A study came out recently all about what Catholics
believe compared to what all Americans believe,
and I just want to point out 2 issues in particular.
First, is marriage equality.
55% of all Americans say they support gay
or lesbian couples getting married now.
Now, this is something forbidden by the Catholic Church.
Their catechism even says, and I quote,
"Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered."
The supposedly great Pope Francis believes that.
And yet 60% of Catholics said they support gay marriage.
Sixty.
The second issue is abortion.
53% of Americans said that abortions should be
legal in all or most cases.
The Catholic Church, on the other hand,
calls this quote, "A grave offense."
But guess what -- 51% of Catholics said that
abortion should be legal in all or most cases.
What the hell? (laughs)
And while we're at it, how many Catholics
do you think actually believe that the consecrated
communion wafer is literally the body of Christ as the Church teaches?
How many Catholics do you think believe that the
Pope always knows best?
How many of them believe women should never become priests?
So, here's my question for all of you Catholics
out there who disagree with the Church's positions:
Why?
Okay, maybe I can try to answer that.
Maybe you don't think the Church's positions
on these issues are deal-breakers.
Maybe you just like the tradition and ritual of Mass
and you don't care what the Church has to
say about anything else.
Maybe you have pressure from your family, or
from your spouse, to remain in the Church.
Maybe you'd like to see the Church change its position
on these issues, and you figure you have a better
chance of making that happen if someone like you is
inside of the Church rather than fighting it from the outside.
Maybe you're Catholic in name only, and you couldn't
even tell us the name of the Pope if your life depended on it.
Maybe a Catholic school happens to be the best
one in your area, and you decided to do the bare
minimum in order to join the Church.
But, here is my plea to you.
I believe the Catholic Church is a destructive organization.
For all the good it does in some situations,
and no doubt, there are some amazing priests and nuns out there,
the Church makes the world a worse place
by getting in the way of progress.
If you truly cared about LGBT rights and womens' rights,
just to name two of them,
the best thing you could do is stop calling yourself a
Catholic and get out of the Church.
Stop supporting an organization that is
opposing those issues.
By coming up with shitty reasons to stay in a
bigoted club, you are perpetuating the problem.
It's bad enough that Catholics believe saying a
few Hail Marys will absolve you of your sins,
but why do you want to be part of an organization
that fires great teachers at Catholic schools
for the "sin" of marrying the wrong person,
who happened to be of the same sex.
Because that happens a lot.
And I haven't even mentioned all of the sexual abuse scandals yet.
Now, here's one problem with the sort of survey
I mentioned at the beginning of this video.
They just ask you if you're Catholic and run with it.
If they limited "Catholics" to people who actually
believe what the Catholic Church teaches,
their numbers would be decimated.
What was also interesting in that survey is just
how many people felt that Pope Francis
supported gay marriage.
Of the Catholics who supported marriage equality,
nearly half of them said
"Yeah, the Pope agrees with me!"
No! He Doesn't!
In other words, a lot of Catholics don't even
know what the Church teaches on these issues,
and yet they keep the Catholic label.
All I'm asking you to do is
ditch the label if it's not accurate,
and if it's safe for you to do so.
Or better yet, if you're watching this and you call
yourself a Catholic, despite not agreeing with
the Church on these issues,
do us all a favor and tell us why in the comments.
Is it a reason I mentioned earlier,
or something else entirely?
Because if you're just culturally Catholic,
supporting the Church even though you oppose its
stance on these positions, you'd be doing a
hell of a lot of good by getting out of it.
By staying in there, you are giving them the numbers
and the money they need to
hold their influence on these issues.
Now, I know some of you might say
you're Catholic just like some Jewish people
are culturally Jewish, even though they don't
believe in the religious aspects of it.
But come on, no synagogue is
causing this much damage in the world.
I'm not even asking you to stop believing in God.
I mean, by all means, if you want to grab a belief here
and there from the buffet of religions, have at.
But please don't give the Church the sort of validation
that it doesn't deserve.
My name is Hemant Mehta, and I write at FriendlyAtheist.com
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