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Ridiculous. Rejecting monarchy and freedom of religion are not anti-Catholic. You just don't get to force Catholicism on anybody else by either coercion on or royal edict. If you can't attract members by what you are offering, you can't expect the government to help you out.
Personally, I don't care what some silly Papal encyclical says, so I'm not wasting my time reading any.
As you ought to know, we don't believe that legitimate spiritual authority is "self-appointed".
As you ought to know I consider the existence of any claimed "legitimate spiritual authority" to be utter hubris and nonsense! God is no respecter of persons. Any spiritual authority we possess applies only to OURSELVES and we all have equal "authority." We ultimately will be accountable for ourselves and any we may influence, period. Abdicating to any "authority" does not relieve you of any responsibility.
I'm unsure of what you're trying to say here. St. Peter was given the authority to "bind and loose" by Jesus Christ Himself. The Church has the authority to make its own laws.
Why did you quote an Eastern Orthodox deacon? His opinion is irrelevant to Catholic practice.
Pick any denomination, any of them. Tell them that they can be a Theocracy, and give them 1500 years to act as an empire over a dozen kingdoms. This attitude is the end result.
When I was a small child. one of my grandmothers was catholic. On her living room table sat a HUGE family Bible. I remember one time [I might have been 10yo] I knelt before that Bible, opened it, I admired some of the pictures and I began to read some of the words. My grandmother was quick to scold me. We commoners are not allowed to read any of the Bible. It would give us ideas contrary to church authority. There was a time when reading a Bible and having ideas about it would get you burned at the stake.
I grew up mostly attending a baptist church. I learned from them, that if they had been the theocracy for over 1500 years, they would have been far worse.
Pick any denomination, any of them. Tell them that they can be a Theocracy, and give them 1500 years to act as an empire over a dozen kingdoms. This attitude is the end result.
When I was a small child. one of my grandmothers was catholic. On her living room table sat a HUGE family Bible. I remember one time [I might have been 10yo] I knelt before that Bible, opened it, I admired some of the pictures and I began to read some of the words. My grandmother was quick to scold me. We commoners are not allowed to read any of the Bible. It would give us ideas contrary to church authority. There was a time when reading a Bible and having ideas about it would get you burned at the stake.
I grew up mostly attending a baptist church. I learned from them, that if they had been the theocracy for over 1500 years, they would have been far worse.
I have never found the laws of the Church to be unreasonable, much less "tyrannical".
But if merely spending an hour or so at church every Sunday is just a bridge too far for you, then live it up I guess.
Oh you bet I will. I can recall having to pass on a juicy hotdog at a Dodger game as a kid. I was Catholic then and dutifully obeyed the no meat command despite how bad I wanted the hotdog. I recall my mother telling me to clean my room on a Sunday and I told her I wouldn't because it's Sunday and I couldn't work on Sunday. I had to disobey and disrespect my parent and break one commandment to fulfill another, that's how ridiculous the Christian commandments are. I think of those times now and get really angry at my complete stupidity that I allowed an illegitimate religion to dictate to me such horrendous commands that took all the fun out of my life. People are free to sell themselves into religious slavery but the smart ones are the ones who liberate themselves just by saying, "Enough of this nonsense."
Quote:
Originally Posted by EscAlaMike
Indeed. The USA was founded on explicitly anti-Catholic principles.
As you ought to know I consider the existence of any claimed "legitimate spiritual authority" to be utter hubris and nonsense! God is no respecter of persons. Any spiritual authority we possess applies only to OURSELVES and we all have equal "authority." We ultimately will be accountable for ourselves and any we may influence, period. Abdicating to any "authority" does not relieve you of any responsibility.
Quote:
Originally Posted by EscAlaMike
This principle doesn't apply to a single facet of human life. If it is applied, disaster and disorder inevitably ensue.
Why is the spiritual life unique in that it alone is anarchical?
Because it applies only to our eventual spiritual life, NOT this physical one. Secular laws constrain but do not delimit our freedoms in the name of providing some semblance of order and conformity to our physical existence. Kohlberg's Stages of moral development describe the kind of societal morality that applies to our physical existence. How that moral development manifests within the population is what produces the general conformity and order desired. Your reversion to the earliest stage of moral development (abdication to authority) in the name of religion is immature in the extreme as it is usually outgrown by age nine within the population.
The article isn't just about money or attending service on Sunday. It's about a church community outside of those two.
I see it as ...
Church clean up day
Potlucks
Movie day
Day trips
Organized socializing on days other then Sunday.
Some can be religious in nature (Bible study) or purely recreational (bus trip to historic location)
The church I now belong to has that and that is one huge reason I joined...there's more than just going to Mass/Service.
I think a big contributor to this "falling away" is that in today's world, those social needs are abundantly fulfilled through other sources. Once upon a time, the local church was a social hub and stabilizing force in the community, especially for folks would were relatively isolated most of the week (farmers, for example) or for months on end during inclement weather. It was a place to catch up with friends, meet a potential spouse, etc. A lot of people today feel overextended socially (work, their children's school and sports activities, friends, neighbors, extended family) and simply have no desire to broaden their social circle even more. There is an implicit (or sometimes outright explicit) expectation that church-goers plug in and become part of that community, rather than just "warm the pews" and I think THAT is what people are shying away from, not the expectation of financially supporting the church.
I think a big contributor to this "falling away" is that in today's world, those social needs are abundantly fulfilled through other sources. Once upon a time, the local church was a social hub and stabilizing force in the community, especially for folks would were relatively isolated most of the week (farmers, for example) or for months on end during inclement weather. It was a place to catch up with friends, meet a potential spouse, etc. A lot of people today feel overextended socially (work, their children's school and sports activities, friends, neighbors, extended family) and simply have no desire to broaden their social circle even more. There is an implicit (or sometimes outright explicit) expectation that church-goers plug in and become part of that community, rather than just "warm the pews" and I think THAT is what people are shying away from, not the expectation of financially supporting the church.
I saw that type of thinking in a different setting. The first school I taught in was in a rural community and the school was the center of community life. So much different than the districts I later taught at.
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