I have to completely disagree with you. I have a LOT of friends who are former Catholics, and they did not leave because of marriage. Almost all of them say that they started reading their Bibles and realized that the Catholic church did not adhere to its teachings.
I believe that in Mexico particularly, the Catholic church is losing a lot of members.
I am not Catholic, but do respect the Catholic church and its faith, if that’s where its members find Christ. But I know on this board the fruit of the Spirit is seldom ever in the responses from the Catholics, and it’s very sad. Often, sarcasm and put downs are the modus operendi.
You can only fix a problem if you dare see it for what it really is.
Because of Christ and Him alone!
Largely agree with that statement, I'd have to add that in my experience, my wife of nearly 26 years and I left the Catholic church also because of the "cafeteria Catholics" who keep trying to change the Church. I'm sure you've met them, they're the ones who try and politicize and change the Church's stance on everything from Birth Control, family, marriage, illegal immigration and more.
Honestly, my wife and I genuinely loved the Priest in our Church. We both knew him for several years before he married us. A finer example of a man with a full heart for God who exemplified grace and mercy you'd be hard pressed to find.
It was really all the other b.s. going on in and around the Church caused in large part by the cafeteria Catholics who wanted to pick and choose what they believed in while still calling themselves Catholics that literally pushed us over the edge to leaving the Church.
We've been members of an Evangelical Christian church for the past 13 years now and while I really like the fact that we belong to a fully Christ and Gospel centered church, it truly does break my heart to see what's happening to the Catholic church as that's where my relationship with Jesus started.
I'm really tired of people focusing on the minutia that divides us. Our relationship with Christ independent of whether one calls themselves a Catholic, Protestant, Baptist, Evangelical or whatever should be what unites us, rather than the Religious labels dividing us.
Respectfully,
USC