i bow to your intimate knowledge on this subject and i agree to generalization. i guess i was just trying to make a point. im not sure slopping thinking was involved, maybe less than stellar research. thanks for the clarifications...
On Apr 24, 4:02 pm, frantheman <[email protected]> wrote: > On 24 Apr., 12:15, e_space <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > analyzing religion from an heirarchy point of view, i see religious > > leaders as quite evil. religion is often used to control people > > through fear and intimidation, not love and guidance. the roman > > catholic religion for example, is the richest 'corporation' in the > > world, yet its converts are starving to death and dying of aids > > because they cant use contraception. many of the priests are > > pedeophiles who have been sheltered and moved around from one church > > to the other when scandals were about to break out. they have been > > associated with the mafia and murder and will not let females be > > priests. they live in mansions that are FAR beyond any dream home you > > and i would imagine, have michael angelo on the ceiling, walk around > > with massive crowns on their heads and gold jewelry that makes a > > rappers bling look like a cracker jack toy. jesus supposedly said, > > 'give up your riches and follow me'. i guess somewhere down the road, > > religious leaders sorta overlooked this admonition. i have nothing > > against those who go to church, and if it brings them happiness, > > great. just not my cup of tea... > > There is a great deal of truth in what you write here, e, but also > large dollops of generalisation, inaccuracy and sloppy thinking which, > in my view, serve only to weaken your argument. > > Those who know me better here are well aware of my extremely critical > position viz a viz the RC Church. Nonetheless, I feel I must clarify > some of the points you allude to. > > Firstly, the "roman catholic religion" is not a "corporation" of any > kind, but rather a designation for over a billion adherents world- > wide, the vast majority of whom voluntarily associate themselves with > this belief, which is internally organised, according to its own > rules, as a "church". While you and I might regard the official RC > position on contraception, population control and HIV-AIDS as > extremely backward, irrational and regrettable, I must point out that > there is no way the RC Church can force its adherents to follow its > teachings, apart from the "moral" authority accorded to it by many of > those adherents. > > The wealth of the RC Church is a difficult subject to discuss, as its > assets are legally in the hands of thousands of distinct organisations > and groups, some of which are quite wealthy, some of which are very > poor. The administrative centre of the Church, the Vatican City, is an > internationally recognised independent country, with its own laws, > maintaining formal diplomatic contacts with most countries in the > world. The present position of this entity is the result of 1700 years > of historical development. Much of its wealth is in the form of real > estate and artistic treasures, a lot of which (including the Sistine > Chapel - which I presume is what you meant with "michael angelo [sic] > on the ceiling") is open to public viewing for a modest fee - used to > maintain the substance of the area generally known as the "Vatican > Museum." The value of it all is priceless, but also practically > useless, since I know of no way in which it could be justly converted > into liquid assets (would selling it to Bill Gates or Roman Abramovich > - preuming they wanted to buy - really make the world better?). A > parallel example would be the Potala Palace in Lhasa (today > nationalised by the Chinese and turned into a museum) which includes > the tomb of the 13th. Dalai Lama, reportedly containing priceless > jewels and a ton of gold. > > While the wearing of crowns remains a ritual/liturgical tradition in > the Orthodox Churches (particularly that of Russia) it has never been > a general part of RC liturgy and, in fact, even the Roman popes have > not worn the (till then) traditional tiara for the past fifty years. > > The lack of openness and protection by many instances of Church > authority of many priests who have been accused of abusing children is > a scandal of horrific proportions. While not in any way comparable to > the suffering of the thousands of victims, there are also many > thousands priests, sisters, brothers and lay workers who are suffering > from the fall-out and many of them are struggling against corrupt and > encrusted structures within the organisation. My only regret about my > personal departure from the said organisation is the feeling I still > sometimes have that I was leaving a lot of honest, good friends to > carry on their struggle without me. > > Francis- Hide quoted text - > > - Show quoted text - --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups ""Minds Eye"" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/Minds-Eye?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
