I would expect more from you.

The past few weeks I have heard some very disturbing things. For all of you that don't know I work part time at a Catholic church. Even though I was born and raised Catholic, I had drifted away from many years ago, and had not been in a church for a very long time. During my time there I have gotten to know many of the parishioners and staff very well. I have had some pretty deep conversations with everyone from the little old lady who irons the altar covers to the nuns, all the way up to the Pastor of the parish. During these conversations, the things that I heard these so called "good catholics" say really sent me through a loop. Most if not everyone that I talked to was racist in some way or another. I had talked to one nun, a woman maybe in her late 60's, where she informed me that all the blacks and Spanish are the reason why this country is in the shape it is now. I was floored by her bluntness. If that was the end of it, I would chalk it up to just one or two people's ignorant opinions, but that is just the beginning. I have heard derogatory remarks about everyone from gays, to the Jews, to the homeless and even the "colored" president. It was hard for me to swallow that people who believed in Jesus and God would treat other human beings like this.

But hold on, the worst is yet to come. I was sitting in the back room with the Pastor one day, and he told me a story about how he looked out his bedroom window and saw a homeless man sleeping on the steps of the church. I was expecting him to tell me that he invited the man in for a good meal and maybe some spare cash he had laying around, but that wasn't the case. He continued to tell me that he had the groundskeeper of the parish chase the man away. I had admitted to this "man of God" that it had become shocking to me to see how many young homeless people you see on the streets now a days. i had said that it was a shame that they didn't have any friends or family that could let them crash on their couch or go to their home for a meal. Then out of no where this priest told me that "Maybe their friends and family feel that, hey they screwed up their own lives! They ain't going to screw up mine.". How can a man that calls himself a preacher of love and peace have such little compassion for another human being? It boggles my mind.

My grand father always told me, "If you want the world to be a better place, you have to lead by example.". In my eyes so many religious figures are doing the complete opposite of that. Honor is not a birth right or something you get from a title. It is defined by a man's actions. I have lost a lot of respect for too many people these past months. We have a lot of work to do if we want to make this world a place worth living in.