“Now, under attack from the world which talks to us of our sins, we can see that being able to do penance is a grace and we see how necessary it is to do penance and thus recognize what is wrong in our lives.”
It is a telling comment that he refers to the attack from the world. It is a masochistic way of looking at things. Had there been no attack, would there be no need for penance? This penance too is part of “obedience to God”. Has god been in any manner demeaned? Has god been tarnished? No. The Church is an institution, and like all religious institutions it has a set hierarchy, sub-sects and people in charge. They ought to be pulled up and be seen as criminals for committing crimes against others, as they would be in civil society.
One increasingly notices that ashrams, madrassas, convents and churches are being used by a few for abusive activities that go contrary to what they stand for and wish to portray. Due to the holy tag attached to them, it is difficult to discover the improprieties and to pull them up and try them as one would in regular cases.
The pontiff denounced Nazis and Communism and alluded in his speech that “subtle, or even less than subtle, aggressions against the Church show how this conformism can be a real dictatorship.”
Is he implying that the Church is not conformist? Religion conforms more than anything else, whether it is monotheistic faiths with one holy book, a god, angels or polytheistic faiths with several gods and their own little value systems. The believer has got to believe in these and conform to the rituals of that faith. How is any of this non-conformist?
He called upon the faithful to “open themselves to forgiveness, to prepare themselves for forgiveness, allow themselves to be transformed. The sorrow of penitence, that is of purification and transformation, that sorrow is grace. Because it is renewal, it is a work of divine mercy.”
In short, do what you want, but keep your options open to seek retribution, not in the real world for real reasons, but because you need divine mercy.
Those poor kids and the women who are being molested in places of worship do not count. Some seers have the audacity to use the ruse of ‘purification’ for such sexual rituals.
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This is from the German satire magazine Titanic. This is its April issue cover on ‘The church today’:
This is from the German satire magazine Titanic. This is its April issue cover on ‘The church today’:
The problem here is that people who pretend to be moral authorities for the average person need to hold themselves to a higher standard of Behaviour.
ReplyDeleteIf the church pretends to be middleman between Christians and their god (or the mullah/priest between the muslim/hindu with his/her god), then it should enforce such moral probity among priests.
If the standards for these moral standard-bearers allows pedophiles and deviants to be the middleman between the believer and his god, what is the difference between following that priest and following the ideals of the pickpocket down the street?
Circle:
ReplyDeleteI love the bohemian tone, but am afraid it is not their prerogative simply because they have chosen a path that expects them to follow certain strictures and they preach it to others.
I agree that people outside of the priesthood (and I included holy men and women of all faiths) are hypocrites too, but we are tried in a court of law if we commit crimes. We cannot get away with penance.
Incidentally, the improprieties include non-sexual crimes.
Al:
Absolutely, as I stated above. I mean, I could start a cult and have all the crows lining up for darshan :)
FV: "Absolutely, as I stated above. I mean, I could start a cult and have all the crows lining up for darshan :)"
ReplyDeleteIf you get serious about this idea and are looking for a marketing consultant and a image director for this new cult/religion, look no further! :-)
Some important fundamentals to any entrepreneur hoping to strike it big in the religious cult industry. Lot of amateurs get it wrong by not planning properly.
1. It should have an appropriately pious name, for starters -- this is very difficult and requires a lot of thinking.
2. Think big! call it a Religion (TM)(C)(R), not a silly old cult.
3. Employ a lot of lawyers.
4. Plan ahead and work oneself as a central figure in the religious narrative. For example, spreading the tale of how on the cult's deity's birthday, all the crows of mumbai make it a point to stop by a specific place to pay respects. No one can verify this claim by counting all the crows in mumbai and cause any trouble down the line.
I'll stop here even though I could go on :)
Thanks, Al, but think about what you are getting into.
ReplyDeleteA cult can get away with a lot more than religion and while promos will help, I shall go the Mata way and rely solely on a good embrace.
Trust me, the crows of Mumbai are raven mad so it won't be an effort to let them gather ye dose bugs while ye may...
Your points are right but even those who follow blindly must be blamed.Why go to ashrams when that baba is making a fool of you??
ReplyDeleteMost of the time, religious behaviour is an escapist scheme to shirk responsibilities. One can always claim "Well, I could try fixing my problem, but Guru X and the deities in my Fav 5 Deity list solve all problems if you pray to them.
ReplyDeleteSo I am going to just sit on my butt and pray very very hard but not actually lift a finger to fix my own problem"...have seen enough family members and acquaintances follow this path of "I'll sit on my ass and sing prayers all the way to failure".
KB:
ReplyDeletePeople do not go to make fools of themselves; they seem to need a medium to help them with god and that's where these priests etc come in. I agree, there should be some checks and balances, but blind faith does not allow for such intrusion.
Al:
Hey, haven't you heard about levitation? Then there are no butts...
the fact that i saw someone as a bad man or a thief or a rapist is because i have the same potential to do those acts otherwise i would never have thought it because what i think of others is a image/reflection of myself,if that's understood so called religion has done its job (as a man thinks so is he)the root cause is the fallacy that leads me into thinking that i am better than them. i would think that you too give it a thought before taking the law into your own hands and condemning people.because if we think we have never sinned we are bigger fools than them...
ReplyDelete