‘Suffer the little children to come unto me’? Intelligent design? Respected RC Editor of America magazine sacked on Vatican orders? The Christian Wrong? What the Hell (viz) is going on?
This weird story in the Brit Electronic Telegraph snapped me up into full consciousness Telegraph
It tells of paedophiles going through evangelical ‘Alpha’ training in prison, and subsequently joining congregations on their release to get close to children in church.
a tad more below…
I have always tolerated Christianity and Christians, though agnostic myself. I have also tolerated many other belief systems, after studying them. They all have something to offer – and indeed all agree on the basics, when it comes to advice on lay behavoiur
But where they all go wrong is in promoting a ritualized exclusive program to achieve something called the afterlife. It is a program which any travel agent would find a hard sell, since there is nothing they can show of this eternal hotel, with only vague descriptions of great happiness and lots of pliant vestal virgins in some cases. They also tell you that you’ll get to sit with the owner, which is a bit like being invited to join the Captain’s table on a cruise ship.
But the real deal, and one which mainstream earthly advertising has not yet taken up, is that if you don’t choose the Afterlife Magical Mystery Tour, you will be eternally punished!! Buy this or be damned.
Hey wait a minute – you are expecting me to believe something for which there is no evidence and if I don’t believe it I’m buggered anyway? Never was there are more insidious Catch 22.
Don’t get me wrong. We do need some rules to govern our behaviour to each other and the planet (though the rules we have don’t seem to be working too well). And if what Jesus said and did has been correctly and fully reported ( which I doubt) he had excellent advice on everyday neighbourliness, compassion and dignity. Mohammed, Confucious, Bhudda and all the rest had similar words of everyday wisdom.
I accept and try to follow them all. But as soon as they add eternal damnation in order to force adherence to such rules, they’ve lost me.
So I’m a christian in spite of Christianity, not because of it. I’m also a moslem in spite of Islam etc etc
My point is: forget about the afterlife, focus totally on a better life here on this planet – for everybody. Any belief system that could do this would have my support (but not my membership). If we can’t fix it now, then at least for all the children on the planet, and their children.
Children are, of course, the real afterlife.
when I listen to the thunder of the fundies is how scared they all seem. Maybe they fear the afterlife because, hey, you know, all have fallen short. But while Christianity offers words of comfort on that subject, a lot of them seem to not be interested. They’d rather castigate and incriminate. I understand how people can feel sad and alone in this world, but such impenetrable self-loathing mystifies me. For this, I am thankful.
I believe that Christianity (and perhaps all organized religion) is on the downward part of its arc in America, perhaps permanently. While I don’t exactly celebrate that idea, I’m not grieving about it. I think it’s inevitable and necessary.
There’s something empowering about facing down nothingness and realizing that it really IS nothing, and nothing to be afraid of. Maybe it’s time for us to
start working the abyss without a net.
I think figures do show that there is a downward trend in people attending churches, however there is also an empowerment of the extremists. I think religion is an easy sell to those who suffer or even perceive they suffer. If we manage to keep people repressed we have an easier time controlling them with religion. Our government welcomes this at the moment, because it is an infallible source of votes. As for the third world, it is in our interest not to see them empower themselves, and religion is a great way of doing this.
The brand of extremism here in the US, by their own beliefs, virtually eliminates them from the happily ever after – so why? Lack of education, disenfranchisement, general poverty etc… all contribute to this.
I recommend going as far as possible from any signs of human life and light, to a place at night in the winter with a crystal clear sky and looking up and seeing the deep velvet 3D of the Milky Way and realising how tenuous life is.
There are two possible reactions to seeing this sight.
Interesting! I’ll have to dig to get that story,link isn’t working for me, something similar is happening here with sex offenders being “saved” by prison ministries programs and getting on the fast track to parole. Without any treatment of course, they are simply “healed” of their compulsion to rape once they accept Jesus. Not that it wouldn’t be wonderful if true but somehow I don’t think they’re all sincere.
I agree that we should live as if this life is all we’ve got, do the right thing because it’s right, not because we’ll be punished eternally otherwise.
Didn’t get the link to work either. Pope B16 seems to go against Catholic principles (those of forgiveness) with this latest firing – something, though I disagreed with him vehemently, the last Pope didn’t. Remember that the Catholic church is an organization which historically has harbored many different types of criminals through repentance. It is about healing the spiritual being, not about obeying other nations laws by turning people in. That is a big conflict – what do you do with confession, etc… If in the process many innocents are hurt, they will deal with them later. It’s not only the Catholics, keep in mind, they all do it and it is not much publicized. Religion is often more about power and control, than what the contents of their religion is about. I put together a diary of this here, if you’re interested.
Sorry about the link – I’m a member at Telegraph – maybe that’s what’s wrong. But there is not much more you need you know about that story reallly