[Tirned Tinnu]

Great! So we have established the fact that he didn't like divorce. We have not established the unexplained oddity of his liking Myths and Legends ie: The Religions of Other Peoples.
ie: Paganism.
How does it all work out? In the mind of a Catholic, or a Christian?
Hmmm?

Here, let me give you an example. I was born into a family that was made up of an Irish Catholic mother, and a Protestant father who converted to Roman Catholicism for my mother. They went to church every day, they taught me the values of Christianity and Catholisism.

But here's where they differed from the norm - they were artists. As artists they saw the need to educate me in myth and legend. They recognised the great British and American writers, and made sure that if I could not read them myself that they read and explained them to me. This was a Bohemian view, and not right in the eyes of the church. They sinned, in teaching me these pagan myths.

I was allowed to watch movies that asked the question, "What is God?" without being dragged from the tv set. I was encouraged to find my own way, and for a long time I found myself blindly being led down the alley of "tradition" and respect. I even wanted to become a nun. (Not because of my staunchness of heart, but because the church taught me that men and women could do many sins unto themselves, and rather than face that I wanted to run away to the "sanctity" and "purity" of her convents.) I even had the curious interest in being a soldier of God, like Jean, who was a favorite saint of mine.

I was told that Jean was not a fully confirmed saint, and such that he was not approved by our bishop for confirmation names. I baulked. This saint has a resting place near me - In the Cloisters. I had touched his tomb! He was a symbol of purity from the Middle Ages, one of my favorite times in history. He was a feudal knight who gave his lands and title to The Church, and went off to battle in the Crusades! I was crushed.
Then I decided to change it to Joan, who also fought in God's name. She too was medievalist and fierce. But there was one problem. She had just recently been beatified. Her "voices" and the fact that she was "mistakenly" burned by Mother Church was enough to make me wonder. So I did a little recearch, and I grew up. I learned about the Inquisition and the Papacy. I learned about all the things that Mother Church and my public school refused to teach due to the "violent nature" or "explicit nature" of the history. Too horrible for little ears, no less. Never mind history, you'll learn it in college. (Even then, it has only been of late that anyone has dared to write down or research and accurate portrayal of the Birth of Chrisitanity.) I had to find a course on it at another college.

I understand that other denominations do not recognise the Saints. It pains me that the things that I have studied have brought me to the state I am in, that of distrust in the Church as a whole, and the distrust of the very dogma that they preach. I am rather (to take as a for instance) like Mel Gibson, who, for reasons of his own has had a church built upon his property and celebrates the Eucharist alone, with his family. His belief is that he can do it better for himself. I understand that. It puts a pit in the bottom of my stomach, but I understand it.

Now that's where I am angry - if Tolkien disaproved of Lewis marrying a divorced woman, it was against church doctrine, but it was also in bad taste. My grandfather was a divorcee. My grandmother waited until she was on her deathbed to reveal that fact, she was so ashamed. She went to her death feeling that she had sinned against God and her family. She kept it secret for 50 years. Can you imagine the sorrow that keeping mum about that caused her? It was a thing done in bad taste, and she did not wish to bring misery to her family. Here we are today, when people do it all the time, and she was still ashamed. We never got to know Grandfather's other family, and I find that sad. I have half-aunts and uncles somewhere in the UK, and I shall never find them. I doubt they would want to meet me, the product of two generations of sin.

Does the fact that I am the product of sin leave me blameless, or am I to burn, to be shunned by revealing the fact?
Were my parents sinners for teaching me about the religions of other peoples?
Am I a Pagan for understanding Joan of Arc and her teachings?
Please, I believe the question here is one of ignorance and waiting on the church to get up to speed with their attitudes. It's very sad that Tolkien had to break off his relationship with Lewis because he sinned.
It's disgusting to me, actually. We shun the sinner, when inactuality Christ preached -love the sinner for he is closer to God than you and me...I guess that doesn't count with marriages with divorced women. Rather, I think Tolkien sought not to stain his perfect image in society. One cannot associate with "that sort" of people.
By the way, did anyone see "Dogma"?