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Originally Posted by Gusteau
It's funny because you and I have a similar faith upbringing on paper (add Catholic school to my resume, and subtract weekly confession - eek!) with very different results. I think the difference is that yours may have a had a repressive bend to it where my parents were never super strict, but then again I don't think they had to be with my sister and I. So I always saw Catholicism as a naturally occurring phenomenon in regard to how one lives. Like I said, this fascinates me!
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I was sent to Catholic school through 5th grade inclusive. However, the public schools where I grew up are excellent, and my father reluctantly admitted that I would get a far better secular education there. (He himself attended Catholic schools up to and including college.) So I was enrolled in the public middle school and CCD starting in 6th grade. And weekly confession was expected (my father still goes every week) - even if I were not conscious of having sinned in the previous week, he instructed me to tell the priest that I had come for the grace of the sacrament.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Drolefille
This was more how I was raised as well. And it meant I've always looked positively on the religion itself. My reasons for leaving it have primarily been personal and/or disagreements with the hierarchy, not objection to the dogma or the cultural application of it.
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My objections have been to both the hierarchy and the dogma.
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I have two major problems with Catholicism. One is the inherent inequality of women and men. Women cannot be priests - if you want to devote your life to God, the highest position you can aspire to is a nun. Married women are expected to submit to their husbands (see Ephesians 5:22-24). The structure is set up so that women cannot be leaders. (Aside: This is why I am a Reform Jew and not an Orthodox Jew. Reform Judaism is egalitarian; Orthodox Judaism is definitely not. I belong to a congregation where both the rabbi and the president are women.)
The second is the prohibition against asking questions. The Catechism is full of questions, of course, but they all have neat pre-defined Vatican-approved answers. My parents always encouraged me to question the world around me and use the scientific method - except when it came to religion. I actually got kicked out of CCD for asking a question. When it came to religion, what the Vatican said, went. By contrast, Judaism has the Talmud, which is full of conflicting opinions.
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