Monday, August 11, 2008

The question I'm pondering.

I was standing in line at the uniform store today with four of my boys in tow. The woman behind me commented on how many kids I had and asked questions about my family size. She mentioned that she could not handle any more kids. She mentioned that the "ol Catholic guilt" made her feel bad about not having more.

So. That got me to thinking. Why is it that no one has ever heard of "Baptist guilt" or "Evangelical guilt" or even "Protestant guilt". Why is my religion the only one with this prestigious title? Hmmmmmmm.

4 comments:

Angie @ Many Little Blessings said...

I think it's just one of those phrases that stuck, really. Sure, when I was Protestant, I wouldn't have felt particularly "guilty" for missing church. I felt bad, but not REALLY bad. As a Catholic now, we have not missed a Mass, the very thought of even thinking about doing it makes me feel guilty. So, maybe there's something to be said for Catholic guilt. LOL ;)

(Oh, and can I just say that my husband and I also dealt with a whole heck of a lot of guilt after becoming Catholic that we had previously chosen for him to have a vasectomy. It's not like anyone said anything to us about it. Even our priest said that we shouldn't feel bad, since in our minds, there was nothing wrong with that choice at that time and within the framework of the church we belonged to then. But, we *still* felt guilty.)

Really though, from family that I have that used to be Pentecostal, I can say that they had plenty of guilt about plenty of things. I guess the phrases just isn't quite a catchy.

Rachel Rosen said...

Oh, no.... there is *definitely* Jewish guilt!!! Just ask my mom.....

I hope to be in town on Monday... maybe Panera?

Miss you!
Rachel

Dwight David Eisenhower said...

Rach,

Yes. Jewish guilt....I should of thought of that...

Let's meet at Panera!

Anonymous said...

The Church guided by fear, not love.