Shakeubooty,
I was also born and raised Catholic - and consiously left it in my mid-twenties. The Catholic church as an organization is very authoritarian, and for many of us that's where we first came in contact with attitudes that didn't jive with personal values and beliefs that were handed down by authority figures that we were supposed to trust, and chose to question them.
Case in point - at the age of 11, I had my first ever taste of gender discrimination. Our priest (who was rather "old school") came into my catechism class looking for someone to serve as an alter boy that Saturday, since neither of the two boys there could do it, I volunteered and was met with an emphatic "NO", because "girls just aren't allowed to do that". This attitude of girls as second class citizens certainly didn't hold true in my family or school life, so it made me ask a lot of "why's" of the church. I felt very betrayed by this.
Granted, this was 20-some odd years ago, but the attitude I encountered at that time was rather EXCLUSIVE, as in good people for no good reason being treated as substandard in the organization of the Catholic church because they were divorced, homosexual, pro-choice, etc.
Maybe things have changed, according to my mother, the priest who runs that parish now is very INCLUSIVE with members of the community. I'll check out the link you posted - maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
However, I prefer, as Connie put it, in having no middleman between me and God.
Sorry this thread has gotten so deep into religious discussion, but it really is the first place where so many butted heads with authority.
I was also born and raised Catholic - and consiously left it in my mid-twenties. The Catholic church as an organization is very authoritarian, and for many of us that's where we first came in contact with attitudes that didn't jive with personal values and beliefs that were handed down by authority figures that we were supposed to trust, and chose to question them.
Case in point - at the age of 11, I had my first ever taste of gender discrimination. Our priest (who was rather "old school") came into my catechism class looking for someone to serve as an alter boy that Saturday, since neither of the two boys there could do it, I volunteered and was met with an emphatic "NO", because "girls just aren't allowed to do that". This attitude of girls as second class citizens certainly didn't hold true in my family or school life, so it made me ask a lot of "why's" of the church. I felt very betrayed by this.
Granted, this was 20-some odd years ago, but the attitude I encountered at that time was rather EXCLUSIVE, as in good people for no good reason being treated as substandard in the organization of the Catholic church because they were divorced, homosexual, pro-choice, etc.
Maybe things have changed, according to my mother, the priest who runs that parish now is very INCLUSIVE with members of the community. I'll check out the link you posted - maybe I'll be pleasantly surprised.
However, I prefer, as Connie put it, in having no middleman between me and God.
Sorry this thread has gotten so deep into religious discussion, but it really is the first place where so many butted heads with authority.
