Thanks to good ol' concupiscence that humanity acquired after the fall of Adam and Eve, all of humanity has a damaged nature.  No matter how hard we try to strive for righteousness, we will always have to fight our temptations to sin. Sometimes it's the same damn sin that we've been fighting for years, and one day when we think we've got it conquered, we'll find ourselves hanging our heads in embarrassment as we drag our feet over to Fr. Tony's confessional and find ourselves uttering, "Bless me Father, for I have sinned. . . again." Face it. We're weak creatures, and no matter how far along we are on our walk of faith, we're still going to screw up - even big time on occasion. Heck, even the Pope goes to confession. Thankfully, God is infinitely patient with us so long as we continue repenting and striving for holiness.

In any case, since it's no surprise that no human is beyond stumbling, why then, does it seem like so many people enjoy kicking Christians when they're down?  It pains my heart to hear individuals say things like, "Well, if she's supposed to be an example of a 'good Catholic' then I want nothing to do with that faith!  I could never be Catholic when I can see how uncharitable and selfish she is!"

Sometimes I'm tempted to respond to them, "Are you serious?  Did you really just make the mistake of reducing the entire faith to the actions of one individual?"

If you think about it, it's about as ridiculous as saying that a particular religion is "bad" because of the actions of one religious wacko who wasn't even acting in communion with the rest of the people of that faith. Someone crashes a plane into a building. So does that make all Muslims crazy? Does that mean we should round up all the Muslims and put them in concentration camps like we did to Japanese Americans after the attacks on Pearl Harbor? Of course not!

Or, taken to a more practical level, say one person under the title of "Christian" or "Catholic" happens to be saying that individuals or particular groups are damned to hell. Does that mean everyone believes the same thing? Is it not possible that an individual or a group of individuals could be poorly educated, poorly misinformed, or contorting teachings to fit their own personal agendas?

Instead of looking at those people's words or actions, we need to look at the doctrines of that faith.  Moreover, I would argue that one would have to look at the doctrines in its proper contexts given from those who would be recognized as authorities in the particular faith.  After all, how many times have the scriptures been botched up and manipulated to support things that are clearly contradictory to the Christian faith?  Even Satan manipulatively used scripture in the gospels to try to tempt Jesus in the desert.  (And for that matter, I would argue that I've seen some people take Catholic teachings out of its proper context to make it fit whatever agenda he or she had, too!)  In looking at the doctrines under proper contexts, one has to ask "What does that faith teach?"  "What do the members of that faith strive for?"  "Is that person who committed the questionable actions in communion with the whole group?"

Particularly with the Catholic faith, no one ever said that the members of the Church would be perfect - not even the leaders of the Church would be perfect.  The apostle Peter, the first Pope, was not perfect. He denied Jesus three times. He couldn't even walk on water because of his lack of faith until Jesus saved him from sinking. Yet how many people today expect the Pope and priests to walk on water?  It's the teachings that we cling to that are perfect since they are handed down to us from God, whether they be written or oral (see 2 Thessalonians 2:15), the written obviously being sacred scripture and the oral being sacred tradition as handed down from Jesus to the apostles and then handed down to us through the Church.

Moreover, it seems like it's not just the priests who have to walk on water. . . we do, too.  If we happen to lose our temper or if we happen to be caught saying or doing something that looks questionable out of context the whole group suffers for it.  Now of course, I'm not saying this always happens. Thankfully, there are many people out there who do realize that the actions of few individuals don't always represent the whole.  I'm referring to a larger group, which sometimes even includes the media, that doesn't get that.

So what do we do? We do what we can by remembering that our actions can sometimes be seen by others as representative of a larger group. After all, don't professionals always have to be mindful of their behaviors because they represent a particular firm or company? We educate. How can one be a good example of a Catholic or a Christian if one doesn't know how a good one would behave? And of course, we'll still probably screw things up every now and then. Concupiscence never lets us down! Then we just have to pick ourselves up again. Repent. Go to confession. Try again. And write articles that remind people that none of us are perfect. :-)