I've experimented with religions other than your basic judeo/christian ones. I found the crunchy granola wiccans ones to be a bit loopy on some things but very open in the sack! In fact, the more repressive the religion the less happy the people who are a part of it.
Reminds me of an old joke:
A kid is deciding what he wants to be when he grows up. All the men in his family are firefighters but he has a friend who has a cop for a dad. He thinks the life of a cop is where he wants to be. One day his dad and him have a short talk.
For years he has been immersed in the fire fighter culture because all of his family members are part of it. They have weekly parties and monthly barbecues.
"So son, are you going to follow in the family business and be a fire fighter?" "No dad, I think I'm going to be a cop." "Really? Why do you want to be a cop?" "Well dad, I want to do something different with my life than all of you, besides it sounds like a very exciting job." "I can respect that son, just tell me one thing. How many happy cops do you know and how many happy fire fighters do you know?"
Three weeks later the kids was looking into being a fire fighter.
There's two possibilities here. It's possible that the priest was just being a greedy dick - entirely possible.
Much more likely, however is the possibility that the $100 dollars represents a fee for the use of the church and for the priest's time. The reason the priest is probably doing this isn't because he's a dirty scum-sucker (again, probably). It's because he needs money. Running a church costs a lot of money, especially since most churches now do things besides mass, confession, baptism, AND have to give money back to the diocese/archdiocese, which is why a lot of priests are going to be very concerned about money. And if it IS a fee, someone who's unable to pay that probably wouldn't be forced to. I'm sure that if you went to a priest and said to him "Father, my wife and I barely make ends meet, but we really want to baptise little Johnny," he'd be fine with that and do it for free.Frankly, I'm a little amazed that you think baptism should be free for everyone. Churches still have to pay for things, why shouldn't you have to pay them? Assuming your sister was well-off enough to give the $100 dollars (and if she wasn't she should have said something) there's nothing wrong with that.
Agreed. Churches cannot charge for anything without jeopardizing their non-profit status. Weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc are all paid for by a set "donation" level. It's not just the Catholics and its not just the Christians. It's a legal loophole. People need to be paid for their time, the lights need to stay on and the building must be paid for. The "donation" doesn't go into the priest's pocket, it goes into paying for everything the church needs. So, quitcherbitchin.
Weddings, baptisms, funerals, etc are all paid for by a set "donation" level. It's not just the Catholics and its not just the Christians. It's a legal loophole.
If someone took it to court, I bet that a "set donation level" would be ruled a fee. Donation implies that it's voluntary. Withholding something till you pay is a fee, no matter what weasel words the priest used.
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Reminds me of an old joke:
A kid is deciding what he wants to be when he grows up. All the men in his family are firefighters but he has a friend who has a cop for a dad. He thinks the life of a cop is where he wants to be. One day his dad and him have a short talk.
For years he has been immersed in the fire fighter culture because all of his family members are part of it. They have weekly parties and monthly barbecues.
"So son, are you going to follow in the family business and be a fire fighter?"
"No dad, I think I'm going to be a cop."
"Really? Why do you want to be a cop?"
"Well dad, I want to do something different with my life than all of you, besides it sounds like a very exciting job."
"I can respect that son, just tell me one thing. How many happy cops do you know and how many happy fire fighters do you know?"
Three weeks later the kids was looking into being a fire fighter.
<I probably butchered the joke)