[Ned]

Many Catholics have sex outside of marriage, use birth control and have abortions (among other "sins"), even though these acts are forbidden in the Catholic faith. How can they still call themselves Catholic when they obviously don't accept the church doctrine? If they are going to break Catholic "law," why don't they leave the Catholic church and affiliate themselves with a denomination of Christianity that is less restrictive, or worship God independent of organized religion?

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Name : Ned, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Christian, Age : 27, City : San Diego, State : CA Country : United States, Occupation : Computer Programmer, Education level : 4 Years of College, Social class : Middle class, 

[tom]

I would agree with you that claiming a faith tradition involves participating in its beliefs. But consider this analogy: if you ran away from home and lived elsewhere, wouldn't you in some sense still consider yourself a member of the family you left? It's like that with Catholics who have left the practice of the faith. Down deep, they still identify themselves as Catholic, because that's the faith they were born into and were hopefully raised.

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Name : tom, Gender : M, Sexual Orientation : Straight, Race : White/Caucasian, Religion : Catholic, City : dayton, State : OH Country : United States, Occupation : religious education, Education level : Over 4 Years of College, 

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