We all have hobbies. Some of us out there in the great world enjoy knitting. Others could include, bowling, gardening, playing the guitar, reading, whatever. Hobbies. You get the picture.
Well, we've got a new hobby too.
We like reading old sketchy religious books we find laying around the Catholic Center.
Last weekend we found this gem for instance: The Single Catholic and the Church, circa 1977.
Here's our review:
The intent is noble, but the execution leaves something to be....desired? (no pun intended) Yes, the book tries to be sincere, but we feel like they were trying way, way too hard to get a young audience. Take this quote for example:
"When the Beatles sang in Eleanor Rigby, "Ah, look at all those lonely people," images were conjured of isolated, unmarried, unattractive men and women."
Yes, they managed to pull a quote out of Eleanor Rigby. The sad thing is, they didn't even get it correct (Kristin is what you could call, a Beatles afficionado). It should just be "All the lonely people".
Not to mention the fact that they seem to infer that unmarried people are ugly social-phobes.
Throughout the book, they keep bringing up all of these stereotypes about single people, and yet don't try to disprove them (which was supposed to be the book's intent we think). Apparently, if you aren't married, you are the following:
ugly
old
lonely
have no friends
your parents are really, really worried that you're a freak
weird
anti-social
a school teacher (as indicated by a photo)
play the guitar
You get the picture.
It's a rather screwed up book.
Not to mention the photos, which we think are supposed to be consoling, but are really far from it. Like the photo of a middle aged man and woman playing the guitar together and singing. It falls under the chapter "Reaching Out". Because "Single men and women don't have the luxury of sitting back and taking relationships for granted." Really? Because we just love neglecting our friends....but apparently since we're single we don't have any....
There's another gem photo of two people laying on the grass in a park. The guy has his shirt off, the girl has some flimsy dress, and they look very....friendly? The best part is, it's under the chapter "Sex and the Single Catholic"
We didn't know that exists.
Though the whole chapter could probably be summed up in one word: no.
Though it is good that they put some effort in attempting to put some reasoning behind the Church's stance.
old
lonely
have no friends
your parents are really, really worried that you're a freak
weird
anti-social
a school teacher (as indicated by a photo)
play the guitar
You get the picture.
It's a rather screwed up book.
Not to mention the photos, which we think are supposed to be consoling, but are really far from it. Like the photo of a middle aged man and woman playing the guitar together and singing. It falls under the chapter "Reaching Out". Because "Single men and women don't have the luxury of sitting back and taking relationships for granted." Really? Because we just love neglecting our friends....but apparently since we're single we don't have any....
There's another gem photo of two people laying on the grass in a park. The guy has his shirt off, the girl has some flimsy dress, and they look very....friendly? The best part is, it's under the chapter "Sex and the Single Catholic"
We didn't know that exists.
Though the whole chapter could probably be summed up in one word: no.
Though it is good that they put some effort in attempting to put some reasoning behind the Church's stance.
We agree that the subject should and needs to be addressed, but this book takes it way in the wrong direction. Which we guess is why we have yet to find a second edition.
Though we imagine a 1980's version would be pretty funny too....
What we can't figure out is.....why it is on our Catholic Center's book shelf. Um.....
2 comments:
The problem with that book was that it was written in the 1970s. end of story. lol :)
haha exactly.
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