Here comes Nobody -- (or) How to drive your church into the mud

Two quotations to ponder this Sunday morning.

-- “If the church were my religion, I would have given it up a long time ago. All the mad and crazy popes we’ve had through history, decapitating the husbands of women they’d taken. All the terrible things the church has done. Christ is my religion, the church is not."

-- “To be narrowing the discussion and instilling fear in people seems to be exactly the opposite of what’s called for these days; all this foot-stomping just diminishes the church’s credibility even more.”

The first was by former New York governor Mario Cuomo; the second by our own NCR contributor and blogger Ken Briggs, two sensitive, informed metrosexuals, the former, a Catholic, the latter, catholic.

These men's fine reflections are found in a column today by Maureen Dowd in The New York Times.

How long will it take for certain members of our church hierarchy to recognize they are driving our lovely church into the mud - and making a laughing stock of themselves along the way?