Sometimes I Wonder: What is the World Coming to?

I've come across a few news stories recently that just have me shaking my head. Did you know that there is a man in Seattle who is dead due to having sex with a horse? He got the horse to give him anal intercourse and the horse's penis perforated his colon. Isn't that nice? I don't even want to think of how in the world he got under that horse without being trampled let alone why the horse didn't freak out when this guy started messing with the goods. Sure, there's the saying about "being hung like a horse", but I never imagined that someone would actually think that it was a good idea to have sex with a horse! That's disgusting! I am aware that bestiality exists as an extremely deviant sexual behavior, but I wouldn't want to give the eulogy at this guy's funeral! Of all the stupid ways to off oneself (in more ways than one). What is worse is that he didn't just find a random horse out in the pasture; there is actually a farm in Washington that people who want to have sex with animals can patronize. There is no law in the state of Washington forbidding sex between humans and animals, but if you want to have sex with a goat you might get sacked with an animal cruelty charge, because goats are smaller animals like domestic dogs. So, it's ok to get it on with Seabiscit but not Rover. Yeah, there's a huge difference there. I swear, people never cease to amaze me! I didn't realize that we actually needed laws about this kind of thing. The Bible and, um, common sense do it for me.

That story reminded me of how weird and stupid people can be. This story kinda' pissed me off: There is a Christian adoption agency in the South that has denied a child to a couple because they are Catholic. Their reasoning is that they don't believe that Catholicism supports their Statement of Faith which is that "as the Savior, Jesus takes away the sins of the world... Jesus is the one in whom we are called to put our hope, our only hope for forgiveness of sin and for reconciliation with God and with one another." Oh, yeah, Catholics don't believe any of that at all; they just happen to be part of the religion that wrote it first and is the basis of all other Christian religions. It just floors me how ignorant people really are about Catholicism. They hear the name Mary and the word transubstantiation and we are suddenly a cult of cannibals. I'm sure that my fellow Catholics have had this maddening experience before: you start talking to someone about religion (already shaky ground) and say that you are Catholic and they say that they are Christian as if there's a big difference. Why is it so difficult for non-Catholics to conceptualize Catholics as Christians? We were only the first ones! What are these people being taught during their church services and Bible studies? It seems to me that they are learning to be prejudiced against other religions. That may be a huge generalization on my part, but how can you be truly Christain and advocate discrimination against other religious groups including other Christian denominations? Last time I checked, our role model in life and religion, Jesus, helped, healed and spent time with all kinds of people who weren't good standing Jews like himself. According to these people, he should have only done good things for fellow Jews. Forget the woman at the well or any of the Gentiles. Yeah, I guess Jesus would have said, "just keep to your own."

Despite some of the troubled past of the Church not to mention some troubled present, I am proud to be a Catholic and work for the Church. It saddens me that our faith is so misunderstood and discriminated against in this country. Did you know that the KKK hates us too? That just doesn't get as much press as their racial hatred. I wonder if our detractors are aware that we assist the poor and the homeless every day without ever considering what religion they are or aren't, we give emotional and monetary support to all who are in need, we teach our children to be good people not just good Catholics to other Catholics. It is so unfortunate that the good that we do is overshadowed by a few bad seeds that the media loves to berate us with. And that is all some people see until they find themselves in a situation when they have no where else to go but our door. Think of all the child molestations that happen in schools at the hands of trusted adults who aren't celibate men, but no one says that there is a crisis in our Education system because of it. All of these things irk me from time to time, but Jesus didn't say it would be easy. He said that people would hate us (all Christians, not just Catholics) and say bad things about us and just make life miserable at times because of our choice to follow Him. Lead on.