Presently my parish holds a bazaar wherein thirteen year olds can bet alongside adults on a couple wheel of fortune tables. Each night there are throngs of young males cheering and gnashing as the wheels click round and round and money is placed down.
At this event we sell deep fried, saturized, sugar and salt coated fare to raise money as if there is no cognizance of what kills us in our prime. It is a case of conventionality and parochialism being on autopilot.
what right do we have to tell people what is right and what is wrong.
This is such a good point! To be without judgment is quite difficult. To be in a church and accomplish that seems near impossible. And yet, I still sometimes go to mass, and I take my children, and we sing in the choir, despite the fact that I am so saddened by how little good this powerful institution is doing, and how much it could accomplish.
Anyway, my real point was that your description of the bazaar is wonderful — it is the stuff of poetry.
That is the rub – “how little good this powerful institution is doing, and how much it could accomplish”.