Christianity and the Catholic Church

This is one of those touchy subjects I'm going to get into, but if you've been following this blog, you were warned. This is about religion, and this is about why I disagree with the Catholic Church, which I grew up in, and ultimately moved away from.

I realize hypocrisy is something that plagues any religion, but the Catholic Church has had seventeen hundred years of hypocrisy. I'm not going to sit here and write out what every corrupt Pope has ever done, but look up names like Boniface 8, Leo 10, and the Borgia Popes.

While the Papacy is questionable (Indulgences over Twitter? Really?), it is far from the actions the Catholic Church has done or allowed to happen that I really have issues with. Just to list off the biggest ones, the Catholic Church for over a thousand years had essentially a spiritual dictatorship in Europe, as well as the conquering of the Inca and Aztec Empires in South America through it's puppet nation Spain to "convert them to Christ", when they also got a nice big pile of gold at the same time. This is a church that has persecuted homosexuals, burned and killed those who've opposed them, and at the same time either protect or do nothing about child molesters in it's own hierarchy.

Theologically, the Catholic Church has made me scratch my head, too. Some people say Mormons aren't Christian because they have another testament of Jesus, but I'm going to stick up for them here. Mormons have the Book of Mormon they read as well as reading the Bible, when the Catholic Church only preaches four books out of the Bible. If Christianity is the belief that Jesus came to save us from sin, then the Mormons are Christian, and Catholics believe the Sacraments save and the Church has the power to forgive sins. Catholics say they are a monotheistic religion when many things say differently. If God is God, then why do Catholics pray to Mary and the Saints as if they have any power? I've seen people wait in line to touch and kiss the feet of a statue of Mary and say it isn't idolatry, and take communion with the belief that a priest before their very eyes turned a waffer and some wine into physical flesh and blood.

Like I said, I grew up Catholic, so much of my family is still Catholic, and I love them to death. My issues with Catholicism and it's history are mine alone and not tied to anything they have done. For me, the Catholic history is too bloody for me to be a part of.