Your response to Faith in Reverse has been great. Thank you. I’m continuing the series for paying subscribers, and though I’m not yet to the primary question—Why Catholic?—today, I’m tackling the question, “How could you join such an abusive church?”
If you haven’t read Faith in Reverse, Part 1, follow this link.
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As I’ve made my way into the Catholic Church, some have asked, “how could you join a religious structure that’s been party to so much abuse?” And for that matter, the same question could be asked of anyone who’s decided to stick it out in the Christian faith. It is a fair question, one answered in part by tragedy.
This is the account of the world’s first murder. Cain—the original sociopath—skullduggered his brother with a rock, and the blood and brains of his dearly departed leaked across the field, flowed down deep grooves in the land, and leeched into virgin streams. The blood cried out to the people as it made its way downriver, and in this way, the news of the deed spread throughout the world.
Cain only used a stone for his skullduggery because humans hadn’t yet invented broad swords, rifles, atom bombs, or computer viruses, so there was a sense of intimacy to the world’s first murder, which upset God because intimacy was created for love. God gave Cain a mark by God, the Good Book says, a tattoo that said Sociopath, and this tattoo was scrawled across Cain’s neck in glowing pink, red, and orange letters. God sent out a decree, which was that if anyone should come across a man with a pulsing colored tattoo, they should stay away from him or else suffer terrific deific consequences. The decree was carried out by messengers, and most people still feared God and sociopaths enough that they agreed not to harm the world’s first murderer.
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