I'm non-religious and couldn't fake it if I wanted to because lying even about little things makes me uncomfortable, but having grown up in an evangelical household with a lot of anti-catholic bigotry I could kind of see the appeal.

There are some progressive currents in the church right? Like liberation theology? And in my experience anti-catholicism (not opposition to Christianity in general, but like, protestant opposition to Catholics) feels tinged with anti Latin and anti non-anglo sentiment in general. My evangelical mother was convinced they were all crypto-pagans because of the whole saint thing.

I still wouldn't join them, as mentioned above, I think it's all make believe, but at least they don't spawn prosperity gospel, snake handlers, Jerry Falwell etc etc. The downsides of the Catholic church are by and large problems with Christianity in general I feel.

Sorry if that was a bit rambley and stream of consciousness, this isn't a topic I think about much and I think that a lot of my feelings about it are derived from seeing people who hate everything good (communism, feminism, pro-lgbt sentiment) also hating Catholicism when I was young.