Good Shepherd

So today we went back to the church we were married in. Still Catholic, but a 25 minute drive instead of a 5 minute drive. It was SOO much better. The priest that married us wasn't there, but the priest that was there was good.

His speech was still about politics and the election coming up, which almost turned me off from the beginning, but it was different from the last one. There were no accusations of evil. He spoke about how Catholics should not be one issue people. That the main leaders of the church have issued statements to reinforce the fact that we are not supposed to be one issue voters. He did say that abortion is a huge issue and should be one that we focus on. He went on to give statistics on who gets abortions and how many lives are lost. And then he continued. He gave statistics for how many lives have been lost in Iraq - lives that are American and lives that are Iraqi. He gave statistics for how many have lost their lives in Afghanistan. He gave statistics on how many lives are lost around the world due to poverty and hunger. He said that Catholics should value life - ALL life. He said that Catholics should be torn about this election. He said that we all have valid reasons for voting for each candidate and valid reasons for not voting for either candidate. He said that priests that focus on abortion alone and tell their parishioners to vote only on the abortion issue are short sighted.

Just sitting in the church you could feel the different atmosphere. The room was bright and the pews were full. The congregation was not made primarily of older parishioners, but was full of children. Each pew probably had between four and six adults and then at least two children sitting between each adult. The church was decorated with fall colors and the air seemed light. When we went up for communion, they blessed Handsome. (They blessed children back in my churches in Texas, but the church we have been going to never blessed children.)

When we left mass and looked at the cars, half had McCain stickers and half had Obama stickers. Someone had left "values" flyers on each of our cars and there was a woman standing outside the church handing out McCain fliers. A woman from the church standing with her two children was talking to her. She was holding her hand and saying very calmly, "If you are truly a Christian then laws should not be...." I don't know what they were talking about, but it seemed she was in support of Obama and not in support of this woman spreading political propaganda at the church.

This church felt much more open and welcoming. I still have a chip on my shoulder right now, and I'm not sure how long it will take for that to leave, but I must admit this church was a step in the right direction.