One reason I have NO RESPECT for the CATHOLIC CHURCH (page 2)

avishai

So, BTS, what is your view on the catholic church having missions that specifically aid illegal immigrants coming into this country? Illegals who are about 90% catholic, and send a good portion of the money they make back to huge families they can't support due to the catholic ban on birth control? Families, that, i'm sure, put alot of those US dollars back into church coffers?

drew sagan

The actions of the nuns are typical of people who are in the majority. People in the majority many times will become lax in their arguments for why they are superior. "We are the best because we say so" is a pretty typical response. Religious people do do it, politidcions do it, college professors do it, everybody in the majority does it!

rebel8

yesIdid, I don't recall saying you should respect any organization.

BurnTheShips

So, BTS, what is your view on the catholic church having missions that specifically aid illegal immigrants coming into this country?

As an American, I believe we need good governance. This means border security and enforcement of our laws.

As a Christian, I will help a person in need, even if they are illegal. When I was an active JW, I would go preach at the farming camps. Every winter they would come for the "cosecha". Very poor. The majority had families that lived in Oaxaca or Chiapas in poverty. Some would return year after year. They touched me deeply. I did not just go to place magazines, I had a big green club van nicknamed "el tomate verde" that I would take to pick them up and bring them into town to buy their needs and groceries. I would also take them to Kingdom Hall. I helped some of them find work that paid better than harvesting tomatos. The "brothers" would look at me weird driving in in an old green van with a dozen sunburned Mexicans inside. Needless to say their clothes were not "up to snuff". When Jesus came he healed the sick and fed the poor. This is part of the Church's mission also. In my area the Church as several missions and programs for our rural communities. I approve.

BTS

jgnat

In third world countries, the Catholic church is still a force to be reckoned with. They do involve themselves in the politics of the country and sometimes they do make horrific mistakes. In Rwanda, for instance, their policy was to support the majority. So they were silent AGAIN during a genocide while many Hutus (majority) slaughtered their (minority) Tutsi neighbours. For those sorts of abuses, the Catholic church must be held accountable.

I can understand, in the America of 150 years ago, how the anti-Catholic message that Russell and Rutherford offered was a breath of fresh air. However, these days, the Catholic church does not hold the same sway in industrialized nations. The anti-Catholic, anti-Christendom messages in the Watchtower literature sounds a little anachronistic. How can a Witness sell a householder on the idea that the cute church on the street corner is a den of iniquity in disguise?

In some third-world countries, however, corruption in the Church is present and visible. Perhaps that explains the higher rate of growth amongst the Witnesses in those countries.

Mary

Barreto said the priest told her that, as a Catholic community, they couldn’t accept any other religions in the neighbourhood. Barreto and other Catholics who helped drive them out claim the Jehovah’s Witnesses were giving out money in exchange for conversions............Barreto said the Jehovah’s Witnesses would take photos of their converts and, for each photo, they’d hand over money. But Barreto couldn’t say how much money was given as no Catholic interviewed had attended a service.

Horseshit. Since when would JW missionaries have enough cash to give to someone else? They generally don't have 2 cents to rub together for themselves, let alone have enough to try bribing a potential convert.

Five hours from the capital, Maliana is one of the most remote large cities in East Timor. Here the church, overseen by a local priest who refused to be interviewed, is the highest authority, superseding even the police. The Pereiras say they have faced Catholic Church torment as well as abuse from their neighbours. Their story is not unique. Other members of the evangelical religion reported visits from nuns, death threats or beatings. Meanwhile the police do nothing.

This is a perfect example of what can happen when a group or community is isolated from general society. The leaders become a law unto themselves and it doesn't take much for suspicion, paranoia and intolerance to supercede everything, including common sense.

“People hate me because I burned my statue of Mary in front of my house,” she said. “Lots of people didn’t like that because they said it went against the church.”
One night, when she thought most of her neighbours were asleep, she grabbed her wooden statue of the Virgin Mary, the most sacred Catholic object in a Timorese home, took it outside and set fire to it.

OK, it's a two-way street and it sounds like the converts in East Timor don't have much more sense than the Catholic Church in the area. I mean, you've got a group of fanatical crazies here that are one nudge away from becoming a lynch mob, and you purposely inflame the situation by burning a statue of the Virgin Mary? That's not too smart. What did she expect as a result? Candy and flowers from the local priest?

It's good that this sort of thing is being exposed. It reminds me of what was happening on Pitcarans Island a few years ago: Being remote from the rest of Society in general, there was abuse, tyranny and paranoia on the island that resulted in many arrests and global exposure. Should be interesting to see what happens in East Timor.

Pahpa

It is primarily the leaders of an organization that constitute the core of the institution. The Catholic Church is a good example of how the leaders make pragmatic decisions depending upon the conditions of the times. When the church had nearly absolute rule, it used its power to persecute and to subject people to its will. It used the political authorities for its own means.

In modern times, the church no longer has this control. Whereas it aligned itself with the rich and powerful in the past, it realized with the spread of democracy it had to make concessions to survive. It became more involved with social issues that put it in a more favorable light with the general public. But one has to wonder what it would do if its power returned. These small incidences may be some indication of the course it would take.

WTWizard

I don't believe them to be the truth either--all religion is perversion of true morals and a waste of time, money, and energy. However, the Catholic church is generally less damaging than the Washtowel Slaveholdery is.

Trouble is, both are capable of plunging man into the Dark Ages. The Catholic church did that in the First Dark Ages, and I have little respect or love for them because they did that. (However, they at least are coming clean on their pedophile problem recently, unlike the washtowel). The Witlesses are trying to start the Second Dark Ages, and could well succeed if they accumulate enough in the Worldwide Pedophile Defense Fund to buy out the leadership.

Pahpa

WTWizard

If you recall, the Catholic Church leaders did everything to hide the pedophile problem until the Boston Globe blew its cover. The cover up of abusive priests had gone on for years. And the church repeatedly moved its offending priests from one diocese to another only to offend again. The church is still in some denial. It has not punished some of its Bishops and Cardinals for allowing this corrupt system to exist. A prime example is the removal of Cardinal Law of Boston and rewarding him a job in the Vatican.

The Watchtower Society is in the position that the Catholic Church was in a few years ago. It has slowly and reluctantly admitted to the problem of child abuse. It has been forced to pay out large settlements when it appeared it would lose its court cases. It has published articles that condemned child abuse without confessing that it encouraged it by virtue of its own organizational policies.

inkling

‘You can’t study the Bible. If you read the Bible every day, you’ll go crazy,’”

Well, given the evidence available, if the shoe fits.....

[ink]

One reason I have NO RESPECT for the CATHOLIC CHURCH

Share this