People Who Think

I tuned in to Anne Rice on All Things Considered the other day.  It’s worthwhile to listen to. She talks about her decision to completely distance herself from Christianity and the Catholic Church.  She was articulate and all of her points were valid.

If you read my blog regularly, you know that I’m a devout Catholic.  I may not act like one because I don’t practice my religion for show.  I don’t say grace before meals. That’s not for me.  I eat every two hours so why the hell would I say a prayer every single time that I put something in my mouth?  I don’t tell people, “Hey I’m going to Church.  Hey I’m going on this pilgrimage.  I’m going on this retreat.”  I just do what’s right for me and what’s right for me is to practice silently.

I have my issues with the church.  I’m not going to go into them here, but believe me, I do. The church is far from perfect and I find many of its behaviors despicable.  Yet, I believe in God and this was the faith I was raised in.  It’s what I know and, again, it’s what’s right for me.

Here’s why I applaud Anne Rice.  She’s a thinker and I love her for it.  She said that she tried to continue in her faith by taking what was good about the church and forget about the bad. That is where I am.

But at a certain point, she said she couldn’t do it anymore.  That she could not be part of a community or take communion with people who fight against same-sex marriage. It would have been ok if the church simply did not condone it, but that they actively tried to prevent it. “I didn’t anticipate at the beginning that the U.S. bishops were going to come out against same-sex marriage.  That they were actually going to donate money to defeat the civil rights of homosexuals in the secular society.  When that broke in the news, I felt an intense pressure.  And I am a person who grew up with the saying that all that is needed for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing, and I believe in that statement.”

You go, Anne!  Most Catholics will probably stop buying Anne Rice’s books.  Most Catholics, out of stupidity, will agree that the church’s stance is right and that same-sex marriage goes against the Bible.  Dumb righteous fuckers.

Despite the fundamental problems of the church, I’m not going to give up my faith.  I’ll continue to practice and believe.  Because some of the churches I belong to do condone homosexuality and same-sex marriages.  So take that, evil Pope Benedict.  One day, there will be justice.