So today I felt inspired - I read Jamie's most recent posting, it was touching and was very nostalgic from me, because I would always put down people that thought like he does. And then poof - I completely agree with him. I was a stubborn fucker in high school:
No Abortion!
No Death Penaulty!
No Euthanasia!
I could bring myself to say No to homosexuality, always quickly saying "Love the Sinner, Hate the Sin" - deep down I knew I was talking about myself - and I was never keen on the whole self-hating thing.
But my high school career was one of constant defence for the Holy Roman Catholic Church. I knew doctrine, I knew how to answer the tough questions - Like in the Simpsons Halloween special, where Lisa creates life and is shrunk down and meets her creation, one of the first questions from people is "If you're soo good and if you're so great, why do bad things happen to good people?" - I know how to answer that question, Catholically speaking.
But then the tough questions came:
If God can do everything, can He nuke a burrito so hot, that not even Himself can touch it?
If the Church and God, go hand in hand (Catholic Dogma that allows for the belief that the Pope is infallible when it comes to Dogmatic Law), how can you explain the current Pope condemning the Inquistion (sanctioned by a former Pope) - they can't both be right; and yet dogmatically they are.
I couldn't answer these questions, because they required relativism; something I realized will be the Church's downfall. The Church is so scared of change, so frightened by the prospect that one day a woman will put on a collar, that gays will be exchanging vows on one of it's altars, that condoms will be given out at catholic high schools - that's it's slowly killing itself.
It's run by the own fear it's generated. Any, and I mean any, sway from the straight and narrow will cause it's ultimate demise. I really don't believe the church is run by stubborn, stupid, old men that remember a "better time" and are trying to get back to that place. The church is run by smart, sophisticated men that know they are doomed. They're dug themselves too far into a hole - if they admit or allow the slightest change for the purpose of changing - they are admitting to the world that they're faith isn't devinely created but man-made and therefore faulty.
I remember once, watching a program on the Discovery Channel about the Roman Catholic Church (this was during Canada's hosting of World Youth Day) and one of the guests on this show said that he truly believed that Catholicism would be around 500 years from now, it would be incredibly different, but would still be "Roman Catholicism".
I disagree. Roman Catholicism won't be around in 500 years, too many people enjoy sex, too many people have friends/children that are gay, too many people are realizing more and more that they don't need confession to feel "right" anymore.
And this person has realized that Roman Catholicism died a long, long time ago while searching for a particular Bible passage in his high school chapel and suddenly not caring when he didn't find it.
4 comments:
my point wasn't that people in 500 years are going to care what the church said. my point was that in 500 years the church wont be around - and that means that faith and solice and peace people have will be redirected somewhere else.
call me optimistic, im hoping it's redirected towards eachother and not some idea about what God is.
it's not just western socio-culture, south africa will soon vote to allow same-sex marriage; in thailand transexuals are so common it's hard to tell who is a women and who is a "lady-boy"
people didnt "tire" of the crusades, inquisitions, ignorance of science - people were educated against them; same thing will occur in 500 years, education will put to end an antiquated belief system, so THAT belief system wont be needed for solice, peace, understanding.
yep - i just wanted the last word :)
This is super-late since I just stumbled across these comments but I think "people get bogged down in the political agendas, dogma, and social stances of the church" because they are really all the church is. The solace people find in their religion is individual to themselves, the church may just be a catalyst in helping them find it.
People get bogged down in it because an old man in a dress, who reaks of sin himeslf feels he has the right to tell everyone else how to live. There is a lot of discussion about 500 years from now, but in the here and today people use "deeply held religious beliefs" to justify all sorts of social prejudice, The leader of the free world feels he is a mouthpiece for his God and religious nuts everywhere think they can tell people what to do with their bodies because of a work of fiction, re-translated so many times it barely resembles its original self anymore.
Faith in something will never die, but god willing, institutions that refuse to grow and continue to ignore their people will.
Post a Comment