A powerful reckoning, Father. The same ancient game plays on in modern hands—pluck a verse here, strip a context there, forge a weapon from a text that was meant to heal.
I have long said, when men misuse scripture to enslave, shame, or erase, they do not reveal the nature of God. They reveal the nature of their own fear.
The true scandal of Sodom was not love between two people. It was the refusal to love the stranger, the poor, the vulnerable. And so the real Sodomites today are not at the Pride parade, they are at the country club.
I'm living in Belgium, which was 95% Catholic in the 1950's and now is said to be 45% Catholic. In practice, I think it could be 5%. With this decline in participation in the church comes the loss of community; in this tiny village, the church was the only community. The church did a lot of good in that way, but a lot of harm to people who didn't fit in. I asked my companion, who was raised here, confirmed in the church 200 yards up the hill, and went to Catholic schools all the way through college, about her personal reasons for quitting. She quit in college because the BS just got too deep. She is what I call a 'love one another' person. In my mind, that makes her a Christ -follower.
A powerful reckoning, Father. The same ancient game plays on in modern hands—pluck a verse here, strip a context there, forge a weapon from a text that was meant to heal.
I have long said, when men misuse scripture to enslave, shame, or erase, they do not reveal the nature of God. They reveal the nature of their own fear.
The true scandal of Sodom was not love between two people. It was the refusal to love the stranger, the poor, the vulnerable. And so the real Sodomites today are not at the Pride parade, they are at the country club.
May your hard-won clarity spread far.
Virgin Monk Boy
Christian clergy (Catholic and Protestant) raping young boys?!?!
I'm living in Belgium, which was 95% Catholic in the 1950's and now is said to be 45% Catholic. In practice, I think it could be 5%. With this decline in participation in the church comes the loss of community; in this tiny village, the church was the only community. The church did a lot of good in that way, but a lot of harm to people who didn't fit in. I asked my companion, who was raised here, confirmed in the church 200 yards up the hill, and went to Catholic schools all the way through college, about her personal reasons for quitting. She quit in college because the BS just got too deep. She is what I call a 'love one another' person. In my mind, that makes her a Christ -follower.
Thank you for your love and patience, as well as the education.