the problem is everyone else

I was eating dinner with some really close friends the other night. They were telling me how someone they knew just jumped the catholic ship to become a baptist. This woman had been a catholic for a really long time, so it was pretty shocking to my friends.

I guess she even brought them over some literature from the baptist church she is going to now. They let me read the literature. I knew it was going to be good from the very beginning. The cover of the pamphlet stated “The Idolatry of the Papists.” Classic fundamentalist baptist propaganda. The whole thing was full of how terrible the catholics are. How they worship the popes. How the popes have always been evil men. How the whole ploy of the catholic church is to gain power, control, and money. The best part was when it actually went through, pope by pope, to talk about the evil things that they had done in their personal lives, as well as in their roles as popes. It was a lot for a little pamphlet, although to be fair, it was written on legal paper, so it was a bit larger than your standard pamphlet. Also it had no pictures, so more room for airing out the popes’ dirty laundry.

I love arguments that are full of fallacies. Religious arguments are some of the best. I’d put them right before political arguments. Here’s the thing, no matter how shitty some of the popes were, that has nothing to do with the belief system of Catholics. Have there been some pretty wretched protestants over the years? I think so.

I also love antagonism and bullying. I do it regularly on my blog. I think it is great that the first thing this woman got when she walked in the door was a pamphlet on how evil Catholicism is. It’s no surprise that they get a whopping 18 people there every Sunday morning. I have no idea what these people believe, but I know what they don’t. They don’t believe that Catholics should be allowed to live. I can get behind that message! I bet if she had not converted (is it called converting when you switch from catholic to baptist?) they probably would have burned her at the stake right then and there, which would have been a pretty good way to show the world that Jesus wants us to love others and focus on judging our own hearts before condemning others.

The most awesome part of the whole thing is that these people were condemning catholics for pursuing power and money and for worshiping their leaders. Of course the bulletin had the pastor’s name written on it. Of course the congregation sits and listens and hangs on every word that the pastor says. Of course the bulletin tells the amount of money they brought in last week, the deficit from what they should be bringing in, and a call to help them get more money to make up for that difference. It is a good thing they spend most of their effort condemning others for being controlling and money hungry. If they stopped doing that they might take five minutes to look in the mirror and that could ruin the whole thing!