- How can our God be loving if he condemns all homosexuals (who carry out the act) to hell?
We don’t know that they’re “condemned to hell”. We can only say that active participation in the homosexual lifestyle is gravely disordered (which makes it potentially a mortal sin to engage in). HOWEVER, in order for something to be a mortal sin, it must also include knowledge that such an action is grave and the choice to carry out the action made with free will.
The question of whether or not one goes to hell is a question of worth. Is union with God WORTH forsaking our sins? If we value our sins and cling to them over choosing God and forsaking our sins, then going to hell is OUR fault for choosing something over God.
- Why did the Pope hide the actions of and protect those directly involved the sexual abuse of young boys? I am very sure that our God would not condone the actions of sexual abuse no matter who you are (correct?!), so why didn’t the Pope issue any punishment?
To part 1, the pope didn’t hide anything and there hasn’t been a valid shred of evidence to that effect.
To part 2: with what authority would the pope “punish” someone? How would the pope in the Vatican justify his legal authority in the United States to punish priests who are US citizens? The punishment available to the pope is to defrock those priests, and this was done in several cases.
- My mother had a child out of wedlock, so why are we loving a God that will condemn my mother - who is a good woman - to hell?
What about the loving God who offered redemption for our sins by dying on a cross for us? If your mother confessed her sins, and received absolution, then she’s saved.
Catholicism is not about a one-and-done kind of deal. It isn’t that if you commit a mortal sin you are instantly doomed to hell. When we repent, receive absolution, and return to the communion of the church we are restored to the life of faith. We are in the process of being made more Godly.
- Why is the Catholic church telling me who I can marry (religion-wise)? Why would a God that loves me send me to hell for not obeying the rules such as those just stated previously?
Who in the world told you that you can’t marry someone? I mean, sure, statistically marrying outside of your faith makes your marriage less likely to last, but the church still allows interfaith marriage all the same.
- Why am I part of a denomination that bans women from being equal to men?
I think you mean why are you a part of the church, which recognizes that women and men are not the same thing. There is nothing in the catholic church which states that women are not equal to men. They are, however, mothers/sisters (nuns) and not fathers/brothers (priests/monks). Their commensurate roles, accordingly, are equal but in different areas of the Holy Family of the faith.
- Why doesn’t God love everyone? He sure does not love non-believers as it seems like they are going to hell too.
God desires all people be saved… but there’s a slight crucial part in there: they have to desire to be saved too. For those who have no chance to realistically accept God, we trust that their invincible ignorance is credited to them and that God treats them with both mercy and justice.
But for those who ardently reject God, that is their right and God gives it to them.
I have always been a Catholic. In Sunday school, the God I was taught about was loving and did not send anyone to hell except people like murderers.
Really? What about the homewrecking adulterer and the massive damage they do to their families, particularly their children? What about the theif who deprives an old woman of her grocery money for the week? What about the person who utterly rejects God, despite the fact that God created that person AND died for them?
You see, morality is not just about “rules for the individual”… morality is also about crafting the communion of the church… making it into ONE Body. And that cannot happen when some people are like cancer to the body and the work that they do is to destroy the unity of the faithful and tear apart lives, even in small ways.
Thus the morality of the faith is about forming us into a more perfect union together with Christ. It doesn’t take murder or rape to be an evil person… it takes a lack of love and utter disregard for the dignity of our fellow man (and likewise a lack of love and respect for the adoration due to God). That’s it.
As I’m growing up and reading more, I am seeing a different God, a God I should be fearful of with all these rules I must follow or expect to burn in hell and it leaves me questioning whether Catholicism is right?
Let me pitch something to you: is anything you just said evidence that Catholicism is wrong… or is it more just that you find some things hard to stomach? Catholicism is about changing the self towards a more Christlike way. Sure, it is a spiritual journey on which we are all at different points on our own path… but at the same time, it demands us to subvert our own selfish understanding of morality in favor of one which is universally promulgated as virtuous towards and for all of mankind.
So what about any of the above leads you to believe that the Catholic church is wrong, other than you have a “gut feeling” that you don’t like portions of it?
