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Post by The Kat's KitKat on Sept 14, 2017 20:36:12 GMT -5
I've always wanted to learn Spanish- while German's great, it's not useful unless people speak it around you. So many people speak Spanish I feel I could use it more. What I do like though is how German is giving me a head start on other Germanic languages like Dutch, Swedish, and Norwegian. Yeah, I thought about taking Spanish (seeing as I live in Texas) but I decided to take German because there's actually a lot of German heritage around here and in my family, so I thought it'd be cool to learn the language. I'm also already partially fluent in Norweigan cx
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Post by . on Sept 14, 2017 20:44:55 GMT -5
I honestly love languages so much and want to learn all of them.
That's not going to happen but I'm hoping to learn French or Italian once I'm a bit better at Spanish
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Post by Deleted on Sept 14, 2017 20:55:05 GMT -5
Saint Ambrosef Yeah I took a couple months off of here cause ya know classic OTD having a situation and I had family issues at home so I was having none of it good to be back tho. I've missed this thread, where we can all talk about our Christianness xD and that's cool you're going to learn German, it's interesting. It's weird at first, but I mean all languages are I guess. My family still giggles and laughs at me when I speak it, but now in class when my professor speaks it feels super normal as if I'd grown up with it. The Kat's KitKat Ooo Norwegian is pretty cool, I love Scandinavian languages. I used to be obsessed with Icelandic, I was all into the band Sigur Ros/Jonsi with songs in their language and stuff.
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Post by Dreamers Delight on Sept 15, 2017 15:23:22 GMT -5
*flips* SO MANY NEW PEOPLE. HI EVERYONE!! I get really excited when I see new people.
Just so you all know, Shad ends up giving everyone nicknames eventually, so don't be surprised if Shad starts calling you something random.
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Post by . on Sept 15, 2017 15:46:05 GMT -5
Hi! How are you?
I like nicknames so that's no problem : )
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Post by Paws on Sept 15, 2017 17:06:54 GMT -5
Boop
I want to learn French but my school doesn't offer it, so I'm taking Spanish instead, which is pretty cool. How's you?
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Post by Splintercat on Sept 15, 2017 18:31:45 GMT -5
I second @jester's post. (Except the Christmas covers part. I won't do that, unless you want to hear my beautiful singing voice, except I won't do it then either.) I'm so glad that y'all felt welcome to come here and all that. Please feel free to continue. Welcome one! Welcome all!
In other news, I haven't gotten any sleep in ever. 👁👁
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Post by Deleted on Sept 15, 2017 19:27:08 GMT -5
Heh looks like everyone decided to come join here all at once. cx But thanks for the welcome! Welcome to everyone else too. Hi! Anyways, in reply to @jester , if I recall the article correctly, they went as far as to say C.S. Lewis and Tolkien clearly went to hell. Not saying I agree with them, I think they both sounded like good Christians, but that's the... harshest, I guess, criticism I've seen against reading or writing fiction. Oh and I've actually seen that verse similarly before while researching Biblical answers to this or a similar question! My only confusion with it is if it only applies to "eating meat sacrificed to idols", or to things in general? But at the same time, would overthinking things that are ultimately fake and imaginary, such as pagan imagery or idols, be giving it too much power? cx So I guess it applies to both. Either way thanks for answering! ^u^ Also, since I saw languages mentioned, I really should be learning Spanish (have Spanish speaking relations heh), I know a bit but not fluently. Got to go back to duolingo at least. cx Though I really want to learn Latin, German, Danish and Italian. Oh, and Hindi, but a lot of these languages I probably wouldn't use actively cx Could watch Bollywood movies without subtitles though, at least the Hindi ones lol.
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Post by Dreamers Delight on Sept 15, 2017 19:34:55 GMT -5
To everyone that's asked, Im doing well. Just finished my second week of school and everything is looking up so far. I have to look at colleges now and I have no idea where I want to go, I just know I want an art school.
I also took French for 2 years but I hardly remember a lick of it. So.. haha.
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 16, 2017 9:40:03 GMT -5
I second @jester's post. (Except the Christmas covers part. I won't do that, unless you want to hear my beautiful singing voice, except I won't do it then either.) I'm so glad that y'all felt welcome to come here and all that. Please feel free to continue. Welcome one! Welcome all! In other news, I haven't gotten any sleep in ever. 👁👁 i can help with that 🌚 /|\🔪 /\
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 16, 2017 12:26:48 GMT -5
@galganigem okay remember how you told me to be on the lookout for the guy who runs the Jesufex twitter account because he's started at UD?
well i completely forgot about that. and today i had a spark of remembrance and thought "hey let me check the profile pic and check if ive seen him around" turns out ive talked to peter like 3 times now and had no idea it was the same one you were talking about lmao
he's pretty nice but a total goofball. last night the rosary group watched LOTR and he spent half of it making golum imitations and crawling around on the floor with a blanket on top like an overgrown pest.
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Post by Splintercat on Sept 16, 2017 13:11:49 GMT -5
I second @jester's post. (Except the Christmas covers part. I won't do that, unless you want to hear my beautiful singing voice, except I won't do it then either.) I'm so glad that y'all felt welcome to come here and all that. Please feel free to continue. Welcome one! Welcome all! In other news, I haven't gotten any sleep in ever. 👁👁 i can help with that 🌚 /|\🔪 /\ Uh oh
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 17:31:30 GMT -5
Hey do you guys know what's planned for Monday movie night?
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 16, 2017 17:33:13 GMT -5
Hey do you guys know what's planned for Monday movie night? it's not for another two weeks, and we don't usually decide until a few days before why, got a suggestion?
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 17:38:52 GMT -5
Hey do you guys know what's planned for Monday movie night? it's not for another two weeks, and we don't usually decide until a few days before why, got a suggestion? Oh I just wasn't sure if it was every week or somethin.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 17:49:36 GMT -5
@raincloud33 The overall message of the passage can be applied to debatable topics generally. See Rom. 14:1-12. Paul also compares the situation to which days of the week one might consider sacred or not. Everyone "should be fully convinced in his own mind."
Aka, if a direct answer is not found in the Bible, then ask yourself...
- Am I out of God's will? Or... does this thing conflict with something in the Scriptures, even if not directly addressed? - Will doing this thing cause me to stumble or sin?
If you've prayerfully considered these things and you find that the answer to all of those is no, you're probably good.
Asking others' opinions is always good too. The power of community.
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Post by Rainstorm1026 on Sept 16, 2017 21:19:00 GMT -5
Speaking of which, how do you discern what fiction you guys engage in? Sometimes on the internet, I find some old site ranting about Pokemon, or whatnot. It freaked me out because I love pokemon and Harry Potter, yet at the same time I wasn't sure whether or not to take them seriously. Adding to it, a lot of "Defenses" I found were just non-Christians minimizing the importance of God and the scripture. I've been staying away from Harry Potter, but I continue playing pokemon and I'm really not sure how to deal with this.
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 16, 2017 21:26:44 GMT -5
pretty simple answer is that if it leads you to sin, then it's probably not good for you
i can't see any reason why either pokemon or harry potter would be "wrong" per se unless you found yourself taking it too seriously
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 21:39:50 GMT -5
Anything can become an idol... but liking something doesn't automatically mean you idolize it.
Also, add "Could it cause others to stumble?" to that list of questions via the Romans passage. What doesn't tempt you may tempt someone else and vice versa.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 16, 2017 22:30:25 GMT -5
Would you then say 14:1-12 could apply to holidays as well then? I've had doubt over Christmas due to it's origins and commercialism... but I really love Christmas overall, and would like to celebrate it as a celebration of Christ, as well an exchanging gifts as it seems fun both to give and receive- even if the date is incorrect to his birth, as many dispute, would you say this is alright? (I even like the Santa myth, I just am starting to think you shouldn't lie to little kids about it heh, a cute fairy story is one thing but... start with the truth.) Rainstorm1026 I have been through this. cx I suppose I would say the same as Shadowstalker (do I call you Shadow?) but it has been a constant conflict as a Christian and fantasy fan. There was like, a very, very short phase when I was younger when me and my sister thought it'd be cool to practice magic and wondered if it was real, but if we could do it with God (like those who propose "white magic" is a thing). I personally don't recall really believing it, it was kinda a "oh what if". The ultimate conclusion was us looking back and questioning why ever did we do that lol. I'd say Harry Potter and magician acts inspired us to it, and we didn't actually do anything but wave sticks around come to think of it but... yeah. owo" I think it was mainly ignorance, we didn't know much about witchcraft or magic in related to scriptures and hadn't thought deeply about it, and we never considered leaving Christianity at all in search of "magic". However on other occasions fantasy stories can also draw you towards God (I'd say moralistic fairytles, or stories like Andersen's "The Snow Queen" which had Christian messages, or even Narnia, and LOTR) so I'd say it also depends on your time of life and upbringing (aka, a Christian kid who is not too strong in their faith yet should probably avoid Harry Potter). At least, that's what I think.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2017 0:58:17 GMT -5
Would you then say 14:1-12 could apply to holidays as well then? I've had doubt over Christmas due to it's origins and commercialism... but I really love Christmas overall, and would like to celebrate it as a celebration of Christ, as well an exchanging gifts as it seems fun both to give and receive- even if the date is incorrect to his birth, as many dispute, would you say this is alright? (I even like the Santa myth, I just am starting to think you shouldn't lie to little kids about it heh, a cute fairy story is one thing but... start with the truth.) Yeah, sure. I have a few friends who don't celebrate 'Christmas' as we know it -- precisely because it's become so commercialized. It was never a commandment to make Christ's birth a holiday. No one is required to celebrate it on any specific day. I love the spirit of Christmas, though, so I'll probably always celebrate it. Though I'll never condone the Santa thing, lol. A lie is a lie. I don't mind making it a game, but make sure that it's not overshadowing Christ.
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 17, 2017 10:42:50 GMT -5
I know that in Catholicism (and I suspect some other mainline Protestant denominations), failing to celebrate mass on Christmas is considered a mortal sin. It's the feast of the Nativity and by extension a day of holy obligation. But how we choose to celebrate it outside of that is up to us. I can understand why some Christians would feel put off by the commercialization of Christmas, but to me, it makes greater sense therefore to celebrate it as it was meant to be--a a holy day of Christianity--and keep the original purpose alive and well rather than stop completely. Catholics, Lutherans, Orthodox, Presbyterians, Methodists, and Anglicans all celebrate Advent in the four weeks prior to Christmas to prepare them for the Nativity. A period of reflection on our relationship with Christ that builds anticipation for his birth, if you will. I think that helps a lot on removing the commercialization from the holiday.
On the Santa thing...I asked a priest about this once, and found his perspective agreeable. It's not a true lie in the same way that an adult plays make-believe with their child. It's allowing young children to indulge in their imagination. Although Jess is right that the myth should never overshadow the true purpose of Christmas.
When I have my own family, I'll probably play Santa for them when they're young. But I also want to adopt the tradition in the Eastern churches of giving presents on the 12th day of Christmas. Doing so encourages kids to remember that Christmas isn't over until the Epiphany; so I'll let them open all their presents on Christmas morning except for one that they have to save to open until the Epiphany, to remind them of the Wise Men bringing Christ their gifts. I'm sure I'll come up with a tradition of our own, like presenting Christ a gift or something.
Also, fun fact: Christmas is actually most likely the true date of Christ's birth. I wrote a whole essay on why last year, I'll see if I can find it.
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 17, 2017 13:46:14 GMT -5
okie doke. i couldn't find the one i posted on here but i found the one i posted on my tumblr, which was addressing the question of whether or not christmas was influence by paganism. so there's a lot of references to that, but the basic point is the same It’s a common misconception that the date chosen for celebrating Christ’s Nativity was selected due to its proximity to pagan holidays on the Gentile calendar. This was because, according to such theorist, early Christians wanted to draw in the pagans by celebrating Holy Days around the times of their usual seasonal festivals.
However, this makes no sense for two reasons. First, pagans hated members of this monotheistic religion, just as they despised the Jews. And the last thing the early Church fathers wanted was to mix their delicate new religion with impurities that surely come with appealing to pagan culture. Christians wouldn’t have been welcomed to celebrate anything openly, never mind allowed to undermine important pagan festivals with their own.
Second, what drew pagans to Christianity in the first place was how it differed from pantheist religions they were familiar with. So why on earth would early Christians then try to appeal more to pagan culture when that had no bearing on conversion? It’s a fallacy that is contradicted by the “purity” beliefs of the Church.
Keep in mind the culture of the early Church. They were still fresh, brand-new, and the early clergy would have been very concerned with the mixing of religions diluting the Christian message. Most Church “Doctors” were scrupulous scholars, meticulously researching and interpreting Holy Scripture from both the New Testament and the Old. They would have studied the extensive history recorded in books like Leviticus and Deuteronomy, which recorded the Jews bad experiences and following consequences that resulted from the Jews mingling too much amongst the pantheist society. The Doctors would have been keen to avoid repeating these mistakes. (Think of how many seemingly negligible, “harmless” heresies the Church sought to squash early on).
Not to mention that many well-documented sources (such as King Charlemagne) indicate the complete abandon of pagan beliefs during conversion. It makes sense, logically: if you were a new convert, it would be best to avoid any and all reminders of your past faith less you feel tempted to return or re-adopt some aspects of it.
But doesn’t Christmas fall suspiciously close to pagan holidays on the calendar, suggesting at least a connection? Nope. This misconception became wildly circulated in the 19th century with the publication of Alexander Hisop, who wrote wildly unsourced claims.
Yule is a Celtic holiday (Dec 21st - 7th). So why would early Christians settle the Nativity on a day only celebrated by a fraction of far-West Europe?
There is also claims it was influenced by Dies Natalis Solis Invicti (Birth of the Unconquered Sun). However, this was proposed on Dec. 25th by the pagan Roman emperor Aurelian in 275 AD– after the dates of published works from the Saints Irenaeus (130 - 202 AD) and Sextus Africus (160 - 240 AD), who I will get to in a moment. Thus, early Christians (many of Jewish heritage) were celebrating December 25th as a date closely associated with Christ long before Aurelian dedicated the birthday of the sun.
In fact, many scholarly sources indicate that the winter solstice was NOT a hotbead for sun-worshiping for pagans. Here’s the most succinct quote: “Thomas Talley has shown that, although the Emperor Aurelian’s dedication of a temple to the sun god in the Campus Martius (C.E. 274) probably took place on the ‘Birthday of the Invincible Sun’ on December 25, the cult of the sun in pagan Rome ironically did not celebrate the winter solstice nor any of the other quarter-tense days, as one might expect.” (Michael Alan Anderson) The principle dates for sun-worship were actually in August, not December.
Okay, so Christmas wasn’t chosen to be on December 25th because of any pagan holidays. So why was the date significant? They didn’t just draw random dates out of a hat and pick one at random. In order to understand the date, you have to understand late Jewish culture and how it developed into early Christian culture.
Another common misconception (and directly related to this one) is that Hanukkah is not based in Mosaic Law. It’s definitely Jewish, but it was not born of any law, command, or decree like other Jewish holidays (i.e. not born from Moses). It was a way for the Jews to remember and celebrate the second dedication of the Temple after the Maccabean revolt. The celebration always lasted 8 days, starting on the 25h day of the Jewish month of Kislev. The month of Kislev on the Jewish calendar overlaps the month of December on the Julian/Gregorian calendar. In fact, sometimes the overlap is so close, that Hanukkah is celebrated at the same time Christians are celebrating Christmas.
The apostles decided which laws of Judaism the Early Christians were still beholden by (Council of Jerusalem, circa 50 AD). Hanukkah, because it was not Mosaic Law, was not included in this determination because it was simply a tradition of the people rather than a command of God. Remember that many early Christian-Jews still considered themselves to be Jewish. They would have continued to follow many cultural aspects of Judaism, such as attending the Temple on the Sabbath, and, by extension, celebrating Hanukkah.
Hanukkah was very much a celebration focused on light, a “rebirth” for the (earthly) kingdom, and a refreshed covenant with God. It made sense that Early Christians would therefore feel close to it. However, early Christians were shunned by the Jews, often kicked out of the culture completely. They lost track of the Jewish calendar over time, and thus it’s only natural that they fell into using the Julian calendar as the Gentile Christian did. They instead celebrated Hanukkah on December 25th–which was pretty close to Kislev 2th anyways. And–here’s the kicker– there are 8 days between Dec 25th and Jan 1st, meaning it perfectly wrapped up the end of the Christian cultural year with re-dedication (new years revolutions, anyone?). Christmas became the christened version of Hanukkah in the beginning. This went on for several centuries in the Early Church.
So how did the Christian Hanukkah become associated with Christ’s nativity? Very early Christians believed that the world was created on Nissan 14, which is about March 25 on the Julian calendar. These Jewish Christians not only associated the beginning of the world on that date, but also the beginning of the new world: meaning the conception of Jesus Christ.
To this day, the Catholic Church (and Lutheran, Anglican) celebrate the Annunciation on March 25th. Pregnancies last for about 9 months, so count that far ahead from the date: you get December 25th. Aforementioned Saints Ireaneus and Sextus Africanus firmly defended this date. Thus, it was only natural for Christians to adapt their version of Hanukkah into a celebration of Christ’s nativity. Eventually the 8-day feast was overshadowed by 12 days, but that’s another discussion irrelevant to this one.
Here’s the biggest kicker: December 25th wasn’t officially chosen as the date of the Nativity by Church Officials until the Medieval period. Long after most pagan or pantheist religions had mostly died out. The date was chosen by tradition of the people’s celebrations and its connections to the traditional date of the Annunciation (conception of Our Lord).
So you’ve got two explanations as to how Christmas came to be: the widely-circulated suggestion of it being based on pagan practices, mostly prompted by 19th-century misconstructions; versus it naturally originating from the course of intermingling of Jewish and Gentile-born early Christians. The latter is supported by a lot of official documentation by the church, including published works by several saints/scholars close to the time of origin.
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2017 14:17:23 GMT -5
Can I just say that it like... makes my day when people come to us with questions? I just love talking about my faith and it makes me happy that you guys think we're approachable and all that jazz. Thanks for coming @aromatisse silverbrook . Also, is it wrong that I'm already recording my Christmas covers? Breath of Heaven and Noel. Also, just out of pure curiosity, Saint Ambrosef What's the general consensus amongst Catholics regarding songs written from Mary's point of view/to Mary, a la Breath of Heaven / Mary Did You Know? I can't imagine it'd be much different than Protestant reception? you'd love my roommate. she's already playing christmas music and putting peppermint into her oil diffuser. Not sure if there is much of an opinion, tbh. I've never heard anything overwhelmingly negative or positive about it; part of that might be because they're not played very often in favor of more commercialized songs (Silent Night, Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, We Three Kings, Noel, etc). looking over the songs i don't see anything questionable about them. talking about this is giving me a little nudge of Christmas feels, though. I know some people that say Mary did you know is heretical XD Simply because the line "would soon deliver you" According to Catholic teaching/dogma she was already delivered so *shrugs*
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Post by Deleted on Sept 17, 2017 14:19:14 GMT -5
@galganigem okay remember how you told me to be on the lookout for the guy who runs the Jesufex twitter account because he's started at UD? well i completely forgot about that. and today i had a spark of remembrance and thought "hey let me check the profile pic and check if ive seen him around" turns out ive talked to peter like 3 times now and had no idea it was the same one you were talking about lmao he's pretty nice but a total goofball. last night the rosary group watched LOTR and he spent half of it making golum imitations and crawling around on the floor with a blanket on top like an overgrown pest. Lol noice~ Well Gollum imitations are trending these days XD And that sounds like the best way to spend a movie night of LOTR
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#add8e6
Name Colour
*Ravenpaw*
Warrior Fanatic
*reads books in a corner*
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Post by *Ravenpaw* on Sept 17, 2017 18:11:58 GMT -5
@rav: you're not supposed to tell me the truth :| @ariat: ayyy meg and i are catholic college kids too! @ rain Paws : goodness me, so many new people today! welcome to you both. @lis: long time no see on the subject of languages, after two years of italian im gonna start on german Oops.
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Post by Lightningdawn on Sept 17, 2017 18:41:09 GMT -5
Hello there people~ What're we talking about?
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Post by Splintercat on Sept 21, 2017 0:24:20 GMT -5
I think this might be my favorite Babylon Bee article so far, which is saying a lot. babylonbee.com/news/18-reasons-rapture-will-2018/"2018 backwards is 8102, which probably has something to do with Daniel or Revelation or something. Amazing!"
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Post by Saint Ambrosef on Sept 21, 2017 13:26:59 GMT -5
im going home this weekend which makes me excited!!
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#a3c5e6
Name Colour
𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵
Warrior Fanatic
All hail me, the flower-flushing queen of Prague
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Post by 𝓣𝓲𝓷𝓾𝓿𝓲𝓮𝓵 on Sept 21, 2017 15:07:27 GMT -5
Hi, guys! So, I've been doing alot of thinking lately and I'm really considering of just leaving the Catholic church. I already know about the "Defection from the Catholic Church by a Formal Act" form, but from what I looked up, that's apparently been abolished since 2009.
According to my grandfather and a few other people, there isn't a process to leaving the church, you just do it (that's the closest way I can translate it, at least). Then again, my family isn't exactly very religious anyway and only a few of them attend mass every Sunday, even though they're all followers of God.
So, I guess what I'm wondering is if any of you guys know if leaving the Catholic church is really that easy, or if I can even leave at all?
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