Sad

There is a post going on at Diaper Swappers right now, that has me a down. It is in response to the question "How did you arrive where you are, religiously?" (paraphrasing). What the poster wanted people to talk about was their faith journeys - whether to or away from Christianity, Paganism, Buddism, etc.

What has me sad is just how many of the people who answered said, in effect, "I was raised Catholic, and now I'm not anymore." To clarify a bit, I am not sad that they appear to have found happiness in their life with their new faith journey away from Catholicism. God leads people all over for various reasons and I would never be one to say that someone "Wasn't listening to God" if that was their intent (some of them decided they did not believe in God so that is a moot point for them, I guess!). I am not in their heads or their lives, so I am in no way judging...

...except myself. There were two main reasons given for them to leave the Catholic Church. One was that they were poorly catechized. This came out in statements like, "we never read the bible," "I hated that we worshipped Mary," "once I entered (name of Protestant Church) I realized that Catholics were wrong about X, Y, and Z," etc. This just makes me sad - there are probably thousands and thousands of poorly catechised current and ex-Catholics in my generation. I know, I was one. It took me drifting away from the Church and subsequently coming back and deeply studying my faith to see just how little I had learned. I still have a lot to learn, but things are so much clearer now. My dh even went to Catholic schools all his life, even for college, and he is constantly saying, "I didn't know that" or "we didn't do that" about our faith. Sad. Huge numbers of people leaving the Church simply because of misinformation or lack of study. And I certainly don't blame THEM, the fault lies with the churches and parents.

The second reason people left the Church was hypocrisy - if Catholicism/Christianity is the way to go, why are all these people so HORRIBLE to me all the time? Here I condemn myself. How often have I set a bad example by being mean to my kids, or judging someone, or gossiping, or any number of sins that are visible to others?

At least the post gave me an opportunity to pray. For myself, that I not lead anyone astray, and for everyone who posted in that thread, that they learn the truth, and not be lead down a certain path due to mistakes, lies, half-truths, or lack of answers to their questions.