Bishop's ban ignites church-state debate

Cleveland Plain Dealer / AP ^ | 01/11/04 | Juliet Williams

[Valin]

And a fine point it is! :-)

Thanks for the links.


And yes I know there are many good Catholic, a number of them taught me, weather I wanted to learn or not.

"You WILL learn!"
Sister Margaret
(my 5th grade teacher)

[MegaSilver]

**And since when is murder a religious issue?**

Good question!

Ten Commandments?

Okay, really bad choice of words on my part. I hope you'll bear with me; I've been on vacation for several weeks and my brain has been effectively rendered "off."

What I SHOULD have said was, "Since when does outlawing murder require a reference to religion?"

[MegaSilver]

**The Catholic church has the DUTY (per Paul's epistles) to tell their congregations how to behave as Catholic Christians.**

And this is the one reason that so many hate the Catholic Church.......the one Church that has stood steady and firm throughout history.

(Yes, I know there have been some mistakes, but all in all, the Catholic Church is the mainstay of morals.)

Well, I'm not exactly Catholic (but I'm not exactly Protestant either... Christian, yes; not sure about denomination), but I certainly don't hate Catholicism. My grandparents, as well as my mother's sister and her family, are all Catholic, and from what I can see, they appear to love God more than anything else and genuinely desire to be like Christ (and I can say the same thing about the Pope), and that's what's important.

For me, the problem isn't Catholics so much as the way the Church seems to have allowed itself to kind of... melt since Vatican II. Some would argue (and I would agree) they made necessary reforms at that council, but from that point on, I've encountered a LOT of cases where the Church doesn't stress the importance of CONTINUALLY living for God; not just remembering him once a week at the Eucharist or while doing sacraments. Now, this certainly doesn't describe ALL of the Churches or congregations; in fact, I attend the Catholic Church on my college campus, and I have met many people there who are genuinely devoted to God. And it happens in a number of Protestant churches as well.

But--and this is just my opinion; someone may have had a different experience than me--on the whole, I see a far bigger problem of "nominal Christianity" in the Catholic Church than I do in most Protestant churches. It seems (to me) that too many people practice a form of Catholicism which is devoid of actual Christian substance, and it appears to me that the clergy isn't always doing all that it should to rectify this.

Hoo... I'm done ranting. Again, it's nothing against Catholics; I know many Catholics who genuinely follow the example of Christ. Just a concern I have for the Church. I do worry about it sometimes... guess I'd be better off praying, huh?

[StonyBurk]

Zack I like your tac-- YOu are welcome in my home anyday brother.Stay prayed up,and stand.

[StonyBurk]

It's called church discipline. A factor of church life
that has been seldom seen in the sunday Mornin social club
of the modern church -- a factor of church life common in
early America--as rare as being washed in the blood of
Christ is to the modern American rice Christian

[Zack Nguyen]

Well thank you!

[Coleus]

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