Is the Catholic Church as a whole getting an underserved bad rap?

# 27 Mar, 2013 19:58
Jeff_Hendricks	Since one of the listener comments brought up the issue of the Catholic Church and made the argument that it may be getting an undeserved bad rap due to some unsavory individuals in its midst, I thought I would start out the forum for conversation. What do you all think? Has the Catholic Church been corrupt since the days of Imperial Rome or is it really an organization composed of caring individuals and a few bad apples? quote

# 27 Mar, 2013 19:58

Since one of the listener comments brought up the issue of the Catholic Church and made the argument that it may be getting an undeserved bad rap due to some unsavory individuals in its midst, I thought I would start out the forum for conversation. What do you all think? Has the Catholic Church been corrupt since the days of Imperial Rome or is it really an organization composed of caring individuals and a few bad apples?

# 28 Mar, 2013 01:12
Panchanito	Killing Pagans, killing witches, killing native Americans, killing Jews, raping alter boys, hoarding gold and just generally being un-Christ like, umm I'd say they are getting their comeuppance. I'm intrigued to see how this whole Prophecy of the Popes plays out. If Catholicism crumbles then there could be a domino effect for the other major players in the religious game. quote

# 28 Mar, 2013 07:44
richimon	600 years of inqusitions, shuffling pedophile priests from unknowing parish to unknowing parish, hell, putting poor Galileo under house arrest for having the audacity to say that the sun does not revolve around the Earth. There is an incredible list torture and cruelty from an organization that is supposed to be grounded in the word of a fella who was all about kindness, charity and caring. If you made up this level of hypocrisy in a story no one would believe you. I know there are good folks that put a lot of faith into the Church that do a lot of good things, but as we have seen with the giant banks, things have a way of unraveling when the left tentacle has no idea what the other twelve are up to. quote

# 28 Mar, 2013 07:44

richimon

600 years of inqusitions, shuffling pedophile priests from unknowing parish to unknowing parish, hell, putting poor Galileo under house arrest for having the audacity to say that the sun does not revolve around the Earth. There is an incredible list torture and cruelty from an organization that is supposed to be grounded in the word of a fella who was all about kindness, charity and caring. If you made up this level of hypocrisy in a story no one would believe you. I know there are good folks that put a lot of faith into the Church that do a lot of good things, but as we have seen with the giant banks, things have a way of unraveling when the left tentacle has no idea what the other twelve are up to.

# 30 Mar, 2013 02:15
CarcassStew	All that I really know of the Catholic church is what I see on the news. Usually this is bad press.I think that anything that helps anyone get through their life at maximum happiness is a truly beautiful thing. My official OPINION is this. The Catholic church is not really “doing” anything these days. A bit of pageantry every now and then or a sickening news story a few evenings out of the year is all it seems to be. It reminds me of The British Royal Family. A figurehead at best with no real power anymore. The church may indeed be getting what it deserves for it's major disgusting acts throughout history but I don't think It has any real meaning anymore at all. NICE COSTUMES THOUGH! I say corrupt since the beginning! quote

# 30 Mar, 2013 02:15

CarcassStew

All that I really know of the Catholic church is what I see on the news. Usually this is bad press.I think that anything that helps anyone get through their life at maximum happiness is a truly beautiful thing. My official OPINION is this.

The Catholic church is not really “doing” anything these days. A bit of pageantry every now and then or a sickening news story a few evenings out of the year is all it seems to be. It reminds me of The British Royal Family. A figurehead at best with no real power anymore.

The church may indeed be getting what it deserves for it's major disgusting acts throughout history but I don't think It has any real meaning anymore at all. NICE COSTUMES THOUGH!

I say corrupt since the beginning!

# 30 Mar, 2013 21:39
Daniele	We'll make sure to tackle this topic in the upcoming episode 14 quote

# 02 Apr, 2013 07:02
messenger_boy	Ah! A professor I know has a book about the corruption of the Catholic church that he's been putting together for like, a decade now. It started as a massive 800 page manuscript about the history of the corruption of Catholic church, but 45+ rejection letters and years of revisions later, he's just gotten a publishing deal. It is a much slimmer book that focuses mostly on the Catholic church's approach to feminism, marriage, and maybe sexuality (can't remember). From what I've heard, he's making two main arguments. Priests should be allowed to marry a spouse, and women should be allowed to become priests. I believe he says that both were allowed for hundreds of years until the Catholic church changed the rules. He also says that letting priests fuck a spouse and have a family will deter them from molesting children. You'd like this guy Daniele! He's also made a documentary that got an innocent man off death row before! Very interesting all-over-the-place kind of anti-professor. Anyways I'll definitely ask about more concrete information next time I see him. quote

# 02 Apr, 2013 07:02

messenger_boy

Ah! A professor I know has a book about the corruption of the Catholic church that he's been putting together for like, a decade now. It started as a massive 800 page manuscript about the history of the corruption of Catholic church, but 45+ rejection letters and years of revisions later, he's just gotten a publishing deal. It is a much slimmer book that focuses mostly on the Catholic church's approach to feminism, marriage, and maybe sexuality (can't remember).

From what I've heard, he's making two main arguments. Priests should be allowed to marry a spouse, and women should be allowed to become priests. I believe he says that both were allowed for hundreds of years until the Catholic church changed the rules. He also says that letting priests fuck a spouse and have a family will deter them from molesting children. You'd like this guy Daniele! He's also made a documentary that got an innocent man off death row before! Very interesting all-over-the-place kind of anti-professor. Anyways I'll definitely ask about more concrete information next time I see him.

# 03 Apr, 2013 15:46
torgn	I'd hedge a guess at it being started off by people who were awesome and wanted good for everybody, but it became to easy to hide cunty behavior behind the church and thus, it was ruined. I don't see any good coming from the Church anymore that couldn't be achieved without all the crazy costumes and stupid ideas. I just saw this news article I thought it pretty fitting for this thread… http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/03/27/meth-catholic-priest-porn-shop-plead-guilty quote

# 03 Apr, 2013 15:46

torgn

I'd hedge a guess at it being started off by people who were awesome and wanted good for everybody, but it became to easy to hide cunty behavior behind the church and thus, it was ruined. I don't see any good coming from the Church anymore that couldn't be achieved without all the crazy costumes and stupid ideas.

I just saw this news article I thought it pretty fitting for this thread…

http://www.usnews.com/news/newsgram/articles/2013/03/27/meth-catholic-priest-porn-shop-plead-guilty

# 04 Apr, 2013 08:08
XtrialbyfireX	Before Catholicism Christianity was a really diverse religion. To me, there is a lot of arrogance in saying: “We're the ones that have it right,” and imposing that view on everyone else, instead of allowing other branches of Christianity to grow in the way they wanted. So honestly, my view is that Catholicism always had an element of corruption. My beef with the church would only really be about theology. I think the bottom line is that any organization with that many people is going to have bad people, and even bad leadership at times. It wouldn't matter what religion it was, or what people group it was. Bad people do awful things and then they cover up for other bad people. I would say a lot of people who think they are Christians, or a lot of people who think they have some kind of connection with God actually don't. “ Jesus said, ”I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand…" ~ Gospel of Thomas quote

# 04 Apr, 2013 08:08

XtrialbyfireX

Before Catholicism Christianity was a really diverse religion. To me, there is a lot of arrogance in saying: “We're the ones that have it right,” and imposing that view on everyone else, instead of allowing other branches of Christianity to grow in the way they wanted. So honestly, my view is that Catholicism always had an element of corruption. My beef with the church would only really be about theology.

I think the bottom line is that any organization with that many people is going to have bad people, and even bad leadership at times. It wouldn't matter what religion it was, or what people group it was. Bad people do awful things and then they cover up for other bad people.

I would say a lot of people who think they are Christians, or a lot of people who think they have some kind of connection with God actually don't. “ Jesus said, ”I shall choose you, one from a thousand and two from ten thousand…" ~ Gospel of Thomas

# 08 Apr, 2013 01:25
Eric	The only personal experience I have had with the catholic church was the funerals for my grandparents. It truly made me think the whole thing is a sham. I was looking at all the symbols(aka idols), all the gold, all the opulence and it made me sad. I was raised in a strict christian household(but I am not Christian). I spent 18 years of my life going to church and learning the bible. To me it seems like the catholic church does the exact opposite of what the bible instructs them to do. My guess would be there are very few good people in that organization, there is too much money and power, both of those things are very tempting and people will do anything and everything to not loose those things. quote

# 08 Apr, 2013 01:25

Eric

The only personal experience I have had with the catholic church was the funerals for my grandparents. It truly made me think the whole thing is a sham. I was looking at all the symbols(aka idols), all the gold, all the opulence and it made me sad. I was raised in a strict christian household(but I am not Christian). I spent 18 years of my life going to church and learning the bible. To me it seems like the catholic church does the exact opposite of what the bible instructs them to do. My guess would be there are very few good people in that organization, there is too much money and power, both of those things are very tempting and people will do anything and everything to not loose those things.