A Religious Manifesto

This evening I got into an argument with a very good friend of mine. She did not understand my perspective on my affiliation with the Catholic Church. Now, I consider myself a Catholic, someone who falls under the teachings of the Catholic Church; but I consider myself more a Christian than a Catholic. Anyways, the basic gist of the argument was that my friend did not understand why I associate myself with the specific Catholic branch of the Christian faith while I harbor specific beliefs that come in conflict with the Catholic institution.
I decided that this would be a good time to try to explain as well as I can what I feel to be the outline of my own personal faith. I am a Christian who believes in the central tenants of the teachings of Jesus Christ (which, in a basic form, include, love, peace, acceptance). I as a person want to connect myself with the message and the identity of Jesus and of my belief of the Christian perception of God. Now, as to what is apparently the contradiction between my personal religious beliefs and the religious teachings prescribed to me by the Catholic Church, I feel it necessary to reflect that, in my opinion, the Catholic church is a mortal institution that is dominated by mortal men. To Christians, the Word of God is supposed to be perfect truth, right? However, people are not perfect; they are affected by their experiences and their personal prejudices. I think people need to take the preaching of ministers and priests (admittedly of all religions) with a grain of salt because it will always reflect the ideas of the human (and thus inherently imperfect) preaching. For example, the Catholic Church declares that homosexuality is a sin. I don’t think so. I believe in Jesus’s message of acceptance of all people, of the Samaritan woman at the well. The Catholic Church may say one thing, but I can believe another in accordance with the teachings of Jesus. For this reason, I feel that specific denominations of Christianity, though having important differences in terms of ritual, should be vehicles to the message of Christ that cater to s specific style of worship. Though I disagree with some of its differentiating tenants, the Catholic Church’s style of mass is the style of worship I feel most comfortable with. This is why I am a Christian who belongs to the specific Catholic branch of Christianity.

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