catholic church has a few problems. One that I never get {like the Jews voting lib every election] is abortion, their strongly held beliefs v supporting every lib who wants to end life at nearly any day of pregnancy including born alive.
mcfarm,
I know a lot of Catholics and there are many more Rs than Ds.
my dad Is one of the most devout Catholics, he prays 3 rosaries almost every day and actually flipped from A lifelong D to R in the 1980s because of the abortion issue.
he led a prayer group in front of a detroit abortion clinic for 2 decades, that was closed down.
I went with him a couple dozen times and got to know many in the group. I would guess they were mostly Rs.
I might be missing something here, so why do you think differently?
OK, I should have done a fact check before commenting but will leave my initial comment up.
pew research shows that 44% of Catholics identify as Ds and only 37% as Rs.
this shows that the circle of,people that I’ve traveled in is greatly skewed to be R and Catholic biased…..which makes sense based on where I live right now and where my dad lived at his last home.
higher income families.
I have an explanation for this(Catholics being against abortion but for the party that allows abortions). It’s what we always called cafeteria Catholics.
people that practice the religion but pick and choose what they want to follow.
birth control for instance.
40 years ago, when I was single and NOT interested in having a child yet, it was important to know whether the lady you were dating was on birth control or not.
It also seemed to be common knowledge shared amongst people. Many practicing Catholic women were using birth control.
protecting themselves from ever getting to a situation of deciding what to do with an unwanted pregnancy……but of course the Church prohibited sex outside of marriage.
actually, I knew tons of married Catholics that used birth control but followed the other Catholic rules outside of that strictly, including my wife and I after we were done having children.
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However, it appears that Catholics are split down the middle.
September 15, 2020
8 facts about Catholics and politics in the U.S.
https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2020/09/15/8-facts-about-catholics-and-politics-in-the-u-s/
I LIVE IN A PART OF OHIO WHERE THERE ARE WAAAYYYYY MORE ROMAN CATHOLICS, THAN PROTESTANTS.
THERE ARE WAAAAAY MORE COMSERVATIVE REPUBLICAN R.C. VOTERS THAN LIBERAL PELOSI STYLE DEMS
Agree that there is a tremendous divide in the Catholic Church right now between older, traditional Catholics and the younger generation.
The child abuse scandal in the church is extremely sad and obviously a black eye.
I've known over a dozen priests on a very personal level in my life and can say that they are/were all some of the best human beings that I've ever known.
All completely devoted to serving God and serving people and making the world a better place.
This is my theory on the child abuse scandals.
Unfortunately, many young men that had minds that caused them to be attracted to children or even men(men are legal but a sin in the Church) instead of women but grew up in a very religious family where only a married man and woman is allowed........decided that the man and woman thing couldn't work because their minds found that unappealing.
We were taught growing up that God intended men to have 1 of 2 vocations. 1. Married or 2. Religious life/priest
So they decided, that since they found adult women relations and marriage to be unappealing, they should just become celibate and give up their lives to God. Many might have seen this as part of a message from God that they were intended to become priests.
The carnal instincts of all humans are very hard to control and after becoming priests they gave in, especially since many were put in constant temptation situations that made it easy for them to become predators on people that completely trusted them.
The other item is the Catholic Church not allowing priests to marry. Even men that desire women and decide to give up their life for God and their faith are going to have tremendous desires that have to be suppressed.
There are not nearly as many men becoming priests today but my Dad went to Sacred Heart Seminary high school in Detroit for several years. A school for young men intending to be priests.
I think his lust for women told him that God wanted him to pick married life. He was the best husband and father ever, so he made the right choice. I've jokingly thanked him 100+ times for not becoming a priest.
Anyways, there's dozens of other things the church has to battle right now. My personal view is that they will eventually need to allow priests to marry, just to sustain the number of priests needed to serve Catholics and the Church.
However, religions are always extremely slow to change because they are religions.
A religion is based on faith in things that you can't prove. The world is often based on data, facts, science and evidence to prove realities.
You often can't DISprove a faith that people have about something that can't be proven. So there is a modern day conflict as our understanding of the world expands and conflicts with beliefs that were passed on from people that lived in a more primitive world, thousands of years ago that wrote the books which define our faiths.
At the same time, our frantic/busy, material world has almost eliminated reflection and spirituality in many people that don't have time for that........so that if God was trying to send any messages, they would be too busy to even notice them.
MIKE ~ I MAINLY LEFT THE PRESBYTERIAN USA FAITH, BECAUSE THEY WERE TEACHING THAT THERE ARE NO SUCH PLACES AS HEAVEN AND HELL.
THE PRESBYTERIANS KEEP SPLITTING UP, LIKE THE LUTHERANS HAVE.
WHEN I WAS BAPTISED ... MY EX-CHURCH WAS CALLED FIRST UNITED PRESBYTERIAN.
LAST I CHECKED, THERE ARE VERY FEW OF THAT BRANCH LEFT...SADLY
MCFARM ~ ALL "CHURCHES", ETC... HAVE PROBLEMS. BECAUSE THEY DON'T LISTEN TO WHAT THE GOOD LORD SAYS. THAT'S MY BELIEF & NOT JUST MY OPINION. LOL
I DON'T UNDERSTAND THE DISCONNECT BETWEEN THE ISRAELI JEWS & ANERICAN JEWS
I CAN UNDERSTAND THE MESSIANIC JEWS, THO. I WENT TO ONE OF THEIR GATHERINGS 20 YEARS AGO & THOROUGHLY ENJOYED IT.
I DATED A JEWISH GUY FOR OVER A YEAR & NEITHER OF US WOULD BUDGE IN OUR BELIEFS. WE REMAINED FRIENDS, THO. LOL
Thanks much, Jean.
Religion is one topic that I will always tread lightly on and be supportive of personal beliefs (unless it involves violations of humans rights) regardless of what my personal feelings are or how they have evolved lately.
There is much more to it but just out of respect for the person that I admire in the world most (my Dad) and what he sacrificed for me and raised me to believe in.
I realize that the world has drastically changed since he grew up in the 1920'/30s but people's belief systems are rooted in their environments surrounding them.
Lots of traditions and customs that might not make sense to people growing up outside where you grew up........the Middle East, for instance. Or China. Religions pass some of that on as well as faith in things that can't be proven.
There are things that we know today, that we didn't 100 years ago. In 2033 people might also think of us in this age as primitive/ignorant. In other words, the more that I learn, the more that I appreciate how much I don't know.
A kid in elementary school today can know much more about science than the the most educated knew 1,000 years ago.
