For all of the bad things the Catholic Church has done — like stealing tax money to build great cathedrals, and shielding child molesters from punishment — if you’re born into the cult(ure), you never fully escape. It’s a little like being in the mob, only without the witness protection option.

It occurred to me today that I could never again go to confession with a straight face. Some of the things we were taught were sins are such a vital part of life in the real world that I don’t believe there could be any Catholics in a Catholic heaven. And nobody can prove otherwise. (Impure thoughts? Give me a break.)

Even though I was never harmed by a priest, I feel as if they stole some of my childhood. It took years for me to get past the fear they instilled in me. They intimidated me into being a shadow of the person I might have been if I had felt free enough to think for myself. I’m way past all that now, but some scars remain.

The Catholics by no means have a monopoly on these twisted practices. Almost any organized religion will try to bend its subjects into some kind of submission, but some are worse than others. If they try to tell us what to eat, that’s one thing. If they tell us how to think, that’s worse. As a general rule of thumb, I’d say that a religion that teaches people to hate has lost its credibility. And there’s a lot of that going around.

These thoughts came to me while I was in the shower this morning, and you can read into that whatever you want. Remember that when I was fourteen I was an altar boy and had to look the priest in the eye every Sunday morning (and help him get dressed). That’s could be one reason my Saturday nights weren’t all that much fun.