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I'm a moderate Catholic who attends 2 out of 3 Sundays. I have gone and heard homilies that were good and homilies that almost put me to sleep.
Lately, I've been put out by the "guilt trip" that comes from religious institutions. Growing up, I remember the joke "Jews invented guilt and Catholics made it an art form." Some Protestants and fundamentalists exercise the "guilt trip" via dogmatic Bible quoting. Regardless, the message seems to be that people are inherently bad and that's not what I want to hear. In fact, I think it's a pretty rancid message.
I've done and said things I feel guilty about but I don't need any priest or minister to explain it to me. I trust my own sense of right and wrong and I know when I've violated my own values and do make an effort to correct them. Guilt, combined with threats of eternal punishment have had no affect on me whatsoever.
Location: Everybody is going to hurt you, you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for-B Marley
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This is exactly why I'm not into 'religion'. I'm a Christian in the sense that I have a relationship with Christ, not religion/churches/dogma. Christianity teaches us to let go of our guilt b'c we're forgiven. To not accept that is to say Christ's dying on the cross wasn't sufficient to wash away our sins. Guilt is a wasted emotion.
I just don’t do guilt trips. If I cross the line I apologies, and move on. If the person whose toes I stepped on can’t get over it, that is their problem, and I still move on. I am not political correct, and been know to be more than a little direct. Most people get used to it and the rest just try to avoid me.
I'd say guilt (or the excuse for flagellation that the Catholic church likes to put on people as guilt) is the reason most of my ancestors walked away from the church.
Guilty for marrying outside the church. Guilty for having children out of wedlock. Guilty for not worshipping the way the local minister felt you should. Guilty for using birth control. Guilty for breathing it seems to me. And there's a whole bunch of truly horrid actions the church thought would be suitable to perpetrate against these good people to show its displeasure.
FRANKLY they've not come up with ONE reason for their actions yet that would seem fair and reasonable to me, it sure doesn't make me want to sign up.
That said I have lots of family and friends that are Catholic and they seem to have been able to balance their own non-judgemental views with that of the catholic church. I cannot. I would feel like a hypocrit.
Being around all these Catholics though, coming from Catholics, well I think the Catholic church has somehow managed to make guilt, Catholic guilt a part of one's genes now.
I have lots of family and friends that are Catholic and they seem to have been able to balance their own non-judgemental views with that of the catholic church.
This seems to be the way most of the Catholics I know operate these days.
This seems to be the way most of the Catholics I know operate these days.
Agreed.
It's just a shame it hasn't filtered up to the top.
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Guilty for having children out of wedlock. 
