Catholics and gays: Closer than you think

I recently came out /finally!/ to the people at my youth group. One girl asked to have a word with me, and she was extremely supportive. And how stupid I was to fear rejection. They were so nice!

I love how things are looking up inside and outside Catholicism

 

Catholics and gays, yes. (at least in this demographic)

The catholic church and gays, no.

 

This graph is from the same study.

 

I think this is a good point. I've (generally) got nothing against religious people but I still don't like their religion. Similar to their 'love the sinner, hate the sin' they say to us - the difference being that they get to choose whether they 'sin' or not.

 

Catholics aren't evangelicals. A lot of them don't even know their own religion and just buy into it with liberal beliefs just because they were Catholic at birth.

 

I'm not surprised.. just look at the last countries to legalize gay marriage: Portugal, Mexico City (gay marriage is recognized in ALL Mexican states, so they have de facto gay marriage in Mexico), and of course Argentina!

Mexico also amended their constitution to include protection for LGBT people against discrimination. Has USA done the same? I'd definitely live in a catholic country instead of an evangelical country if I had to choose!

 

This is because the Church is less prone to throwing out the baby with the bathwater these days. The Church has positions on a lot of things, but it rarely says anymore that if you think differently, or even act differently, you can't be Catholic. Which evangelicals do, all the time.

It hasn't always been the case, but in contemporary times, the Catholic Church just tries to get people in the door first, and then tries to convince them of her position. And if they don't agree, she doesn't just boot them out.

Their are some priests and bishops who think differently, but overall, the approach of the Church seems to be that you can't save anyone's soul who's left the congregation--and of course, saving souls is her main purpose.

 

"Catholics are more supportive of gay and lesbian rights than the general public"

Whether you like it or not, Roman Catholics are mainstream Christians. This study shouldn't be much of a surprise to anyone. Roman Catholics make up huge percentages of the Western World, so while non-religious people may be surprised that their views are often quite mainstream, they shouldn't be.

I think the biggest mis-understanding of Roman Catholics comes from the fact that it is a highly structured -worldwide- institution, with over 1 Billion adherants, thus roughly 1 in 6 people say they belong. But it is also one of the oldest institutions in the world (arguably 1800 to 2000 years old), thus it has ancient practices/rules/beliefs which are quite difficult to adjust.

So while the Church may have ancient rules/guidelines, the people are generally mainstream Christians (who are generally free to think for themselves) and only follow the rules/guidelines that make sense to them and ignore the others.

Comparatively, the Anglican/Lutheran churches evolved 500 years ago, and have a more 'legislative' tradition, which is much easier to adjust their rules. Plus, they can adjust their rules/beliefs country by country, whereas the Roman Catholic Church, aka the 'Universal Church' must have the same rules in Uganda as in the United States of America.

Lastly, the argument that states you must attend church x times a year to be a Christian/Catholic etc. is frankly ridiculous. The Church doesn't even exist in the Bible as we understand it today, and Jews often only visited the Temple a few times in their lifetime, if ever.

 

Things change in time

 

bAHAHHA Nice. It is sad though that many African-Americans don't actually see it this way....

 

With more than 68 million members, the Roman Catholic Church is the largest single religious denomination in the United States, comprising about 22 percent of the population. The United States has the fourth largest Catholic population in the world, after Brazil, Mexico, and the Philippines.