I am Catholic and thank God for my birth control

[Anonymous]

8:20, again. Wish I'd seen this article before I wrote that post, because it provides an excellent explanation for how the hardliners in the Christian right are able to pressure other people into going along with them by appealing to people's identity as Christians to get them to go along with supporting messages they otherwise would disagree with.

http://www.alternet.org/belief/how-christian-tribalism-empowers-hardliners-against-wishes-most-americans

[Anonymous]

Yes. I stay and while I don't change the churches position we do effect change in attitude and what they are vocal about. In the 70's everybody was all up in arms about divorce and not allowing communion to people who were divorced. Now they are vocal about gay marriage, this too shall pass.

Do you want me also to try to change the churches views on the 7 deadly sins.

You take the word sin so personally. I sin every day. So what. Everybody does... Even the cardinals and bishops.

Gluttony is probably my daily sin, even though I wish it were not. Pretty happy it is not vanity and greed.

I am Catholic and I am a democrat, go ahead and judge (hitch is also a sin). But that puts in good company with the bishops and cardinals.

I am a part of change where I can be... Luckily I know the difference.....

God grant me the serenity
to accept the things I cannot change;
courage to change the things I can;
and wisdom to know the difference.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Most Catholics do think birth control is okay. It's just that the more radical Catholics get more air time. There are many Catholic organizations that are about "social justice". What news organization wants to air good thing Catholics are doings, none.

http://www.gallup.com/poll/154799/americans-including-catholics-say-birth-control-morally.aspx

You mean those radical Catholics like Cardinal Burke, Cardinal Rigali, the American Conference of Bishops and other very senior members of the church hierarchy? It's kinda tough to call the whole leadership structure of your organization "radical."

Complaining that they get air time for their views over grass-roots Catholic organizations who might support the use of birth control is like complaining about the air time to the Republican leadership when they talk about gay marriage vs. highlighting the good the Log Cabin Republicans do for gay rights.

Even though a lot of Republicans might be ok with gay marriage, the leadership of the Republican party - ie the people who supposedly set the Republican agenda and are responsible for speaking for the organization - are very anti-gay rights, and the media covers their position accordingly.

In the same vein, just because a lot of lay Catholics use birth control (which the Church says is a sin) and doesn't see anything wrong with it, the leadership of the Church is outspoken about their objection to birth control and has, in the past, disciplined members of the clergy and threatened the laity for expressing opinions that differ from Catholic doctrine. Remember in 2004 when Cardinal Burke said that Catholic politicians who support abortion must not receive Holy Communion?

So there you have someone who was a former archbishop of the Church and who, at the time, was the chief judge for ecclesiastical matters for the Church, saying politicians who express views contrary to the Church should not receive communion. That gets news. The fact that you and your spouse use birth control, not so much.

When you say, "I'm a Republican," people make assumptions about your beliefs because you've aligned yourself with the positions taken by that group.

When you say, "I'm a Catholic," people do the same thing.

If you don't like people making those assumptions about you, you have four options:

- suffer (and, if it makes you feel better, whine anonymously on DCUM how unfair it is that you get tarred with that brush)
- spend a lot of your time saying, "I'm Catholic but here's where I disagree with the Church..." and see what that does for you with your other Catholic friends (not to mention your priest)
- change the Church's position on the things you don't like (good luck with that)
- become a member of a different religious group

The choice is yours.

[Anonymous]

Just to add... I do not suffer, actually I have found some on DCUM that don't understand a Catholic family member or a teaching and after a few posts have a better understanding. I can also say I have learned a few things about Muslims on DCUM.

My Catholic friends do not care what my beliefs are or what teaching I do not believe. They are my friends.

I have yet to find a perfect religion so I have no plans on changing.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:On this Pro Life March Day I want to share how painful it is to watch Catholics present themselves as nso arrow-minded on this issue. We should be advocating for more birth control. I'm friends with older priests and sisters who talk about how awful it was in 1968 when Humanae Vitae came out. Here's a story about Fr. Horace McKenna, one of the greatest priests to work in DC:

Horace’s most difficult time as a priest came in 1968, after Pope Paul VI issued his encyclical Humanae Vitae. He publicly dissented from the archbishop of Washington, Cardinal O’Boyle, who had issued guidelines for priests to apply the teaching prohibiting the use of artificial birth control. Horace, who had great personal affection for the cardinal, joined a group of priests in protesting a literal application of the encyclical. Relying on more than 40 years experience hearing confessions, Horace argued for some pastoral accommodation for married couples who as a matter of conscience found the teaching unduly burdensome. Because of this dissent, Cardinal O’Boyle, who had equal esteem for Horace, restricted him from hearing confessions. Being kept from the “peace box” pained Horace deeply. After two-and-a-half years of canonical appeals and personal pleas, Horace and other dissenting priests expressed assent to a series of statements of doctrine, after which O’Boyle restored their faculties to hear confessions.
http://americamagazine.org/issue/625/faith-focus/horace-mckenna-apostle-poor

What makes you feel Catholic?

[Anonymous]

On failed NFP and embracing your blessings (not something I know anything about, I just read a lot of blogs):

http://www.catholicallyear.com/2013/05/why-i-dont-do-nfp.html

[Anonymous]

The leadership of the Catholic church, the leadership at seminaries where priests are trained, Catholic doctrine is clearly against contraceptives and IVF.

Catholics who pretend like it is just a fringe group in the Church who are against these things are fulling themselves. And if you continue to give money to that organization, then you are essentially participating in the Church's active campaign to limit access to contraceptives to women in third world countries.

It's called hypocrisy.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Just to add... I do not suffer, actually I have found some on DCUM that don't understand a Catholic family member or a teaching and after a few posts have a better understanding. I can also say I have learned a few things about Muslims on DCUM.

My Catholic friends do not care what my beliefs are or what teaching I do not believe. They are my friends.

I have yet to find a perfect religion so I have no plans on changing.

would you consider changing if you found a religion with the benefits of catholicism, but without the systemic hypocrisy?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The leadership of the Catholic church, the leadership at seminaries where priests are trained, Catholic doctrine is clearly against contraceptives and IVF.

Catholics who pretend like it is just a fringe group in the Church who are against these things are fulling themselves. And if you continue to give money to that organization, then you are essentially participating in the Church's active campaign to limit access to contraceptives to women in third world countries.

It's called hypocrisy.

I'd switch religions but I can't give up my bacon.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Just to add... I do not suffer, actually I have found some on DCUM that don't understand a Catholic family member or a teaching and after a few posts have a better understanding. I can also say I have learned a few things about Muslims on DCUM.

My Catholic friends do not care what my beliefs are or what teaching I do not believe. They are my friends.

I have yet to find a perfect religion so I have no plans on changing.

would you consider changing if you found a religion with the benefits of catholicism, but without the systemic hypocrisy?

Would you consider moving to another country if you could find one that did not have the same issues are the one you live in now?

[Anonymous]

If it were as easy as switching churches, yes.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If it were as easy as switching churches, yes.

It's not just church, it is family and communities and schools and traditions. I have changed churches when I don't like the priests, yea that was easy, there are about 5 <15 minutes from my house.

[Anonymous]

Do you write a check every week? It goes straight to the priests' legal defense fund. They need millions.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it were as easy as switching churches, yes.

It's not just church, it is family and communities and schools and traditions. I have changed churches when I don't like the priests, yea that was easy, there are about 5 <15 minutes from my house.

leaving all of the above is not uncommon when its a way to avoid association with child sexual abuse and strictures against abortion and birth control.

You can find the good things in lots of places -- but for the bad things, you need the Catholic church.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If it were as easy as switching churches, yes.

It's not just church, it is family and communities and schools and traditions. I have changed churches when I don't like the priests, yea that was easy, there are about 5 <15 minutes from my house.

leaving all of the above is not uncommon when its a way to avoid association with child sexual abuse and strictures against abortion and birth control.

You can find the good things in lots of places -- but for the bad things, you need the Catholic church.

Actually you can find bad things everywhere. Child sex abuse is in the public schools. I see more good being done by the Catholic Church than any other single organization.

What other organization has as many free private schools in DC? You can't have all the good without the bad in any single organization.

Sorry you hate the Catholics.

[Anonymous]

I'm Catholic, but I'm a firm believer in birth control. I actually support population control for environmental reasons. I support birth control to decrease poverty. I wish that more women will utilize birth control instead of bringing children into the world that they can't afford to take care of. I also believe in sterilizing criminals, those who are mentally insane, and parents who abuse their children.

I used to be a radical pro-lifer. However, after spending 20 plus years working in social services and the criminal justice system I realized that birth control and abortion are absolute necessaries in order to decrease some of the social ills that we have in society. Our government can't educate, feed, provide housing, and other resources to every poor child that is born in America. Also, if a female gets raped, then she shouldn't be forced to have the rapist's baby. We have 12 year olds here in DC pushing strollers. Parents are dropping the ball with teaching their children about safe sex. Now the church wants to legislate laws inside of my uterus. This crap has got to stop! Women need to have complete control and authority over their own bodies. Not everyone wants a child and not everyone in our society deserves a child either. Some people should never bring a child into the world period!


The church has no place or no right inside of a women's uterus!