The new Political/off topic sticky chat thread (Scranton, Washington: violent crime, credit)

[SteelCityRising]

Originally Posted by weluvpa

Sure I'll vote for the kid that wants to give money to Bishop Martino.

Hey, at least maybe, just MAYBE Martino will crack a smile for a change! LOL!

[CHS89]

Let the local churches get necessary funding from the Vatican. It's not the responsibility of the Federal, State, or Local governments to bail out churches.

[AbbeysMom]

Put simply, seperation of Church and State. There should not even be a discussion about this issue with government leaders. I personally think that Doug is far younger than I would like a council person to be. He needs to gain some experience. Leading a city is far different than planting flowers on an island in Greenridge and getting funding for a Handicapped swingset. These were accomplishments, however the city needs more than swingsets and flowers.

[SteelCityRising]

I personally dislike how Bishop Martino sought to stifle his students' creativity and personal freedoms when he recently lambasted officials at Misericordia University in Dallas for hosting a notable author familiarized with issues pertinent to racial relations and sexual orientations. Part of the learning process is being presented with ideals that may not conform to those of your own so that you can either challenge those ideals or permit them to be digested into your own mind as inspiration to completely alter your mindset on a matter. I can safely say through my participation over the past 2.5 years on this forum that I've grown and matured as a direct result of many of those whom I've interacted with and debated with, and I truly feel grateful for that. I attend King's College, which has embraced me DESPITE the fact that I'm neither Roman Catholic nor heterosexual, and I truly appreciate the growing diversity on campus as making my mind more malleable (that's a lot of "M"s) to new ideas, customs, and beliefs that ought to serve me well when I inevitably leave our region for skilled employment concerns. King's is probably the most "religious" school of the four Roman Catholic-oriented colleges in our area (U of S, Misericordia, King's, Marywood), and yet our school has learned to adapt with the times much better than your bishop has. We've remained a viable institution of higher learning in a highly-competitive marketplace by not forgetting our Catholic roots and traditions but rather adapting them so that students from all walks of life can feel accepted here. Yes, we have the crucifix everywhere, along with priests and a strong emphasis placed upon attending mass, but students who are non-Catholic are not made to feel "unwelcomed," as Bishop Martino would prefer to make us feel with his prevailing "my way or the highway" attitude.

Bishop Martino could have used that speaker's presence as an instructional tool, inviting students and faculty to attend a reflection seminar of this lecture, perhaps even hosted by Mr. Obscurity himself, in order to discuss the church's stance on what was just presented. Instead he just took his typical "my way or the highway" approach and refuses to insert foot into mouth when he's too brazen. I wish Bishop Martino would educate himself about his own faith sometimes. I wonder how many of you "devout" Roman Catholics realize that your own faith actually DOES recognize alternative sexual orientations as being innate to to the individual, and that it is merely the "practice" of homosexuality that is not condoned? Contrary to popular belief, God doesn't hate the gays, even though that may sound attractive to many legal opponents to say (as if their religious practice should have any sort of legal basis, which I find to be laughable in a nation founded upon NOT formally recognizing any one faith in order to prevent that singular faith from steamrolling over others).

What is this man's problem? Such an educated person having such a low sense of self-monitoring absolutely flabbergasts me. The Roman Catholic presence is weaker than ever in NEPA, and instead of hosting community-style "Town Hall" meetings to level with his flock about the challenges facing the church, (genuinely) asking for insight and ideas from his followers on how to improve the church (and taking them to heart), etc., this man has assumed the role of an authoritarian. As a Protestant I look forward to seeing our local ranks swelling in the coming years if your bishop gets himself into any more hot water.

[Mr Yuk]

Originally Posted by ScranBarre

As a Protestant I look forward to seeing our local ranks swelling in the coming years if your bishop gets himself into any more hot water.

I wouldn't be too sure of that, depending on what kind of Protestant church you attend. Most mainline Protestant churches (Methodist, Episcopal, Lutheran, etc) are also losing members fast. About the only churches that seem to be growing are evangelical churches these days.

[weluvpa]

Originally Posted by AbbeysMom

Put simply, seperation of Church and State.

You would think that a student of government would have known that.......

Buy hey while he was on junior council he was all in favor of stifling the first amendment for speakers so I guess we should expect this kind of thing.

Hey Doug....Maybe you should have thought about putting down people in the city while you were on Junior council before you decided to ask for their votes.

[AbbeysMom]

I think that Doug would be wise to wait before he runs for a seat on council. He needs to concentrate on getting through school. He needs to learn life lessons, and respect for others. A good dose of humility might also be good, I understand that he announced at the Podium at one of the meetings (I don't get to see the meetings) that he intends to seek the office of President, not that I don't think he should have this ambition, but how about concentrating on getting that council seat first. It's not going to be easy for him, and I am not sure that he realizes that.

[Mr Yuk]

Maybe a more realistic goal for Doug would be running for student body president in school... Then when he gets his degree and gets out in the real world, he may be ready to play with the big boys....

[weluvpa]

I doubt that Bolus would allow that.....Doug needs to run now while people actually remember him, even though they don't remember him in a positive way. That doesn't matter because he will show them that he cares now at the podium while he asking for federal funds for their churches.

The current crop of council candidates and their handlers will basically keep Judy right where she is and probably give Doherty the majority after the election again. People won't elect kids and thats pretty much what is running this time around. No right minded adult would want to step into the mess that this city gov't has been turned into and who could blame them.

The anti-doherty political machine is weak, underfunded and disorganizied and that will allow Doherty to stay mayor and have a council majority again. Especially when we only have 23,000 voters come out...The pie can only be split and spoiled so many ways before its counter-productive.

Thats the reality, for as much as it sucks, thats it right there.

[Mr Yuk]

Word is now that DiBileo is running. He has my vote. He is a good guy that does seem to actually care about his community. If he's a little more aggressive on the campaign trail this time around, and if enough people see through Doherty's phony smoke-and-mirrors photo ops, he might have a chance of pulling it off this time.