This post is going to be a tangent on Catholicism, but first, an anecdote:
In the car: my mom (Catholic), my dad (Jewish, but quite familiar with Catholicism having been married 33 years), myself, and Lindsey
Dad: So have you thought about where you’re getting married?
Me: I don’t care very much particularly where the ceremony is. Lindsey wants to have it in a church.
Lindsey: I don’t think we’re going to find one though, so it doesn’t matter.
Me: There’s lots of congregationalists around though, I’m sure it’s fine. Or UUs, maybe Methodists…
Lindsey: If it’s not a Catholic church, I wouldn’t really bother.
Dad: Why wouldn’t you have it in a Catholic church?
Mom: O_o?
/anecdote Tangent on being Catholic right now:
This Easter was the first Easter in my life where I missed Easter Mass. And I missed Good Friday Mass, and Ash Wednesday Mass before that. And if you know us, you know we both love Ash Wednesday Mass. Anyway, I missed Easter Mass for a variety of reasons, but mostly the Catholic Church hasn’t done much recently in the way of compelling faith.
I don’t so much mind most of the Church’s anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-individual, anti-freedom stances. I think there’s something to be said for inherently conservative tradition. It’s the Church actively working against the teachings of Christ that I can’t abide. So this week’s Newsweek tackles the role of women in Catholicism in light of the clergy’s current sexual abuse scandal. Obviously, the violation of children and the cover-up of decades of child abuse doesn’t exactly inspire a renewal of baptismal vows. The Newsweek article cursorily covers the role of nuns. Which leads me to recall this NYT article about nuns being investigated by the Vatican for doing too much work outside the ecclesiastic arena.
It’s never really easy being Catholic, but it’s usually the Church that makes it difficult. Protecting child abusers, but worried about nuns following the Sermon on the Mount? Do you really want me to leave? (I mean, yeah, probably you do.)
Rachel & Lindsey Married 
Besides the fact that the church is run by of bunch of bullies, bigots, and child molesters, there’s one thing about Catholicism and religion in general that the media really doesn’t talk about- how none of it is real. Lately I’ve been struggling between trying to be respectful towards others religious beliefs, and wanting to slap them across the face and telling them to grow the fuck up and out of your imaginary friend. I don’t care what personal comfort it brings someone, it’s just not real. All these silly rituals ,and not being able to eat food on certain days, and denying scientific studies, and so on is completely childish and just plain weird. Seriously, knowing how big the universe is and how small and stupid we are, what gives us the gull to even think for a second we know what god is. So in my humble opinion, I think you guys should get married outside and keep God out of it- God doesn’t want you two getting married anyways so forget that jerk.
Well, the media not talking about things seriously is nothing specific to religion. I’d probably hate watching a debate about truth, reality, and God being played out on television or in any other mass media; I can’t imagine it being done well.
Anyways, people like believing in God and it’s pretty unlikely that will change soon. People also like power structures that protect their sensibilities while they are cruel to others. That is also unlikely to change (and not a religion-exclusive problem).
God is intrinsic to my sense of self, so I can’t keep it out of my marriage. The Catholic Church is, of course, a different question, and one with which I will keep struggling.
-Rachel