On the attacks on the Catholic Church

[BainsBane]

188. This OP is an appeal not to be a jerk toward fellow DUers who are

Catholic. You respond, so religion isn't a choice? That is the justification here of many who seek to dump all over Catholics. So why raise the issue if it isn't in an effort to defend bigotry? The issue is really simple. Either you treat people like equal human beings or you don't. The OP is asking people to knock if off because long-time, valued members of this community are leaving over the incessant hatred directed at them over their religion. I find it particularly ironic that a response to bigotry by the Catholic hierarchy toward homosexuality is bigotry toward Democrats here because some have decided those members must be the same as the Pope and the Council of Bishops since they share a common religion.

I get people are poorly educated these days and don't know anything about history. They assume our modern capitalist society where people are severed from past, family, and community is a natural state and therefore don't understand the link between ethnicity and religion. We live in a world that values the accumulation of wealth above all else, and you have no concept that your evocation of the idea of religion as a choice is a product of the capitalist worldview. I can't go around educating people, especially when they don't want to learn. But the appeal here is for DUers to stop acting like jerks toward Catholics just because you don't like what you see in the news. Skinner has made the point about differences between the church hierarchy and liberal Catholics quite well in ATA.