Good will to all men? Not from the grumpy atheists! (Thank God not all atheists are grumpy but there sure seems to be a lot of them)
Why is it that so many in the atheist community cannot bring themselves to get past their anger whenever they engage in discussions? The language of many of their contributions in public debate is laced with invective and dripping with sarcasm and bile. There are exceptions of course, but they tend to fall more into the category of being the 'exception that proves the rule' when compared to the hostility of many of today's atheist posters. Comment offered by the theists in the public square is often depicted as being 'malicious' or 'venomous' and intended to enslave the 'feeble minded and weak' by those who post. Nothing could be further from the truth. Venom is something that is oriented to death. Christians are oriented in a 180 degree different direction. We speak not to the culture of death that grips our world but rather for the culture of life and light which ends with the gift of eternal life. For example, the Catholic Church in its hum...
Fr. Tim - I had just read this. I can't imagine anything more potentially worse for victims of clerical abuse both current and in the future that exempting the dioceses and bishops from culpability in not dealing with sex abuse issues.
ReplyDeleteAlthough this ruling deals with the Catholic Church I'm not naive to think this is only a Catholic problem and only related to the particulars of this cases.
Do you see this as a carte blanche for unscrupulous religions to break the law?
Rationalist1
Rationalist: I sincerely hope it is not a carte blanche. The Church neither needs nor would actually benefit from such a privilege. It would only lead back to them abusing such earthly power.
DeleteNot all laws are just and need to be obeyed. This is true. But that does not mean that the Church should possess the right to be exempted from all civil law. It does not require a 'get out of jail free' card. (to use a Monopoly term!)
Fr. Tim
I agree. If they were arguing this to deal with the contraception issue, I would understand why and not be as concerned. And while I worry what some Bishops might do (I assume they would primarily use it to get out of liability for the abuse cover-up) , I really worry about what some unscrupulous characters might do. Imagine this power in the hands of some of the television fundamentalist pastors. There would be no end to the manipulative techniques they would use.
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