Why I left the hole-y Catholic Church

Disclaimer: All of this is completely my experience. Yours might be same or different. I intend no offense to you.

I was born into a Catholic family. And I left it the first chance. Here is why.

If conservatives have a political party, Catholics will be the MAGA of them. Now if you thought the version of Catholicism they sell in the U.S is strict, you should see the version they sell elsewhere. The story I want to tell is the flavor of lollipop they sell in this state of Kerala, India called Syro Malabar Church (SMC). To start with here are the few tenets they gavaged in us from childhood.

• People who worship stone idols are your worst enemies (while their churches are filled with idols)
• God will punish you terribly for luxury (which includes things like enjoying good food, a movie etc..)
• God will punish you for looking at the opposite sex
• God will punish you for having sex before or outside marriage.
• Even inside marriage, God will punish you if you have sex not for the reason of procreation aka pleasure.
• Never masturbate. Never..
• and so it goes..

These rules were so strict that you had to confess every time you even thought about breaking them. Not to mention your natural human cravings killing you from inside.

In this article by Paul Zachariah aptly summarizes the plague that beseiges the Church in India.

As an ex-member of the SMC, I can vouch for everything the author says. I have seen the dark underbelly of the beast from close by. It is dirty and nasty. The church has now become a Las Vegas like show of smoke and mirrors. It relies on (non existent?) miracles to fill its coffers and not selfless service that Jesus preached. How it is any different from a street magician passing his hat around after his show, is beyond me.

From the bearer of a message from a loving father, church has now become a harbinger of guilt- no guilt, no pain and no repentance you can get from your sheep. Especially the taboo associated with sex- yes the very act that progenies more of such little humans who go on to support church, or not. The clergy in SMC sells sex as the biggest sin you could do in your lifetime. And note, they are not even talking about premarital or extra-marital sex. They are talking about sex with your lawfully married spouse. The church fiats that sex be done ONLY for the act of procreation and not for happiness. And hence they ban usage of any contraceptive methods. Now if you accidentally end up doing it, you are bound to confess it at the nearest possible opportunity. Why does this sound like the clergy singing “If I ain’t getting any, am not letting my folk get any”. (Even though considering the cases of child abuse and secret affairs of the supposedly “celibate” clergy that come to light every other week, I wonder if they really aint not getting any). This fear of sex is instilled at a very young age into the minds of young patrons that, they grow up to be hating the opposite sex. While parents proudly tout that their son or daughter refuses to even glimpse at the other gender, little do they realize that it is extremely unhealthy. Either they are going to explode out at the first opportunity they get, or they are going to leave you sooner or later..

The dark figure of ever punishing God looms around every corner of the laity’s day to day activities. While calamities and injuries are portrayed as revenge of God on your lack of “contributions” to the church , successes, howsoever small are attributed to the God being pleased. The very pagan ideals the church considered to banish 2000 years ago, it now has embraced and is deeply mired in. If you thought brain washing was limited to movies like Manchurian Candidate, you are mistaken. At Least political congregations have a public agenda. This congregation has a very secret one. When Nietzsche said ‘the more you stare into the abyss, the abyss starts staring back at you’ was about SMC.

They should rename themselves as SMH.