(This was first posted in the wrong thread… embarrassing mistake, but oh well. Here goes: )
Gary, you’re still twisting my words, but I don’t think you’re doing it intentionally. I will however not continue this.
To everyone else - this may not be on topic, but I don’t need the attention given by making a new thread:
CAF has become a near occasion of sin for me recently. The sins of anger and of despair, and of losing hope in God. Being on CAF weakens my faith, and my relationship to God, and the Church. I will therefore now withdraw, at least for now.
The thing with CAF, is that I here encounter a form of Catholicism I didn’t even knew existed. A form of Catholicism where one professes to cookie cutter solutions to difficult problems (a trait I’ve seen among many Evangelicals and Fundamentalist, but not from one single Catholic priest in real life). A form of Catholicism where interpretation of teaching is confused for teaching itself, and where anyone who does not agree to said interpretation is painted as heterodox. A form of Catholicism where even suggesting that the translator of a document may have made a poor choice of words, is seen as scandalous and narcissistic (!), because the original document, in Latin, was prepared by CDF under Cardinal Ratzinger (who still happens to be my hero). I’m sorry, but exposure to this form of Catholicism strains my relationship with real-world Catholicism. And I won’t have that.
Additionally, episodes like the one yesterday are simply not good for my health. This morning, I woke up with post-traumatic flashbacks of being laughed at by the entire class in primary school. And that was exactly what happened here yesterday - people latched on to a small detail of my argument, and used that to ridicule the essence. On top of that, I was barraged with some rather grave accusations about my person and intents, constantly, by people with no interest in actually discussing the essence of my arguments. The behavior I was exposed to by others last night, can only be called harassment and bullying, and I won’t have it. While yesterday was by far the most extreme incident of this sort, it is not the first, and I will not have this place destroy my health. I have said earlier that I pray that people who are thinner skinned than me don’t find CAF - I’m sorry to say my skin isn’t thick enough either. I get mental images of howling wolves and circling vultures just by thinking of this site.
I do however wish to thank those of you who have shown me support during my now around half a year on CAF, to those of you I’ve learned from, to those of you who have seen me as a person. You know who you are, and I’m grateful. Please keep writing - your posts literally save lives, and I will pray that you are given strength to carry on.
I also wish to thank those of you with whom I may disagree most of the time, but who are also respectful and honest, and open to actually consider what other people have to say. Some of you may know who you are, some of you may not. I’ve learned much from many of you, and please know I respect your opinions - as I’ve had to say over and over again, I have nothing against being disagreed with or challenged, my issue is with speaking to walls, or worse, being harassed. I commend you for being honest “opponents”, for keeping your posts civil, and for simply being good people. It is because of people like you, people with whom one can have honest debates (and disagreements, but still go out for drinks after), that I find the social climate in the real-life Church so giving. Please keep writing, too.
Lastly, to those of you who are after nothing but demonstrating your own mistaken sense of orthodoxy, to those of you who use rude language about other people under the cover of being “traditional”, to those of you who stick to pseudoscience as if it were Catholic doctrine, to those of you who I simply wish never meet a gay or transgender person (or worse, get a child in such a situation) in your lives: Shame on you. You are the reason why I sometimes think the Church would be better off without the Internet. Your attitudes are the reason for so much suffering, so many tears, so much death, so many souls who will never even consider the actual message of the Church because of injuries from people like you, that just even thinking of it makes me sick. They are attitudes I almost haven’t seen since I left my childhood, Bible-belt, fundamentalist Protestantism behind, and I am ashamed to have to admit that these attitudes seemingly exist among Catholics too.
I have now unsubscribed from all threads I was subscribed to, and I will not check back, after I’ve posted this. I am however not deleting my account, in case somebody wants to PM me. I could return in the future, I could not. At least this is the last you will see of me in a (preferably long) while.
I wish you all the best of luck in your life, and I will pray for you and for CAF.
the attraction is facing in the direction of that object. inclination.