I never intended to insult you or cause confusion. You seem to be well adjusted and I don’t mean to ridicule your beliefs by calling them irrational (though you would be right if you guessed that I had an agenda).
Forgiven.
However, there is a place to be a truth seeker, as you call it, and a place to admit that you simply don’t have the answers. The Church, throughout its history, has shown that it doesn’t know the difference.
Interesting claim, though admittedly not my area of expertise. I don’t have time to sort out all of history – which, after all, is written by people with agendas – and figure whether the Church’s actions in each case were justifiable. I know many in the Church have sinned grievously, and I know their sins have had a terrible impact on others. This is true, I imagine, of every major organization or religion that ever existed.
The belief that “bad” people should suffer forever has served to fan the flames of apathy, and the Church has been all too willing to buff this sentiment, glorifying it to raise the morale of Catholic adherents.
You seem to be describing the actions of some Americans who called themselves Catholic in the 20th century. It doesn’t describe the Church today, nor (for the most part) the Church of the distant past.
Personally, I believe that “bad” people go to Heaven, provided they are willing to swallow their pride and admit that they are wrong. I am one such person, I hope. Where do good people go? Well, they don’t go to hell!
It’s even come to manifest itself in economics. It is no secret that Church officials love capitalism, the system in which people get what they “deserve.” If a person is poor, it is believed that they simply didn’t try hard enough to attain wealth. This was further exemplified when certain states in the U.S. began to outlaw feeding the homeless.
To me, this sounds like the “prosperity gospel”, which is Protestant phenomenon. The New Testament talks of poverty as a blessing, and some Catholics (myself included) take it at its word. Give me examples of what you’re talking about.
In my experience, Catholics seek to help the poorest of the poor – although there are certainly many “bourgeois” Catholics who don’t really have much of an idea of justice. In America, we are a church that has been thrown from overzealousness (1940s-1960s) to degeneracy (1970s-1990s), and we’re just beginning to recover. The priesthood, a great asset, is overburdened because of the lack of priests. In short, Catholic America is struggling, but
consider the tremendous work it does for the poor despite these struggles.
If you feel that I don’t deserve your time after reading this, then that’s fine. But know that it is not man’s capacity to have faith that I mock and scorn…
This is, by the way, the short answer to why I am a Christian. I am a Christian because
I have faith available to me to believe. Despite the fact that I sometimes find some claims of the Church unlikely, I have no trouble believing the central story of salvation to be true. Many, many atheists, I imagine, would believe if they found it possible for them. I find it possible, despite my capacity for doubt, to believe.
I know I am not being deceived by excessive belief in authority, because I am generally inclined to question authority. So what am I being deceived by? Does Christianity act as an excuse for me to do things I already want to? No – quite the opposite, it stands in the way of things I want.
I find it most likely that I am not being deceived. The only thing, in my estimation, that could make me believe such a marvelous and unlikely story as Christianity is God.
This is what we call the “deposit of faith”. For whatever reason, it has been given to me at this point in my life. I trust that all who ask for it will receive it (although perhaps not right away).
