Quote:
I would disagree with the statement that the Catholic Church does not condone molestation of children. After all, they have covered it up now for how many years? Hiding it and doing nothing about it is the same as condoning it, especially when those priests were shipped out to a new parish and given a fresh crop of children. More and more cases coming to light on a frightening basis. Again, as I stated previously, I am not talking about individual people, but as the religion as a whole.
You aren't talking about the religion as a whole, you are talking about a few very screwed up people in the administration. I'm not going to say I don't believe in education just because some teachers have molested students. This problem does not happen only in the Catholic church. My best friend, a gay man, had his first sexual encounter with a preacher of a very conservative baptist church, when he was 12. The Catholics are really the only ones that have finally come clean about all the bad things that have happened, and I wish more protestant churches would do the same. Another baptist church in my area has a child molester on staff, and people actually believe this guy has been "saved" even though he was the son of a neighbor I had before I moved, and I know that he's tried to molest one of his younger sisters twice in the past year. EVERY church has it's demons, whether they want to admit it or not.
We are catholic. I have been to Catholic schools most of my life, then a Catholic college with a monastery. I have been alone with many different priests more times than I can count and have never had any kind of bad thing happen. I worship the faith, not the people running it. As for hell, I have a much more Jewish take on it, in that I believe hell is absolute separation from God, and heaven is existing with Him.
I have a deep respect for the Jewish people, as most of my friends are either Jewish or Catholic, being from the Chicago area. It wasn't until I moved down south that I met a lot of protestants, and went to college that I learned about the history of Christianity. I have quite a few pagan friends here as well, owing to the very open-minded area I'm in. They are all very interesting!
One of my favorite national holidays is Thanksgiving. Because it isn't based on any religion, and everyone who wants to, can celebrate being an American can with no religious strings attached.