholic. It would only be an issue if you wanted to receive communion, which presumably you wouldn't.

[mkaobrih]

Even if you did - nobody would know – there’s no mark of the Atheist or Christian.