Wow...swearing in a church...That's a new one!

[Diablo]

My folks are hardcore Roman Catholics. I was raised in the faith of course, including two years at a Catholic high school, which all resulted in me becoming an atheist. Anyhoo, Christmas comes around and my father is sick as a dog. He usually volunteers to usher three masses on Christmas Eve and two on Christmas day. The only way I could get him to limit himself to just one on each day was to take his place at the remander. No big deal really, I used to do it all the time with him when I was younger. The best thing about Christmas are all the people you only see once or twice a year. I got a lot of the usually questions, "Where's the bathroom?" (The same place its been the last 12 years) and the usual "When is such and such mass" (I don't know...midnight mass is usually at um...midnight maybe?!?!). However, the craziest moment came at 400pm mass. It was insanely packed. I mean, I got there two hours early and was already seating people like sardines. We had an overflow mass in another hall, but it filled up quickly as well. At around 400pm, I started getting the crazies.

Me: "Merry Christmas. I'm afraid we are at standing room only."
Some Lady "No shit dumbass. This is fucking insane. I got here 20 minutes early and its bullshit I can't get a seat."
Now the place is packed and I got families standing around me. Kids, old people, plenty of people that don't need to be exposed to that kind of language. I personally don't have a problem with swearing, hell six years in the navy, I can swear in multiple languages, but I will not allow it around kids and old people.
Me: "I'm sorry but I need you not to use that kind of language. We have another mass in an hour and a half."
At this point, the woman goes nuts, yelling and cursing, all just before the mass begins. Immediately, me and another usher grab the lady by her arms and physically carry out the doors. She continues to rant and rave at us as we stood outside barring her from re-entering. We have so many people at the masses at Christmas, that one of the local sheriffs sticks around to direct traffic and help out getting cars off the lot. Naturally he walks over as this woman continues to make a huge, loud scene outside the church. It took the sheriff at least three tries to get this woman to calm down and leave. Completely surreal. Oh, and the woman tried to tell the sheriff that her family was already in there saving her a seat and we wouldn't let her in to find them. A completely different story than when she first entered the church. I can understand people getting frustrated at the mall or whatever and losing their cool...but to go insane in a church over a seat? Man, I love religion; it brings out the best in humanity.

[GolfCart34]

Who honestly does that in a church? As much as I hated to go to church (I was also raised Catholic, but I choose not to practice any religion now) I still managed to behave. But to see a grown adult act like that at a packed church service... I guess I should be surprised, but these days nothing seems to surprise me anymore.

[tropicsgoddess]

wow....all that cursing and screaming over getting a seat in church. I did go to church/Sunday school when I was a kid, and haven't stepped foot into a church or cracked open a bible since then. Despite that, I still know that cursing in a church is a HUGE no no.

[edible_hat]

From The Vicar of Dibley

"What's so special about Jesus?"
"His name's a swear word!"

also there was the bit with the old Bible where the f's look like s's and somebody had to read the passage that includes "He is thy sucker"

[the_std]

Church services aren't necessarily exempt from the crazy people. And it's not just Catholic church services. I've sat in on Jewish services, Mormon services, heck, even a Hindu service once, and just because a person is practicing a religion doesn't make them any less prone to being SCs.

This isn't meant to be an attack on religion, by any means. Heck, the most annoying, most aggravating person I ever met was an atheist. It doesn't matter. I'm just saying that religion doesn't exempt anyone from being dumb/disrespectful any more than their hair colour or their shoe size. I do, however, have my own story about church-going nasty people.

I was sitting in mass at my Catholic high school, directly across from one of the special needs students. She was wheelchair-bound and had no real way of communicating, but when she laughed, boy, did everyone know about it. So I was sitting there, bored out of my skull, staring at her but not actually LOOKING at her, when she noticed me. She started laughing. The way the church was built made it very echoey, so she actually drowned out the priest. The father, knowing her very well, smiled at her, waited for her to stop, then continued his sermon, no harm done.

After the service, me and my classmates were chatting in the front entrance, when a lady who'd sat in on the mass came up to me and tore a strip off of me. How dare I interrupt the service, how dare I provoke an innocent young girl into such blasphemy, yaddah yaddah yaddah. She laced it freely with curses and angry bits, while I stood there, shocked. She finally wound down with a, "I expect you to ask God for forgiveness for your sins!", so, with an inward grin, I turned to my best friend standing beside me, and said, "Do you forgive me?" He made the sign of the cross over my head and said, "You are forgiven."

We walked away laughing while she gaped like a fish. It was fantastic.

[protege]

Damn. What a jerk

...and yes, I was raised Catholic too, but I rarely go to church. Something about being dragged to weekly mass by my mother annoyed me However, I never acted like that in church.

In fact, I actually got *out* of going to church when it was too crowded near Christmas several years back. Both the church, and the other mass in their school gym were packed...so some of us (my father and brothers) went over to the Elephant Bar (a restaurant with an African safari theme...sadly no longer there) for some eats

[Lace Neil Singer]

I was raised as a Christian, and had to go to Sunday School and church regularly. I always just sat tight in church, and behaved myself in Sunday School... well, cept for once when my brothers were flicking paper darts at me, so I just had to retaliate... we were all chucked out of the room and told how terrible we were being. Hard kind of to feel ashamed when you're suppressing an urge to burst into laughter.

Now, I'm an atheist; tho sometimes I prefer the term "heretic"... I still will go into a church for say, a wedding or a funeral, and will stand there behaving nicely out of respect for whoever's been married or buried. If I can be respectful in church as an atheist, then I really don't see why it's so hard for so called religious people like the woman the OP mentioned.

[RebeccaOTool]

*Dropjaw* That's a new one on me.

[slavetotheman]

Man, I love religion; it brings out the best in humanity.

Is this kind of sarcasm really necessary? The opening lines of your post also evidence the disdain you hold towards religion, but as I understand it that's not what this board is about. Ought to stick to details relevant to the story at hand, says I.

[protege]

Uh, let's not turn this into a flame war, please. I don't think any disdain towards religion was meant, nor do I believe that the OP has a problem with it. What I think the OP was getting at, is that religion, or even the holidays, makes some people go absolutely bonkers.

[Phone Jockey]

Just one more reason that I'm an atheist.

[smileyeagle1021]

You know, the worst SC I've ever met was an Athiest, the best customer I ever had was a Catholic, and I've met variations in between of all faiths... so I think I'll ad my voice to the people saying religion has nothing to do with how sucky someone is...
...oh and yes that person behavior was appalling, but I'm will to bet that person is only going to church for tradition and not because of belief, because to be honest someone who was going there because of what they believed in and not just because it's tradition wouldn't act that way.... that is of course assuming that we're both talking about the same Jesus who preached love and caring...

[Can I Help Your A$$?]

Huh--I've never known that any of my guests were atheists-they'd never have an occasion to mention it.

Anyhoo, 've heard of swearing in church. I have several recordings of preachers swearing at their congregations.

Then there's the preachers on You Tube. Boy, their swearing has my ears burning, and I don't even believe in "swearing" as an accurate term, since I am an uber-super-goin'-to-hell-in-a-handbasket atheist.

[LifeCarnie]

Who honestly does that in a church? As much as I hated to go to church (I was also raised Catholic, but I choose not to practice any religion now) I still managed to behave. But to see a grown adult act like that at a packed church service... I guess I should be surprised, but these days nothing seems to surprise me anymore.

I also was raised as a catholic, served as an altar boy for four years and attended 12 years of catholic school.

I also won't have anything to do with the Roman Catholic church.

Among other things....I was touched in an inappropriate manner by an employee of the church.

-My father, who was a die hard, old school Catholic, was almost ostracized from the same church, because he reported the church custodian, who had been with the church since the time of Jesus, for stealing.

My father saw the guy, on more than one occasion, take money from the collection plate and put it in his own pocket. The priest's called my father a liar, until they actually realized that the custodian had been ripping the church off for years. To the tune of $40,000.

[smileyeagle1021]

Huh--I've never known that any of my guests were atheists-they'd never have an occasion to mention it.

the only reason I knew the person was an athiest is because he asked me what good drinks the bar had and I told him that I didn't drink and he pushed to ask why I didn't drink and I told him that I abstained from alcohol for religious reasons and that's when the whole athiest thing came up when he went on a tirade against mormonism and to some extent religion in general.