Do you know why Catholics put money in the collection plate at Sunday mass?

[davidthegnome]

95. Perhaps it was a poor analogy

In my own case, the reasons I left are primarily those you pointed out above - but this does not mean that everyone is going to see it the same way. Many Catholics remain with the hope of creating change from within, particularly with the reformation movements. The problem is that the Catholic church is not a democracy. The laity doesn't have the option to vote for their officials, or official policy. Yet individual Catholics also do not generally share the same views as Church leaders. What the Pope in the Vatican, or various Cardinals or Bishops think, tends to be irrelevant to the average church going family. They go for the rituals, for the spiritual communion, the singing, the charitable work that is done by the church. They go (in many instances) for a chance to share time with their friends and families.

The OP explained this better than I am doing, but my point is that most Catholics are disconnected from church leadership. I'm a democrat, but I don't agree with everything the Obama administration does, occasionally the President and democrats in the Congress and Senate make me want to hurl things at the wall. Still, I remain a democrat because I believe in a social safety net, in charity, in liberal social and financial policies. If the leaders of our party support illegal wars, the Patriot Act, illegal wire tapping, illegal drone strikes... and I don't, then should I simply leave the party and join another? What if the next party I join also has leadership that holds to policies I strongly disagree with?

Personally, I'm hoping to create change from within. I left the Catholic church because of their policies, but also because I lost my faith in a higher power, as intellectual honesty forced me to admit I had no clue whether there was a God or not. Yet I still believe in many of the primary principles of the Democratic Party - at least I believe in what I believe them to be... if that makes sense.

It's just not that black and white. Catholics who despise the misogyny of church leaders might remain because they still believe in it's charitable work, because they believe in the idea of helping the poor. Catholics who are furious over the molestation scandals might remain because they don't see it as a reason to quit - rather, as a reason to attempt to reform church leadership, to make sure that the institution cannot continue to do such things.

The laity, as I've said earlier, is far too diverse to be so simply explained. To categorize them all as if their motivations and ambitions were black and white is unfair and inaccurate.