I was raised Catholic and stopped going through the motions when I got to college.
I truly believed at age 7 or 8 that I was going to Hell because I said a curse word according to my parents (the word was "crap" by the way). I have a number of issues based on my own experience as well as theological problems and that whole molestation ring. I won't return nor subject my children to that machine. Funnily enough I plan to convert to Judaism. |
In order to stay in a state of grace within the church (and receive the sacraments), you are obligated to go to church all 52 Sundays, not just Christmas and Easter. |
Performance based Christianity. Nothing more. |
Where in the U.S. are contraceptives prohibited? Where in the U.S. are “women not allowed to travel, etc.?” Public schools and molestation go hand in hand and the .gov certainly protects its creeps and its assets despite legitimate claims. |
Do you “subject” them to public schools, scouts, camps, sports teams, etc., etc., etc., all of which are huge venues for molestation but are harder to capitalize on than churches? |
I called my hometown church and had my Catholic confirmation revoked. I couldn't handle any association with systemic child molestation with no real reform, shunning of gay people with no real reform, repression of women with no real reform. Now there's a note on the original card from 1998 that says "recanted."
I wish I had listened to my gut when I was 16 and the freaking Bishop who spoke at our confirmation said his greatest hope for the boys in our group was that one would become a priest, and that his greatest hope for the girls was that one would become the mother of a priest. BYE. |
You may or may not actually have done this, and somebody in the parish office may or may not have made an (illicit) notation in the sacramental record, but the Church does not recognize any ability to “recant” Sacraments, particularly character-imbuing Sacraments like Baptism and Confirmation. You may think you left; Church doctrine says otherwise. |
Balderdash. Faith without works is dead. |
Catholic Heaven is defined as the presence of Jesus. If you don't believe in Jesus, why would you care to spend eternity hanging out with him? If you'd rather spend your afterlife elsewhere, what's your beef with not being in Catholic Heaven? |
The proper way to go it to apostatize or commit heresy. That gets you an immediate automatic excommunication. The problem with that is that other people might not be aware of it. |
Hell is permanent isolation from Jesus. No burning involved. Fanfic is not theology. If you don't like Jesus, hell is nothing to be afraid of. |