To the Atheists w/ a Religious Past : That Nostalgic Feeling

[calgor]

I was born and raised Catholic with 12 years of Catholic school, and came of age right around Stonewall. Unlike many who came around to their gay side later in life I felt I was never anything but gay. As early as I can remember I was attracted to my male friends, so my question always was why was I made this way? At that time there weren't Evangelicals making gays their favorite whipping boys, so the only references I heard to homosexuality were the occasional limp wristed impersonations or references to someone being a fairy with the occasional intrinsically disordered comment thrown in. Of course when it later came out that those same people had made a cottage industry out of shifting pedophile priests around it became more apparent what were their real priorities. At any rate my question was did God make me this way to be cursed for life or because that's just the way I was made end of story. Well I didn't think a loving God would have chosen the former so it was the latter for me. As time progressed I came to understand more and more that organized religion had really mangled the message of the Gospel and I wondered why all they seemed to talk about was sex while so many people were hungry and homeless. After all wasn't feeding the hungry and welcoming the stranger the centerpiece of the Gospel? And yea I wondered why bad things happen to good people and all the other questions that don't jive with a loving God. And I don't have any answers. But still for me I believe He's out there. Some people might say I'm still brainwashed but for me it just feels right.