3 Catholics aren't supposed to hate people. They are supposed to hate sin. The problem arises when people chose to make their sin an inherent part of their self identity. So when people, for example, say "I offer therapy that will help with your problems", what they hear is "He wants to kill us!" Like saying "letting men compete as women in sports is unfair", you get angry feminists and trans rights activists. The scientific facts are there, but they see it as an assault against their person.

Hello Someguy, thanks for posting some great questions. I'll try to answer just briefly now and hopefully get a respectful discussion started.

1. Could you be more specific? Skeptics of what? The Catholic Church, or of something else? We always encourage people ask questions and find reasons for what we believe.

2. The Crusades were an attempt to repossess from the Muslims lands that were taken away from the Christians. I'm sure you're going to bring up the contraversial topics surrounding the actions taken by some members of the Church during the crusades. As with any undertaking corrupt people can take a noble cause and do evil in the name of a religion. It doesn't represent the whole. Just as Muslims will defend their religion even though there are some extreme sects of terrorists who want to bring harm to others. Again if you could be more specific that will help me better answer the question.

3. No, all Catholics do not hate gay people and I want to say I'm sorry if this is the impression you have gotten. Christ told us to love our neighbor, but he didn't say you have to agree with them. There is a way to show respect for the dignity of every person while at the same time encouraging them to live as Christ taught and in a way that aids their soul in the pursuit of truth.

I encourage you to read the Catholic Church's guide for the pastoral ministry of persons with homosexual inclinations let me know your thoughts: http://www.usccb.org/about/doctrine/publications/upload/ministry-to-persons-of-homosexual-iInclination.pdf


Feel free to ask more questions. This stream is meant to help spark respectful dialogue between Catholics and non-Catholics. I'm glad you're here! :)

1. not sure what you mean by skeptics. Skepticism is the philosophy of Doubt - doubts are voices of satan. Doubting is sin. If you don't get to trust you'll eventually become isolated.
2. Religion and politics were strongly interwoven back then; political actions were often motivated or vindicated by religious beliefs or claims that it's God's will (deus vult).
Islam was violently expanding at that time - dreadfully targeting 'non-believers'.
3. Catholic's don't hate gay people, even though homosexuality is considered a sin. But Christians are supposed to not hate sinners in general; they rather pray for them. Hate (or as it is called: 'wrath') is a sin in itself.

Do you have evidence your religion is correct?

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Pope Francis likes queer people.

I like individuals who regard themselves as part of the LGBTQ group (not sure if queer is a very respectful way to refer to them) I just don't support acting on unnatural impulses.

1 Skeptics are fine if they stick to Reason. "Skeptic" does not equal "anti-Catholic", though many people who are Skeptics are anti-Catholic. The "sky father" and "flying spaghetti monster" types. Having an "open mind" means rejecting this kind of bias. As Chesterton wrote, (paraphrasing from memory) "an open mind should be like an open mouth, looking to shut it again on something solid." Look into Thomas Aquinas' works.

Consider Einstein. He followed the math until it lead to Black Holes. He thought some error was made somewhere, and they couldn't possibly exist. He was a man of science, but balked at where it lead. Skeptics should not avoid truths, but follow the evidence. Aristotle's "Proofs" that God exists boils down to "Everything has a cause, but there had to be a First Cause, something that made something from nothing."

2. The Crusades were a response to 500 years aggressive conquest from various Muslims. It is easy to find the march of the Caliphates from around 650-nearly 1100 when the First Crusade came about. All of North Africa, Spain, much of France, and frequent forays into eastern and western Europe.

This doesn't mean every Christian was a Saint, or that every Muslim was a horror. But the Eastern Church was crying out for aid, and eventually, some came.

You can see this playing out today. Sudan asking for help in their struggle pitting Christian and Pagans against Muslims. Nigeria's struggling against Boko Haram, al Qaeda in the Middle East, ISIS working in Iraq and Syria, Iran's sponsorship of terror in proxy wars against... nearly everyone.