"Roberta, don't swear."

Going to a Catholic school I appreciate the things that I have been given that others don't get throughout their own highschool career. One of those things that others don't get is religion classes. However, this priveledge of being able to study religion in school can turn into a burden if the way that it is taught doesn't change. I keep in mind, I can't change it, but I sure can say that it should. So there.

Anywho, the whole point of religion, I think, is to keep people in line and feed our souls. There are some unexplainable things in our life and to have the answer, any answer, reassures most human beings. There is a divine force controlling what is happening. Ok thanks. Go read the Bible. The most I've gotten out of those classes is a teacher telling us what to believe and what to do. Why? Because the Bible, Jesus, God, says so. Well, these influential years of highschool, we don't like to be told what to do. We can't help it, we're teenagers, we're insecure, arrogant, unstable, and always right.

We're being taught that the world is not always fair, but then we're not taught how to deal with it. We're being taught that we are children of God, made in his likeness, yet every Sunday we mutter the words "I am not worthy to receive you." We're told a ton of statistics about sex and the diseases and the troubles it brings, so we won't do it. The learning tactic that is used is fear. We're not told why not to do it. To not get diseases and pregnant, of course. But why else? Is it hard to teach a room full of teenagers what it means to love yourself? It is so simple. If you love yourself, you probably won't misuse drugs, sex, and other people because if you respect who you are, and you'll respect other people. This simple concept is a life-long lesson that eventually everyone has to learn. So why, in religion class, aren't we taught how to love ourselves, when Jesus says the root of all life is to love and be loved? Cuz honestly, there is no way to love someone else and to have someone completely love you without that love of yourself.

Statistics are just numbers, tragic stories are just words, and God is just someone to keep in mind unless we're taught how to find a deeper meaning to the things we're told. And in the classes I take, I don't think I'm being taught that at all. I'm being taught to not have sex, to go to Church on Sundays, and that half the things I do give me a one-way ticket to hell. Thanks. I learned that much from 9 years at a public school.

So the moral of the story is...Love yourself. But not too much, if you know what I mean.