You wrote:
“As I stated earlier, deeds matter to me. Words and stated policy do not.”
If words don’t matter to you, then stop typing.
“Do you disagree with my statement that pornography is not going away?”
Irrelevant. Whether it is or isn’t going away is in itself irrelevant as to whether or not it is good or should be opposed.
“Do you disagree with my contention that homosexuals would be virtually eliminated from the priesthood if priests could marry?”
Your contention is meaningless in any case. There is no history - EVER - within Christianity of priests marrying. Married men can be ordained. Ordained men do not marry.
“Do you disagree with my statement that the Church continues to protect child molesters?”
Yes, I disagree because no such thing ever happened in the first place. Some bishops did wrong, others did not. The Church never protected child molestors. Some bishops did.
“None of my statements has been critical of people that follow Catholic teachings. The teachings are fine. Yet, some are trying to turn me into a Catholivc basher because they cannot disagree with my statements.”
No, I think the first problem is that you seem to have little or no idea of what you’re talking about. Priests don’t marry. Period. Thus, saying that that should happen is nonsensical. It can’t. It won’t.
“To be even clearer, the same problems exist in all religions, including the Jewish faith (I’m Jewish), particularly in the Orthodox community.”
So, that shoots your “let them marry and everything will be fine” idea. If other religions have the same problems, then a celibate clergy is not the problem.
“The difference is that the Catholic Church as an institution exists in a different state than all others because it has a hierarchy unlike the other religions.”
False. Orthodox Christians also have hierarchy. Again, you don’t seem to know what you’re talking about. Lutherans and Anglicans also have hierarchies.
“I’ve had personal experience through a friend and neighbor that went through hell because of the way the Church treated his son and the priest that molested him, so pardon me if I seem indifferent to whatever it is they say rather than what they do.”
I’ve had personal experience through Freerepublic with people who seem to have had no idea of what they were talking about, so pardon me if I seem indifferent to whatever it is you say since it’s unconnected to reality.
Please point to an organized religion that has a hierarchy that in any way resembles Catholicism. You said it exists. Is there anything like a Pope somewhere that I am unaware of? Is there anything like a Vatican City for another religion? They are an organization and because of that, they naturally have a vested interest in protecting their organization.
Catholicism teaches the right things. Most of the followers are good people. Most of those teaching are good people, but as an organization they have placed more emphasis on protecting themselves than on protecting their own flock.
As to your contention that this is a by product of a few bad bishops, that is pure nonsense. Why were so many priests transferred after they molested? The Church is supposed to have a higher standard than college football.
This whole thing reminds me of the thin blue line for policemen.Most are good people, but when a cop goes bad, most of the good ones ignore it because they are more afraid of being called a rat than doing the right thing. At that moment, they become bad cops, because they are servants of their citizens, not each other. The same applies to people in organized religion. When they protect a bad apple, they become one.
Catholicism is in steep decline in America. A history of protecting child molestation is part of the reason. If they are finally cleaning it up, bravo, but as of now, people keep stepping forward with tales of horrific abuse.
From the Pew Forum:
“While those Americans who are unaffiliated with any particular religion have seen the greatest growth in numbers as a result of changes in affiliation, Catholicism has experienced the greatest net losses as a result of affiliation changes. While nearly one-in-three Americans (31%) were raised in the Catholic faith, today fewer than one-in-four (24%) describe themselves as Catholic.
These losses would have been even more pronounced were it not for the offsetting impact of immigration. The Landscape Survey finds that among the foreign-born adult population, Catholics outnumber Protestants by nearly a two-to-one margin (46% Catholic vs. 24% Protestant)”
All religions have bad people. All atheits have bad people. Every group on the planet has bad people. This is not about people. This is about honesty and dishonesty to the people who follow you and pay your salaries.