My first religious experience
I can recall my first religious experience quite vividly. Forty years ago, in grade 4 we had religious instruction classes in our government school. The local catholic priest would come out every Tuesday and conduct a class.
Bromilow was his name. Brimstone Bromilow the older kids called him. I had no idea what brimstone was, but we were soon to find out. He was quite old, but anybody older than 20 was old to me. He was definitely as old as my grandfather though, so i guess he was quite old.
We didn’t really enjoy this class, well I didn’t anyway. It was full of yelling and accusations. We were told we were worthless and would spend an eternity in hell. Usual stuff. There was a girl, Rhonda, a jewish girl who always sat outside. I often thought why she was allowed to skip the class but not the rest of us. I really would have preferred to be out with Rhonda. I had a good friend Glenn who sat next to me. We both felt pretty much the same way about the class.
One day in religious studies Glenn asked father Bromilow if he could go to the toilet. “No you rude boy” he yelled. Glenn insisted that he really, really, REALLY needed to go. This just fell on deaf ears. A few minutes later, an awful stench permeated the classroom. Yep, Glenn had shitted his pants.
Father Bromilow flew into a rage. “Who has defiled the presence of the Lord?” Of course we had no idea what he was asking. “Who is the vile person who has done this?”. Meekly Glenn put up his hand and was subsequently banished outside. “Go sit with the jew girl you filthy child”. “Do not move from that seat. Jew girl, you stay with him”, he shouted.
Poor Glenn and Rhonda had to endure another 40 minutes of humiliation. By the end of the lesson, Glenn was as distressed as anybody I have ever seen. He had excreta dribbling down his leg and was just a wreck. Rhonda wasn’t much better off either.
Glenn never came back to school after that day. Rhonda continued to sit outside. I never saw Glenn until another 10 years later. Forty years later I still have contact with Glenn and Rhonda on Facebook. Neither have ever mentioned that day, but I’m sure it left both deeply scarred.
Religious classes didn’t last long in our education system. I only ever recall having them that one year. I don’t know what happened to Bromilow. I wish that he was rotting in hell, but I know that not to be the case.
That was my first experience with religion. it was also the moment when I knew that there was nothing there for me. In fact I sensed that it was something to avoid. They were fearful times. The whole class was full of fear. This is how they roll.
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