I Kind of Like Being Catholic

Much to the dismay of my father (who honestly believes my Church is the Anti-Christ... on those days he believes in Christ...on other days we are the Axis of Evil) I am a practicing, acting, relatively good Catholic.

So I am defensive against my father and his wife and her family all of whom think the Catholic Church is evil. For a whole list of perceived snubs by the Church against their persons and against people in general.

I am also defensive against the majority religion here in Utah, the LDS faith, all of whom think the Catholic Church would be so much better if all its members just jumped ship and became Mormon. I'll never forget that young, earnest missionary saying, we don't like to think of Christ on the cross, which is the hallmark of your religion... after which my husband politely asked them to leave.

I am also defensive against my husband (a little bit here) who is more of a secular humanist and is concerned with the blind faith intelligent people have in a myth. He is also concerned with the vast steps to the right the Church sometimes takes.

Yesterday I went to the Pastoral Congress (God bless their hearts, those Utah Catholics, planning their Pastoral Congress on the same weekend as the Mormon General Conference which is all we hear about in Utah this weekend) and found some new reasons to be defensive. So, Dad, LDS friends, and Husband (and all you others who question my faith) watch out...I'm ready for the next argument!!

The Pro-Life table said: make abortions rare, discuss options with women...none of this blow up the clinic talk.

The Legislation table said: as Catholics we need to push for better health care, more care for our elderly, better education, stopping the death penalty, a living wage...none of this gay marriage ban stuff.

The Mass was bilingual...none of this English ought to be the most official language stuff.

The keynote speaker discussed the power of mythic story in the Bible...none of this Biblical literalism and we hate science crap.

The Youth Bibles were written with teenagers in mind...none of this 16 year olds ought to love to read arcane literature from 2000 years ago bull.

So, Catholic detractors, bring it on. I defy you to say that all these things (and this is an exhaustive list...not a cherry picked list) are not in line with what I, as an intelligent woman, would argue.