get out of life alive

We were never even really told like, “if you do this you’ll go to hell”, but just seeing the crucifixes and things were scary enough.

i’m sure. i was raised in an extremely secular Jewishy household w/ Catholic undertones (aka Christmas is about Santa and kids and presents and It’s a Wonderful Life and Channukah’s fun too but Christmas wins by a mile lol), and in Hebrew school they never mentioned hell or heaven or any afterlife at all. tbh, i’m not entirely sure if Jews even believe in those things (i went to a very reformed temple). i’m definitely an athiest with Jewish heritage, and i can’t even imagine having to go to church as a child and stare at an enormous, gaunt, bleeding Christ during sermons or services or what have you. it sounds terrifying. 

That was the most traumatizing part of Catholic school

that’s what most of my Catholic friends say - that such strong imagery combined with aggressive parenting/religious teachings really fucked them up as kids. i have one friend who worried incessantly for years as a child over every little thing that might’ve sent her to hell, because her relatives and her religious schoolteachers told her so. to make a child feel such guilt and fear over religion, something that i thought was supposed to give people hope in the world and in themselves, seems cruel and unnecessary to me.