It may be a novel concept to you, Musket, but the Catholic Church doesn't just bark out orders and expect obedience. The Church tries its best to present its positions rationally.

Rationally....are you familiar with that word? It's not brainwashing or ideology. It's logical thinking, an attempt to convince others that one's position on an issue makes sense. That's the way the Catholic Church usually operates - by instruction and persuasion, not by threats and edicts.

And yes, in a church with a billion members, there's plenty of dirt for you to find fault with. The same thing happens wherever you bring two or more humans together. Somebody's gonna screw up, and some idiot is gonna blame everyone in the organization instead of putting the blame on the few who deserve it.

Maybe you absolutists wouldn't understand that, though - you who see yourselves as perfect and everyone else as unworthy.

-Joe Offer-