5 years ago, I decide to sample some koolaid. I was about to marry a guy I was crazy about and even though no one would ever guess, he was a former alter boy.

Logically, it follows that his mother wanted him to marry a nice Catholic girl.

My mother the atheist did not subscribe to such thinking but she did come from a Catholic background.

So I was salvageable.

Suddenly, the RCIA Catholic Youth Learning Bible invaded my beautiful reading collection.

I was game. See, I’m not an atheist. And even though I belong to no specific religious affiliation, I am fascinated by how religion changes a person.

So I read the stories and customs and prayers and beliefs inside the Catholic Youth Learning Bible. The dos, don’ts and tenants of Catholic life.

At the same time, I read about the Crusades and followed the political side: pro-life protests, stem cell research, birth control restriction.

I didn’t even make it a quarter of the way through the learning bible before it became a joke to me. I’d read a paragraph, then compare it to something in the world. I’d get too angry or find it too amusing to carry on.

Pair that with watching the individuals who made the recommendations in the learning bible their holy grail. The same individuals that I found incredibly judgment, selfish, and angry.

I couldn’t do it! I gleefully tossed the RCIA Catholic Youth Learning Bible after only 4 chapters.

I still married that man I’m crazy about…not in a church, but outside with nature. As for the motherinlaw-pleasing ceremony, you know, the one that can only be performed on REAL Catholics? A fat bundle of cash to the San Deigo archdiocese fixed that little problem. Ha.