Just came home from church and we are furious!

[BarackTheVote]

158. Don't let them chase you out! Christ was the original bleeding heart liberal!

I started going to this Catholic youth group Life Teen when I was 13 or 14; by the time I was 15, I was on their junior core as their webmaster. I remained part of the core off and on for the next twelve years, mostly during the summer when I was off from College. In March, I think it was, our Bishop gained national notoriety for calling Catholics who voted for candidates who voted in favor of abortion "Judas Iscariots." Obviously, this is one of the worst things you can call a Catholic, and it reeked of politicking and, indeed, bullying. I stopped contributing to the local parish and went off on Jenky on my facebook:

Dear Bishop Jenky, I will not be bullied. I will vote my conscience. I will not kowtow to plutocrats who wish to destroy the middle class and create a nation of indentured slaves. I will not succumb to fear-mongers who would have us at war with the entire world and every culture beyond their delicate WASP sensibilities. You are socially irresponsible. You are alienating the people who will only hear the Gospel if spoken with the gentle, all-loving voice of Christ. The world you would have us build will be a dystopia far more horrifying than whatever you think you perceive today. You would create a world of fear and desperation. Abortion is a symptom of a disease that would only fester and metastasize in your world. We strike at the core illness, poverty of body, mind, and spirit; we uplift and grant freedom, we lay the foundation of Maslow's Hierarchy of Need, which, unlike the Catholic hierarchy, is something everyone, regardless of race, culture, or creed, abides. You will destroy the Church in America just as your predecessors destroyed the Church in France. Secularism thrives where your type of rhetoric prevails and people will shut you off and leave the altar en masse. I for one will stay. A Catholic Democrat, as disgusting as that might be for you.

Well, for that, I was unceremoniously kicked out of the youth group I had spent more than a decade helping and supporting, undefended by my so-called friends on the core. But I'm not going anywhere. I still believe in the sacraments, the communion of saints, the core dogmas, the historicity of the Catholic claim, and the social justice doctrines. I think the hierarchy is going through another period where it's on the wrong side of history, but they're just men. The Church is bigger than them. Eventually, I believe, the Church will get back on track, but only if the progressive laity stands firm and doesn't allow itself to be driven away. After all, we are ALL priests, prophets, and kings, and we all have a part in the ultimate direction in which the Church walks into the future.

Christ was the original Bleeding Heart Liberal:
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