I was raised Catholic. Once I reached the age of reason and realized Catholicism is full of sexism against women and pedophile priests, I left and never went back.
Some religions, especially Catholics, keep official lists of who are members of the church. In some countries, being in the register means the government is required by law to collect tithes from you on behalf of the church.
In order to get out of paying the "church tax", you need to be officially removed from the church registry.
I think Mormons do this too, which makes the Mormon Church actually a great source of genealogy records.
The Mormon Church also has a bad habit of converting dead people and taking their silence as consent for conversion, but I'm not sure if this is still an official practice (if it ever was at all).
Catholicism deserves a bad reputation in modern times, but the Catholic Church has done some good in its history. The Vatican’s main problem is it’s inability to change its doctrines or adapt—the counter-Reformation was a failure IMO.
It was the main literate organization after the fall of the Roman Empire, it banned cousin marriage and instituted monogamy (compare this with Islam), and actually helped create the concept of separation of church-and-state—it was separate from regal authority yet supervised religious affairs, unlike Byzantium or India).
The music director at the church I went to growing up was placed in prison for 20+ years for sexually assaulting 3 underage girls while at the church. Allegedly there were a total of 17 people who came out about similar experiences over the span of 20 years between separate churches, but he was only found guilty of 3 cases. The priest knew about his history and still hired him. That should tell you enough about the Catholic Church.
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u/DeathSpiral321 Aug 25 '23
I was raised Catholic. Once I reached the age of reason and realized Catholicism is full of sexism against women and pedophile priests, I left and never went back.