I'm considering converting to Protestantism

[Shi Huangdi]

Recently the whole pedophilia scandal has caused me to question my religion more and more. It's becoming harder for me to take on faith that the Catholic Church is the Church of God when it's cardinals are involved in protecting child molestors. Catholicism was the religion my parents raised me in, but I am not so sure now if I will keep it. Any thoughts on this? Have any Catholics here had any reactions to the pedophilia scandal in the Church?

[Asher]

If you're going to switch churches because of politics, why are you even bothering with religion?

Religion's about faith, not about politics. If you honestly feel you can swap religions at whim for political reasons you're a blind atheist at heart.

Atheims and being agnostic are valid choices for you.

Not everybody needs the religious crutch.

[TCO]

Pick a better reason than that, BD.

Luther had a lot more theses when he went door-nailing.

[Jon Miller]

Originally posted by Asher
If you're going to switch churches because of politics, why are you even bothering with religion?

Religion's about faith, not about politics. If you honestly feel you can swap religions at whim for political reasons you're a blind atheist at heart.

Atheims and being agnostic are valid choices for you.

Not everybody needs the religious crutch.

asher, he is switching between christian churchs

so the fundamental faith is the same (or so I understand)

Jon Miller

[KrazyHorse]

Some really big differences of opinion, though...

[KrazyHorse]

And not just structural ones, either.

[Boris Godunov]

I would understand if you were considering leaving the Catholic church and remaining independent. But why bother jumping to another church? Surely your faith in Catholic teaching goes deeper than that, I hope. If you wish to reject the current church leadership while retaining your identity as a believing Catholic, I'd say just drop out of the Church in protest, or join a protest Catholic organization (I know they do exist).

Joining a Protestant church seems rather meaningless, if it really is just dissatisaction for the behavior of Catholic leaders. That's like me not liking Bush, so I'm gonna go live in the U.K. To hell with that, I'm going to stay here and protest/vote against Bush, make my dissatisfaction known.

[notyoueither]

Take heart Shi.

You will find bad apples in most barrels. What counts is the message and how you relate to it. The Catholic church has done many good things too.

BTW, I am neither Catholic nor Protestant.

[connorkimbro]

Yes, I agree with what the others have said. Don't belong to a faction based on the other people in that faction. Every group has good people, and bad people in it.

[Shi Huangdi]

You don't understand... The Catholic Church is supposed to be the Church of God and promoting God's work here on this Earth. That someone high up in the church as a Cardinal would be protecting child molestors- and even the pope hasn't done anything to stop this. That my Church would be doing bad works still suprises me. I realize the Church, supposedly God's Church had promoted bad works before- such as forming eccelisatical courts and killing people who differed from church doctrine- but I had hoped the Church had stopped promoting bad after John XXIII and Vatican II. Keep in mind, I haven't decided anything yet, and I won't convert just on this- but I intend to re-examine doctrine more carefully again and see if I can still agree with it, but my faith is definitely shaken. I don't consider it a matter of politics when church higher ups protect child molestors by not reporting them to police and transferring them to different parishes.

[Ming]

It's what you believe in... not the idiots running it...

Signed a non practicing Catholic who still believes the teachings...

[Boris Godunov]

Originally posted by Ming
It's what you believe in... not the idiots running it...

Signed a non practicing Catholic who still believes the teachings...

All of them?

[Shi Huangdi]

Originally posted by connorkimbro
Yes, I agree with what the others have said. Don't belong to a faction based on the other people in that faction. Every group has good people, and bad people in it.

Its different with Catholicism- its more then an ideology. It's a church, and the hierarchy is an integral part of it. Catholicism believes the Church is god's living instrument on Earth, so it's really not good when Cardinals are acting this bad, and even the pope hasn't done much to stop this.

[notyoueither]

I think Boris said it best so far.

The Church is doing something about the situation isn't it? I'd heard they were. If they didn't... that would be bad.

Getting back to Boris... if it matters, fight for it. Help make it better.

[Asher]

What's the point of organized religion? It should be clear from all the recent fiascos that the leaders of the religions aren't serving God, but rather themselves and the political structure of the churches.

Why do people need to belong to an organized religion? What's wrong with believing what you will on your own? Why do we need to join up with others?