catholic

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This page is about my personal experiences and opinions of the Catholic church. If you disagree with this page, please feel free to put up your own webpage with your viewpoints. I am even happy to link to each other's pages if you wish.

Some of my best friends and mentors are Catholic, and I have actively supported some of their charitable works.

I was raised Catholic, but am no longer for the following reasons:

Six Deadly Sins of the Catholic Church

1. Arrogance. Catholics (like many religions) believe that their faith is the one true faith (John 14:6), and thus that people who follow other faiths (Judiasm, Moslem, Hindu) are somehow less perfect. This is arrogant. People should be judged on their actions, not on their beliefs. (Maybe I'm naive, and God will reject good people who have rejected the Catholic Church, but so be it.)
2. Gay members are not welcomed and treated the same as straight members and are thought to be abnormal. For example, they are told that having a sexual relationship with a committed gay partner is immoral, and they are not allowed to marry in the Church. DignityUSA
3. Women do not have the same rights as men, and can not become priests or bishops etc.
4. Birth control such as condoms are not allowed. This is giving the death sentence to families in poor countries, brings unwanted babies into the world, and wrecks lives. Preaching abstinence is failing!
5. Celibacy is required of priests, and celibate clergy have been shown to have more cases per capita of sexual misconduct than among married clergy. Regardless of what might cause this behavior, it should be eliminated.
6. The Pope is supposed to be infallible in matters of doctrine, faith and morals. But we know that there have been Popes who have been sinners (including Popes who had sex), and neither the Bible nor the Catechism gave them infallibility. Chick Publications, UNM Humanist

See also my page about praying to rocks.

I've read a lot of books on religion, most recently Finding Your Religion which is a great book by Scotty McLennan, the chaplain of Tufts University. (I'm thinking of creating my own religion: church, diploma and sign.)

Other religions for which I have an affinity to include:

• Episcopal/Anglican - not too dissimilar from Catholics, but without Catholicisms seven deadly sins (see above).
• Unitarian Universalist - wonderfully open and diverse, and with great community social action, but maybe not enough "worship" (of god or life?)
• Buddhism - I am especially interested in mindfulness and peace.

And I have friends who are Jewish, Quakers, Muslims, agnostics, and atheists.

Isn't it horrible how many wars and deaths throughout history have been caused and continue to occur in the name of religion? In many cases religions are used to separate and differentiate rather than to bind us together, and to narrow thinking (e.g., many in the bible belt wanting to banish teaching of evolution to instead teach creationism) vs. opening our minds.

What religion are you? There is a cool test you can take at SelectSmart (if you can get past their bad web design and their annoying popup ads).