Cults demand absolute, unquestioning obedience from their members. In the cult of Racer X, this is how I will enforce obedience.

With each passing day, I become increasingly detached from the Catholic Church. The latest controversy over contraception is just another straw on the proverbial camel’s back.

I don’t give a fuck about contraception. I think the whole argument is ridiculous. Again, it is another example of the Church being obsessed over sexual matters. If we look at this rationally, would it not make sense that a Church whose leadership is exclusively made up of celibate men would be obsessed with sexual morality? The teaching that every single sexual act needs to be open to the procreation of life, otherwise it is a sin, is something I simply do not believe in.

I am just sick of it all: the teachings against homosexuality, contraception, sexual purity, etc. The fact that 98% of Catholic women use some form of contraception is the clearest evidence of the great divide between what the Church teaches on sexual ethics and the practice of the ordinary member of that Church. Most Catholics simply do not follow all the teachings of the Church. They never have and never will.

Strict religious doctrine on sexuality often leads to some amusing contradictions.

I find it amusing when I see women listen to and obey celibate, and often homosexual, clergy telling them that they should not use contraception, engage in sex outside of marriage, masturbate, etc. I suppose they are part of the one percent of the Catholic women who do not use contraception, for whatever reason. I often wonder if the entire Catholic Church could really be distilled down to a meager one percent of people who actually believe and practice the faith. If everyone who did not practice every tenet of the faith were excommunicated from the Church, which is what most orthodox Catholics would like, in the name of religious purity, the Church would look quite different.

At this point in my life, I simply feel divorced from many of the official teachings of this Church. I really do not belong or fit in with the average parish. I certainly do not subscribe to the idealized vision of Catholic family life that is so often promoted. My world, my experiences are different. I dislike the cold logic of theology so popular among Catholic apologists, especially when it pertains to spirituality and human behaviors. The common answer to these issues is: well, just submit and be humble and obey. The Church authorities know what is right. It is prideful for you to think for yourself. Think of Jesus.

When I hear such a response, I begin to wonder if the Catholic Church is not the world’s biggest cult. After all, many of the structures between a cult and the Church are similar. Cults often function on the notion that God has instilled anointed leaders with divine wisdom. The follower is to obey, for it is in the best interest of their soul, and if they do not obey, they will be punished somehow, either in this life or the next. Fear and intimidation are used to support those in power. Dialogue and discussion are suppressed. Ignorance is encouraged. Reading things that the leaders deem threatening is prohibited. We are told, as Catholics, to obey the bishops, the Church’s teaching, and if we question things, we are “prideful” and not “obedient”. We are told what movies and books to read, all in the name of spiritual purity. The theologian and priest Charles Curran was banned from teaching at a Catholic institution because he questioned the Church’s teachings on sexual ethics. This, at the same time the Church was promoting and complimenting the child rapist founder of the cult like Legion of Christ, Marcial Maciel, as a “efficacious guide to youth”. Exclusion from heaven is the ultimate threat of not obeying what we are told to think. Looking at these things from a purely historical or sociological perspective, the Church looks really fucked up.

The Ayatollah Rick Santorum, once he is elected President and ushers in an era or religious utoptia in the United States. This is what makes holy Catholic women wet.

I am supposed to simply believe in something, such as the prohibition on contraception, which I think to be ludicrous? Am I really supposed to think that the gay people I know and like are somehow morally evil and disordered? Am I really supposed to suppress all my sexual desires, my complete sexuality, until the night I might be married? I am not suppose to question that? If I do question that, I am being “prideful”? If I write about it here, I am often called “hateful”. “Why bother even calling yourself a Catholic, or a Christian for that matter” is what the holy disciples often tell me. It is all becoming too much for me.

Furthermore, the outright hatred and prejudice I see coming from so many Christians is disturbing. The Catholic blogosphere is the worst. Gay people are evil. Single mothers are sinners. Anyone not “saved” is somehow flawed. The world went to hell in 1960, everything before then was a golden age of Catholic purity. The world is often portrayed by Christians as a Manichean struggle betwen good and evil. Republicans are on the side of goodness, Democrats are evil. The consequent spiritual pride is often overwhelming. But the sad fact is that this has always been a part of Christianity. From the earliest days, Christians cut themselves off from the corrupted world, believing they were better than others, purer, part of God’s chosen people. This of course will lead to a serious epidemic of spiritual pride. How can it not? We can see this most vividly in the splintering of Christianity itself into numerous sects, each one thinking it has the true, pure faith, while everyone else is tainted. Catholic vs. Orthodox, Catholic vs. Protestant, Protestant vs. Protestant, etc. I suppose this is only inevitable with human nature and religion. But it is something I do not want to be a part of. Belief in God, yes, a deep spiritual life, yes, being part of a group which triumphantly believes it is the sole recipient of absolute truth, no.

So now we have this whole contraception absurdity upon us. The orthodox Catholic media is out in full force, from EWTN to Bill Donahue to Rick Santorum crusading for the teaching of Holy Mother Church, the same teachings that 98% of Holy Mother Church’s precious children do not believe in. The Bishops are telling us we need to be obedient to them now. On a social and political, Church and State issue, I can understand the principles of this, but it still makes me uncomfortable, seeing that this is dealing with a teaching most Catholics ignore. The disconnect is simply too great. And is not contraception at least one way to keep down the abortion rate? What about helping women not die in childbirth, as use to be quite common, by helping them control their reproductive lives?

This is what Adam and Eve started doing in the garden of Eden...the source of all our woes!

The immutable fact of nature is that people are going to fuck, nothing is ever going to change that, so helping to keep down the unwanted pregnancy rate is a good thing. Contraception helps with that.

But alas…let me end this by promoting one of my favorite topics: erotic beauty. Here is beautiful naked woman for the religious puritans to condemn. Fuck you, assholes.

I love seeing a naked woman. For that, according to Catholic teachings, I am going to hell. O well.

And as far as contraception, well, when I fuck a woman, I use it, in one form or another. So again, fuck you, religious fanatics.