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You know what, Catholic Church? You did good by me for many years. I will always be grateful for that. But now you can shut the fuck up. It's not anything at all like antisemitism because you ACTUALLY MOLESTED CHILDREN and then ACTIVELY COVERED IT UP. Don't play the victim. It's horribly unbecoming of you. You should never have been protecting those priests in the first place: "And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. For it is better that you lose one of your members than that your whole body go into hell."
The pope's preacher is an idiot.
Oh and so is Glen Beck.
Where the fuck did the religion I grew up with go to? I mean, I had my issues even with that, but I learned a healthy and reasonable worldview. My belief system is a bit of a mish mash from my favorite authors growing up and what I learned in Catholic school, but I think it turned me into a pretty good person. And honestly, mostly the Church just confused me a bit. The only thing they got wrong, in a broad sense, was the idea of acceptance. And the weird thing is, they preach about it so much, I missed the fact that they don't actually follow through on it until well after I'd already formed my own ideas on the matter.
And I went to Catholic school. So growing up, everyone I knew had roughly the same formation as far as that went. We all knew that it was good to volunteer, to give to those who had less than you, to help those in need, be it financial or emotional. I was taught that God loved me in spite of any mistakes, that he loved me just as he made me, that faith without action is a barren thing, that faith is difficult, that love is something we do, not something we feel.
And I figured out six or more years ago that despite growing up with the Catholic Church, I'd learned their lessons wrong, apparently. Because they didn't believe in the same God I did. Their God was way more petty, judgmental, and harsh than the one I worshiped. And so I gave up on the Church, rather than give up my view of God.
But I still knew there were good religious people out there. I loved so many people I grew up with in the Church. Most of my teachers, a few awesome priests along the way. My grandparents and many of my friends. And somewhere, I'm sure there still are awesome religious people. But now a bunch of people are being told their church is bad if it promotes the one thing - social justice - that should be in every way unarguably good. You know what's not considered cool by a lot of people? Spreading the word of God. People don't generally like being converted. Going to church every week? Generally considered kinda lame. Helping out those in need? Awesome! Who the hell is going to say that's a bad thing? Glenn Beck, leader of a huge chunk of the religious right. Fuck you so very much. Your morals terrify me on new levels every time I hear you speak, the more so for how many people listen to you.
And now, on top of all of the reasons I left the Catholic Church*, they've added, "Protecting child molesters more than children." That's not a mistake. That's not a difference in judgment. That's them being fucking evil douchebags. Hurting children is like the one thing the entire world can agree is completely unforgivable. Except the Catholic Church, apparently. So fuck the Catholic Church. I'm done, until they can figure out the appropriate action here.
Hint: it's not to protect the priests. It's not to protect the people who were protecting the priests, and then cry when people yell at you for it. It's to say, "We're sorry. We fucked up. The criminals are now being tried in civilian courts of law, and we will make every possible effort to make sure this doesn't happen again. And if a priest does do something bad, we will punish him every way we know, and we will let the courts do the same. We are so very sorry."
*For the record, a pretty complete list of why I did leave the Catholic Church:
- The reasoning for why women can't be priests is faulty, illogical, and shamefully sexist. I've never heard a good reason that isn't misogynistic, and I believe one doesn't exist. So fuck you, if you think I'm not as qualified to be a priest as if I'd been born a man.
- I almost understood the gay thing. When I was growing up, it was explained to me that God still loved you if you were gay, he just didn't want you having gay sex because there was no way to get children from it. Stupid? Yes. But so is a ban on contraceptives. It's outdated, really, and that's dumb, but I could reason it to myself that it wasn't because of hatred of gays. Then there was a statement by Benedict stating that gay men could no longer be priests, because of their tendencies towards criminal behavior. We went from hating the sin to hating the sinner, and that crossed my line. I was done.
- Finding out that devout Jews and Muslims and Hindus are going to hell, because they don't accept God's full Word. Obviously all atheists would be included, and all the other religions I didn't name. So it doesn't matter if you're a good person in all the ways you believe "good" entails. You have to be Catholic, or you're going to hell. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. I take my cue from that. Following the rules doesn't mean crap. Do what's right. For fuck's sake.
The pope's preacher is an idiot.
Oh and so is Glen Beck.
Where the fuck did the religion I grew up with go to? I mean, I had my issues even with that, but I learned a healthy and reasonable worldview. My belief system is a bit of a mish mash from my favorite authors growing up and what I learned in Catholic school, but I think it turned me into a pretty good person. And honestly, mostly the Church just confused me a bit. The only thing they got wrong, in a broad sense, was the idea of acceptance. And the weird thing is, they preach about it so much, I missed the fact that they don't actually follow through on it until well after I'd already formed my own ideas on the matter.
And I went to Catholic school. So growing up, everyone I knew had roughly the same formation as far as that went. We all knew that it was good to volunteer, to give to those who had less than you, to help those in need, be it financial or emotional. I was taught that God loved me in spite of any mistakes, that he loved me just as he made me, that faith without action is a barren thing, that faith is difficult, that love is something we do, not something we feel.
And I figured out six or more years ago that despite growing up with the Catholic Church, I'd learned their lessons wrong, apparently. Because they didn't believe in the same God I did. Their God was way more petty, judgmental, and harsh than the one I worshiped. And so I gave up on the Church, rather than give up my view of God.
But I still knew there were good religious people out there. I loved so many people I grew up with in the Church. Most of my teachers, a few awesome priests along the way. My grandparents and many of my friends. And somewhere, I'm sure there still are awesome religious people. But now a bunch of people are being told their church is bad if it promotes the one thing - social justice - that should be in every way unarguably good. You know what's not considered cool by a lot of people? Spreading the word of God. People don't generally like being converted. Going to church every week? Generally considered kinda lame. Helping out those in need? Awesome! Who the hell is going to say that's a bad thing? Glenn Beck, leader of a huge chunk of the religious right. Fuck you so very much. Your morals terrify me on new levels every time I hear you speak, the more so for how many people listen to you.
And now, on top of all of the reasons I left the Catholic Church*, they've added, "Protecting child molesters more than children." That's not a mistake. That's not a difference in judgment. That's them being fucking evil douchebags. Hurting children is like the one thing the entire world can agree is completely unforgivable. Except the Catholic Church, apparently. So fuck the Catholic Church. I'm done, until they can figure out the appropriate action here.
Hint: it's not to protect the priests. It's not to protect the people who were protecting the priests, and then cry when people yell at you for it. It's to say, "We're sorry. We fucked up. The criminals are now being tried in civilian courts of law, and we will make every possible effort to make sure this doesn't happen again. And if a priest does do something bad, we will punish him every way we know, and we will let the courts do the same. We are so very sorry."
*For the record, a pretty complete list of why I did leave the Catholic Church:
- The reasoning for why women can't be priests is faulty, illogical, and shamefully sexist. I've never heard a good reason that isn't misogynistic, and I believe one doesn't exist. So fuck you, if you think I'm not as qualified to be a priest as if I'd been born a man.
- I almost understood the gay thing. When I was growing up, it was explained to me that God still loved you if you were gay, he just didn't want you having gay sex because there was no way to get children from it. Stupid? Yes. But so is a ban on contraceptives. It's outdated, really, and that's dumb, but I could reason it to myself that it wasn't because of hatred of gays. Then there was a statement by Benedict stating that gay men could no longer be priests, because of their tendencies towards criminal behavior. We went from hating the sin to hating the sinner, and that crossed my line. I was done.
- Finding out that devout Jews and Muslims and Hindus are going to hell, because they don't accept God's full Word. Obviously all atheists would be included, and all the other religions I didn't name. So it doesn't matter if you're a good person in all the ways you believe "good" entails. You have to be Catholic, or you're going to hell. Jesus healed on the Sabbath. I take my cue from that. Following the rules doesn't mean crap. Do what's right. For fuck's sake.
