Posted on 05/05/2010 10:48:55 AM PDT by markomalley
Two answers: (1) It's hard to maintain silence when ignorant bigoted idiots are lying about something or someone you love. (Is that non-Catholic enough for you? Of wait, I left out "blasphemous."
(2)It's a Catholic thing. Suffering is good for one and sometimes even rescues those who lie about us from damnation.
Wow! This over-the-top, hostile,and abusive rhetoric has its fun side. Maybe I need to experiment with fonts and colors ....
Of course. As predicted in the OT.
So I'm told.
Put up your data, and if you can demonstrate any sort of similar secrecy, concealment, protection and denial of sexual sin among the pastors, preachers or other positions of authority in any Protestant denomination as has occurred in the Catholic Church, I’ll join you in roundly rebuking them.
I’m not going to rebuke someone on the basis of a defensive rumor, perpetuated by a group with the very same problem.
There is a difference between having witnesses and evidence, and not. Your Bible will tell you this. Follow it. That’s all I’m trying to do.
At seminary a professor, married, puts the move on students. Later is elected bishop
In parish, married priest conducts several affairs with parishioners. When bishop is told, after priest moves to another diocese, he does nothing.
This was before we had things like priests leaving their fruitful marriages for their homosexual activities and being made causes celebres and elected bishop.
Near here, a Baptist preacher has an alcoholic family with children staying at home and promiscuous. One child is jailed after DUI incident that resulted in death and maiming. Minister is booted from one congregation — and starts another, which thrives.The “authorities” (the lay people) didn't cover up. They approved!
In the congregation in which I grew up, the Confirmation class teacher for many years was a notorious drunk and couldn't keep his hands off the adolescent girls. My mother, and others, laughed at it. He taught the class for years.
I AM the witness. I don't HAVE them. I know it's a small sample, but it's geographically diverse.
However, I've learned from my own life . . .
we humans have an incredible capacity to compartmentalize and rationalize.
It's like the studies of the JW's who'd schedule the 2nd Coming on this or that hill on this or that date repeatedly only to have the prediction crash and burn YET AGAIN.
There's always a reason to justify whatever the deceitfully wicked human heart wants to justify. And for the hyper-religious, THAT/those REASON(s) IS/are USUALLY WRAPPED IN 24 LAYERS OF RELIGIOUS HOOPLA and carefully finessed & justified, !RELIGIOUSLY-NECESSARY!, or at least !RELIGIOUSLY-REWARDED! incremental steps toward hell . . .
usually all with the smug-self-righteousness reserved for the hyper-RELIGIOUS who are habitually thankful that
!!THEY!! ARE !!!NOT!!! LIKE those Prottys, publicans, whatever, over THERE!!! IN THAT HIDEOUS OUT-GROUP BOUND FOR HELL! HARUMPH!
vs
GOD BE MERCIFUL TO ME, A SINNER.
I think that's one of the more insidious things about the pagan QUEEN OF HEAVEN personage morphed into the caricatured pseudo-Mary QUEEN OF HEAVEN personage.
100% of the pagan, INAUTHENTIC "Christian" (& nonChristian)ideologies falls wholesale into the "RIGHTEOUSNESS-BY-PULLING-OURSELVES-UP-BY-OUR-OWN-BOOTSTRAPS-OF-RELIGIOUS-HOOP-JUMPING-EXERCISES" varieties of heresy.
In this case, the fossilized !!!!TRADITIONS!!!! OF MAN Institution has a very long list of comforting rituals, trinkets, idols, disciplines etc. to perform--particularly comforting for the hyper-RELIGIOUS. The rosary alone seems to be a very comforting ritual affirming to millions that THEY'VE GOT THIS RELIGIOUS RIGHTEOUSNESS THING DONE RIGHT.
There are probably some percentage who do focus more on God supremely via the ritual. It seems to me that must be a minority percentage. Rituals are inherently seductive and they do not seduce into RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD, but into flesh-driven self-righteousness and the delusion that one CAN earn one's salvation by RELIGIOUS HOOP JUMPING.
. . . which is akin to satan's lie in the beginning. God established a WALKING, TALKING WITH MAN RELATIONSHIP of FELLOWSHIP, INSTRUCTION, INTIMACY.
Satan had a 'better idea' . . . gain knowledge by rebellious PICKING FORBIDDEN FRUIT ONE'S SELF. !!!!CONTROL!!!! the acquiring knowledge one's self--don't WAIT ON GOD--do it NOW! BE IN CONTROL NOW!
WAITING ON GOD is soooooo . . . DEPENDENT, IMPRECISE, DISCONCERTING, HELPLESS, HAS TO BE FAITH-FILLED WITH CONFIDENCE IN GOD ALONE. Humans don't typically handle such things well.
Our sin infection fosters our NEEDING !!!!CONTROL!!!! !!!NOW!!!
RELIGION IS ONLY TOO HAPPY TO FACILITATE SUCH DELUSIONS that we can HAVE OUR RIGHTEOUSNESS AND EAT IT NOW by a list of rituals . . . that flatter our ego and the hierarchy all at the same time. Such a deal, from hell.
Before long, the rot of the delusion has sunk in . . . to desperately awful degrees in horrendous ways. Pretty soon, we think of, FEEL LIKE, TREAT LIKE THE RITUALS AND THE FOCUS OF THE RITUALS REALLY DO
EQUAL GOD AND GODLINESS.
When God isn't even in that building, at all. And hasn't been . . . for days or months or centuries.
God have mercy on such deluded souls and lead them into HIS BIBLICAL RELATIONAL PRINCIPLES, TRUTHS AND ACTIONS.
Naw. That’s the Roman Catholic way. Close the door. Shove into the darkness of secrecy. Deny, lop off, slam shut, file away, handle all inconvenient things privately out of sight and ear-shot.
The Biblical way, it seems to me, is usually just to shine the light on the darkness . . . and watch the cockroaches scurry . . . and leave the whole record open for all to see and learn from.
Of course the logical implication of this is that we should not listen to the humans who argue against our Church, since our faith in God leads us to believe that He is with our Church in spite of the humans involved.
Our critics agree in this proclamation, "Listen to me: DON'T listen to me!"
Far out!
I just thought I would keep “hanging around” to see if you were keeping up with your tagline.
I must hand it to the RC’s.
Y’all are Olympic Class trashers.
Y’all are extremely skilled at calling on authorities to trash inconvenient things, truths, evidence, realties, . . .
. . . and have been for centuries.
Thankfully, y’all don’t quite have the same degree of political control to exercise in such efforts currently.
And many of those purported “Roman Catholics” in power are RCINO’s only.
However, y’all’s wailing, whining, dust throwing on FR is usually quite effective toward forcing FR to conform to your sensibilities in at least a chunk of ways.
Thankfully, y’all haven’t been able to turn the whole place into a lock-step arm of the Vatican, . . . yet.
And probably won’t succeed as long as we have the objective, fair-minded RM we have still alive and functioning healthily.
But you’re still hanging around the thread that so offends you...What’s up with that???
= = =
moths to flame,
obsessives to their obsessions,
the addicted to their addictions,
the HYPER-RELIGIOUS to rabid defenses of the RELIGIOUS STUFF
etc. etc. and etc. deja vue all over again.
LOL
= = =
Have at it!
Spontaneity might break through with fresh insights and understanding.
Why are you addressing this to me? (along with your troops)
I haven’t “called any authorities”.
See post #811
I’m still a strong advocate of
. . . if the shoe fits, wear it.
if it doesn’t, find another.
I *think* you know me better than that.
I don’t recall.
Probably something in your post triggered the thought.
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