‘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.
