I’ve finally given up on the Catholic Church. For years I insisted (although weakly, and only on rare occasions) to view our religion, my family’s religion, as dissenting inside the organization. The underlying idea I had was that all major religions revolve around the same undefinable unimaginable unarticulatable truths, instinctive to humanity and to the universe; and our version, our sense of it, was Catholicism. That’s what we were born into.
That, however, stopped working for me. I am no longer a loyal dissenter. I’d tolerated the wrong of opposing birth control and divorce for a couple of generations now, 
but at some point I woke up and saw the specifics of the Catholic Church preaching against condoms in Africa (among other places), against gays being treated equally, and when I add that to the harm done through all this time, I couldn’t take it. It’s not just neutral; it’s doing evil. For years I forgave the church leaders for their ignorance, granted them their good intentions, but enough is enough. They are doing harm to many with their preaching. It’s not just an opinion when it comes from the pulpit. With great power comes great responsibility.
I haven’t given up on God, or Christianity in its non-literal metaphorical and most valuable truth, or on believing that doing good or trying to do good (well, maybe that’s just not doing harm) matters. I still feel it all and believe it in my own way.
(Image: broken church, by Rob the Tog, via Flickr cc)
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