Some things don't make sense.

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I have heard some suggest the Church, and Church members, shouldn't, and even don't have the authority to, judge.  I promise that is not true.  Explicitly, implicitly, She and we must judge.  What we cannot do, and even the Church won't do this, is damn.  The most She can do is excommunicate, which is neither final (it can and has been lifted) nor even meant to be a form of justice, being considered spiritually medicinal (which is why I am not sure it is not used much more frequently on openly pro-abortion, pro gay marriage, and other such politicians!).  We simply don't have the authority to damn.  What we can do is see behavior that is sinful, scandalous, (literally) hurtful, and deal with the person(s) involved.  A simple word to the wise might do.  I've... heard them.  I knew, they were right, or tried to explain if it was just a misunderstanding.  I have also said them, if I try to be cautious, tentative, but sure on some things.  I can't tell someone they can't do something.  The Church as an institution, can, and has to say that, at times.  I actually think leniency, at least in American Churches, at least on true dogmas, is more the problem than any other issue?  The Church's job is to shepherd souls.  The only way it can do that is through social and spiritual pressure, the offer of heavenly rewards, inclusion, and exclusion, and teaching that hell is real and final.  We do not easily come to God's will, not any more.  And God's will is... well...  Look, Moses didn't get to but see the Promised Land, after all his work.  Christ was rather strict, He really wasn't just a go-along-to-get-along type, like some hippie wandering the highways, byways, cities and towns.  What did He say to the wealthy young man who wanted to follow Him?  What about the temple money changers?  Even telling His own, chosen, to get behind Him, calling him Satan!  The Church has a difficult job and few tools.  She has to use them.  And so do we, as an organic part of the Church!

I know the Church seems hard.  I have an aunt who married a Catholic man.  Both are divorcees, he was not able to obtain an annulment.  I am not completely sure of all the details, of where or how they married, though I am sure it couldn't have been a Church wedding.  But I do know that at least she, and maybe he, cannot take the Eucharist while they are married, unless one of them dies.  Really?  Well, yes.  Is the Church arbitrary on this?  Well, yes and no.  I mean, the canon is there, the laws and means of things are there, but there is always some variance due to the fact that different people may be involved and even one person can vary, even on the same day.  I do trust that the Church was given, and has taken, the authority of the keys, and I do trust that She does Her utmost to tend that trust.  I don't always like the truth, or the answer, but who does, or even always should?  I don't like gravity, at least when I fall.  I don't like that I have to sleep.  I don't like that I have to eat, if I can enjoy that a great deal too, the effects of which I also don't like.  What I like has nothing to do with what is.

Do I think She is perfect?  No.  She is the bride Christ left to us, as our Mother.  Single parenting is... challenging.  However, after much research, lots of questions, comparing apples to apples and trying to have others toss in lemons, oranges, and donkeys into the comparisons to try and confuse things, I have to say, I personally am well pleased with... my... Church.  Sticks to stones, Pope to whom I share my pew with, priests to group leaders, dissemination of the Word to teaching, history to Magisterium, the many and varied Sacraments, Saints, all of that which makes Her tick.  She, in my humble estimate, is doing a fine job, if I have a quibble or two.  I've kicked those tires.  And, while a socialist or simply non-believing member becomes apparent from time to time... I have to wonder where better for them to be!  If I would like to see them included in controls a little less often, if they tend to be the ones who LOVE CONTROL (while decrying Church power, the very thing they often try to assert)!  A perfect assembly of very imperfect people, but it's a beautiful thing, and She still works... somehow, as usual.  :p  I have to think Christ, even with the 12, had to do a face-palm, seriously, and often.  "Jesus, they are" *smoke rolling out of ears* *panting from rushing to Him* "using YOUR name to expel demons!"  (Don't we have a patent on Your name?)

Why can the Church say homosexuality is a sin, for example?  Well, maybe because both the New and Old Testament say it?  Perhaps because the tradition of most religions and cultures considers it against nature?  Perhaps because biologically, even, it is non-productive and literally destructive.  Even pagan cultures have very much considered it more than a sin, but on to a crime.  As well, the difference between the Church and, say criminal law, is that the Church can be chosen or not.  People who know what the Church's dogmas are, and choose to flaunt or ignore them, or even try to change them, are simply way off the mark and only hurting themselves, spiritually and otherwise quite often.  If you want to be gay, the Episcopalian church will accept you, as will most mainline churches, right into their ministry if you want quite often.  But if the Church believes something to be a sin, it is of vital importance for the Church to teach, and prohibit, such behavior, to within Her ability, even for Her own sake, it is Her duty, one she would be failing by not informing a sinner of his or her sins!  Gah!  There are many such social issues.  If you don't want to be Catholic, because you don't believe in Catholicism, fine, I guess.  But don't try to change the Church, especially, not to the point of breaking Her duty.  Don't even get my started on women in the priesthood.  I think women in combat is actually slightly wiser.  And if you have looked at that at all, with any kind of logic, you know that is so broken it fails before it is fully spoken, let alone done.  A female marine officer, after two tours, had her career ended and became infertile for the strain.  And officers don't hump their junk like enlisted men.  They simply don't have even that much strain put on them.  So a female priest?  *sigh*

Go on, find a church that "fits", allows the sins you like, puts women and gays in their ministry, or just doesn't act all bossy about your soul.  It is yours, after all, or at least you will be attending to it and it's salvation or damnation, right?  It's between, what, you and Jesus?  What should the Church have to do with it?  It's all about having great friends, picnics (well, not so much with fewer and smaller families), or... just having scintillating conversations even sometimes about religion, right?  I'll pray for you.  Heck, even if we become enemies, as I do pray for them... in a way.  I just don't get why some people want to change to the Church to be "more like America" or whatever else they are trying to model it on (usually some secular broken false dream of reality, developed in college or somewhere else equally antithetical to reality), seeing the wreck this nation is in, socially, fiscally, and in every other way?  Seriously, find another church.