From Scott: Here are some emails I received after a column last week about the Catholic Church, along with my responses, (naturally):
Dear Scott,
I read the letter from the Catholic today with great interest. (She resents her religion being ‘bashed’.) She needs a thicker skin. Those jokes aren’t being told to insult her and she shouldn’t be so sensitive. I’d also like to ask her if she is tolerant to people who don’t share her beliefs, specifically atheists. I’m an atheist and have been one for as long as I can remember. You would not believe the wave of insults this brings: I have been told I’m immoral, a heathen and am going to hell more times than I can count. If I took each attack personally (and they are attacks, not jokes), I would be a pretty miserable and upset person.
Your Catholic reader needs to lighten up and not take everything as a personal insult. Life’s too short to be so uptight.
Scott: Thanks for making a good point. Christians are taught not to judge, yet it seems like everyone does it. It’s always easier to point the finger at the sins of others and make them out to be worse than our own. Well, throw an atheist in the mix and presto! Instant damnation!
Dear Scott;
I’ve been reading your column for a long time, and I’ve never been tempted to write to you until now. I totally disagree with your comment today that the Catholic Church needs to go to confession. As a Catholic, I take exception to that remark. There are plenty of other religions in this world, and there are a great deal of other clergy members of those religions that molest children; however, for some unknown reason people choose to cover that up and only broadcast the “problems” of Catholic priests. That only goes to show you what kind of a world we live in and who runs it. Do some research – I have. Muslims, Baptists, Mormons, etc. – they all have their issues but the leaders of those religions choose to cover for the pedophiles in their communities. You should be ashamed of yourself; you owe the Catholics an apology.
Signed,
“Concerned Catholic”
Scott: Another good point but I based my opinion on my own religion, Catholicism (I’m now in recovery). I grew up going to church and Catholic school and it was not until my own consciences kicked in and I could think for myself that I started noticing the hypocrisy that exists. I began to develop my own opinions about the church and organized religion as a whole. I have done the research and since a third of the population is made up of Christians and half of them are Catholics so it only makes sense that they’d have a higher incident rate of crime than other denominations, which they do. Talk about the world we live in and who runs it, you hit the nail on the head with that one sister! Religion is the biggest business in the world. Remember that next time you tithe.
So does pedophilia exist in all religions? Most certainly, but that doesn’t change the fact that we have to approach it somewhere and the top where the problem is most prominent seems like a good place to start. Amen.