![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Entry tags:
One more job I'm out of the running for: or Even Ned Flanders would dislike this guy:
Crochety old man made new Pontiff. Promises more of the same...but not as fun. Pope Benedict XVI, it seems, has had it up to here *indicates mitre* with the liberalism and acceptance of other cultures propagated in contemporary society.
He's sick and tired of women working outside the home (in trousers, no less), people having sex and forming families with those they love (unless of course their union is bathed in the loving light of Christ--who never did take a wife, BTW), and people seeking deity in ways unsanctioned by him and his friends from work. Sounds like he's going to begin his new gig by condemning a whoooooole lot of people. Should be just the image builder the church has needed since everyone found out they passively sanctioned the rape and molestation of hundreds of children.
Seriously, this guy is going to set them back 100 years.
And for the Catholic Church, that means the 1700's.
I hear people saying "well, he's 78...he won't be around too long". But it's not like this guy's going to be doing any manual labor. Those poor Catholics could be in for 20+ years of ultra conservative diddley.
Think I'll pop some corn, pull up a comfy chair and just watch people flock away from The Church.
I was not raised in the church. My mom decided when I was in 7th grade that the neighborhood schools were not good, so we were going to Catholic school. Since it was less expensive for parish members, we all had to get baptized and attend church. Myself, I was totaly welcoming and "into it". The idea that a big guy in the sky had a grand plan for us seemed very inviting. And the whole "infinite light of god" dealie sounded very nice to a disturbed, depressed little punk such as myself.
The next year, was Confirmation Year. Confirmation is when you take the oaths that your godparent takes for you at baptism. You confirm that you will be a Catholic for the rest of your life. But here's the thing...you're 13 years old. Tell me any other lasting choice a 13 year old is allowed to make for themself? There is none...because 13 year olds don't know enough about themselves, the world and the choices that will face them in the future to make any such choice. We were told to get confirmed, so we did. There was no choice about it. I could go on and on about how disengenuous this all felt to me at the time, but I won't. My biggest problem with Christian churches in general is the indoctrination of children before they have gotten a chance to figure things out for themselves. Apparently the adage: if you love something, set it free and it will return to you, doesn't apply to God.
You all know how it ends...I found a path that doesn't require me to shun anyone based on who they love or how they worship, a path that understands that there is more to morality than sex, and a path that asserts we should not hate ourselves for the things we think, and that we should care for the earth so it will care for us. (I've always kind of felt that the official christian stance on the earth is similar to your spoiled cousin who gets all the expensive birthday gifts: "it's mine, I'll do what I want with it!" as he flies his remote control airplane into Aunt Millies barbeque pit because he can.) It's been nice.
He's sick and tired of women working outside the home (in trousers, no less), people having sex and forming families with those they love (unless of course their union is bathed in the loving light of Christ--who never did take a wife, BTW), and people seeking deity in ways unsanctioned by him and his friends from work. Sounds like he's going to begin his new gig by condemning a whoooooole lot of people. Should be just the image builder the church has needed since everyone found out they passively sanctioned the rape and molestation of hundreds of children.
Seriously, this guy is going to set them back 100 years.
And for the Catholic Church, that means the 1700's.
I hear people saying "well, he's 78...he won't be around too long". But it's not like this guy's going to be doing any manual labor. Those poor Catholics could be in for 20+ years of ultra conservative diddley.
Think I'll pop some corn, pull up a comfy chair and just watch people flock away from The Church.
I was not raised in the church. My mom decided when I was in 7th grade that the neighborhood schools were not good, so we were going to Catholic school. Since it was less expensive for parish members, we all had to get baptized and attend church. Myself, I was totaly welcoming and "into it". The idea that a big guy in the sky had a grand plan for us seemed very inviting. And the whole "infinite light of god" dealie sounded very nice to a disturbed, depressed little punk such as myself.
The next year, was Confirmation Year. Confirmation is when you take the oaths that your godparent takes for you at baptism. You confirm that you will be a Catholic for the rest of your life. But here's the thing...you're 13 years old. Tell me any other lasting choice a 13 year old is allowed to make for themself? There is none...because 13 year olds don't know enough about themselves, the world and the choices that will face them in the future to make any such choice. We were told to get confirmed, so we did. There was no choice about it. I could go on and on about how disengenuous this all felt to me at the time, but I won't. My biggest problem with Christian churches in general is the indoctrination of children before they have gotten a chance to figure things out for themselves. Apparently the adage: if you love something, set it free and it will return to you, doesn't apply to God.
You all know how it ends...I found a path that doesn't require me to shun anyone based on who they love or how they worship, a path that understands that there is more to morality than sex, and a path that asserts we should not hate ourselves for the things we think, and that we should care for the earth so it will care for us. (I've always kind of felt that the official christian stance on the earth is similar to your spoiled cousin who gets all the expensive birthday gifts: "it's mine, I'll do what I want with it!" as he flies his remote control airplane into Aunt Millies barbeque pit because he can.) It's been nice.