Do I Out Myself?

I have been asked to give a talk at my church, a 20 minute talk. For starters 20 minutes is a very long time, secondly I am not sure they really want to know my opinion and they might possibly kick me out. Another quandary.

The church I regularly attend is often off in left field in practices and beliefs. While being open and welcoming it occasionally fails in the integrity to our faith principles category. This has been a constant struggle and I am not the only closet conservative in the parish. A number of us actually teach the children weekly, seeing ourselves as preserving the true faith in the generations to come. We have actually considered leaving our parish on more than one occasion, as we live close to at least two other churches that would fill the bill, but we haven't. And now someone has asked me to talk about "What the Roman Catholic Church Means to Us as Women" well, what it means more specifically to me.

There are many answers to this but I guarantee they will not match the reasons of even a few in my audience and many will be appalled. So do I speak my mind, and possibly make life uncomfortable enough that we will have to move on? As open and welcoming as they appear, some are not very welcoming when it comes to those who wish to uphold the teachings of Rome. Hospitality of the warmest sort is reserved for those who condone and hold in esteem a gay lifestyle, who insist that women be admitted to the priesthood, who believe that abortion is truly a woman's choice, who think the problem with a shortage of priests will be improved by allowing priests to marry, who really think men are incapable of running anything and women always do it better, and think the atrocity of pedophilia is a by product of the church's insistence on chastity. If they only knew...It would be back to my Memphis days, Wednesday nights when all the Baptists are out witnessing to everyone at Burger King.

It didn't take long to find out how to rid yourself of the salvation onslaught. And the approach was unavoidable, these folks are truly on a mission, and would speak to everyone in the building before they would leave. You have to admire that kind of passion. As you are just getting ready to sample your flame-broiled selection someone slides into the seat next to you "Have you been saved" is their opening line. "I'm Catholic" became my standard response. This is like a garlic necklace to vampires, the unsuspecting Baptist backs away slowly with the parting response "We'll pray for you." People would be backing away at church like I had the plague.

So I am praying, and waiting and wondering, but still don't know if speaking up will serve any good purpose. And may just bring an end to my clandestine endeavors to save our youth.