New Perspectives

Today I learned a lot about the history of the St. Louis Cathedral. I don’t normally find religion all that interesting because I honestly don’t follow or practice one. When I lived in Alabama, I was forced to go to a Baptist mass on Sunday mornings, and bible study on Sunday and Wednesday nights. Sometimes being in churches or being near very outwardly religious people makes me uncomfortable because it was so very harshly forced upon me. I didn’t like the church I was forced to go to, and here is why. During the time that I was in high school and attending this church, I dated a guy whose dad was the priest. After a short time of dating this guy, we found out that his dad was having an affair with another member of the church. The people that attended the church were openly racist and then they would go and listen to sermons about forgiveness and being non-judgmental. I remember being told that I needed to make a donation in order to keep attending. Like hello? I am in high school working at a grocery store and I literally make $5.75 an hour. I just felt like everything I was hearing there was a giant contradiction. I eventually stopped going to church all together. I remember going over to a new friend’s house for the first time, meeting her family, and being asked, “which church do you go to?” I said “I don’t go to church, ma’am.” She told her daughter she needed to speak to her in the other room and I was suddenly being told to go home. Again, totally the opposite of what those people were listening to up to three times a week. I feel like some people do it for show.

When I was at the St. Louis Cathedral today I didn’t feel awkward or out of place. I love looking at the amazing artwork in churches anyway, even if they don’t speak to me like they might other people. I enjoyed listening to the guide speak about the history of the church and I especially liked hearing about the Free People of Color. The guide mentioned that people of color were baptized in the church and allowed to attend on Sundays. They actually were not allowed to work on Sundays and then were able to rent themselves out in order to save enough money to buy their freedom. I don’t think I have heard about anything like that happening anywhere else in the country and I find that very impressive. I realize that things were still not a cake walk for black people during that time, or even now, sadly, but I think that they had it better in New Orleans than they might have had it somewhere else, and I like that thought. I don’t know that I will ever attend church on a regular basis but it might be nice to find one that would be accepting of all and wouldn’t require jumping through hoops to participate.