Churches Must Stop Defending the Indefensible, Believing the Unbelievable



The Pope visited Ireland recently.  The topic of sexual abuse by priests is much in discussion. That country has seen an explosion of cases in recent years.

One victim told a conference audience the Catholic Church must stop defending the indefensible. Of course the same is true for all other parts of the faith and other faiths. One common come back by Catholic clergy is child sexual abuse happens in all professions. This is true. But only Catholic clergy claim to have inherited their position from Jesus himself. That others commit the same crimes is not a defense.

Something similar is the myth of life after death. No one has ever been able to establish that there is a long life after death. Yes, there are people who sell books and earn lecture fees about their encounter with something like another world while unconscious. But that is not an eternal life after death. This business deal where believers tithe has one winner, the clergy that receives the money and one loser, the believer who paid it.

The faith needs to stop denying its clergy are able to provide moral guidance to the rest of us. And, it needs to stop promising something it cannot deliver. I think its future would be brighter if it said it will no longer claim it can provide superior moral advise and stop promising something it will never provide.

We are living in a time of skepticism. When you bring something to the table you must remember those who hear it will be skeptics.

Comments

  1. Matt NoahOctober 17, 2018 at 5:04 PM

    Yawn. You threw the kitchen sink of anti-theism in today's re-posted article. Of course, the article is from August 24, 2018.

    The Gosnell movie is out in theaters. America's foremost mass murderer's life is on display on the big screen.

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wyxl5OlOTQI

    I'm sure you will want to defend Gosnell as one of heroes of climate change, women's rights, liberalism and feminism. But he's behind bars for what should be the rest of his life for being America's foremost serial killer. 'How is it that a woman goes in to an abortion center, dies and no police report is filed.'

    How, indeed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. UnknownOctober 17, 2018 at 5:30 PM

    Most organizations and people report the sexual abuse of a child by an adult to the police. While it may be true that the prevalence of those disposed to abuse children is about the same throughout society it is what you as an individual or as an organization do about the abuse after it is discovered that is the kicker. Not reporting an abuser tells Him there are no real consequences to continuing to procure victims and makes the religions that have done so complicit in the abuse of children. I report would report any child abusers to the proper authorities and this is what makes me vastly superior morally to my former religion the JW's and to the Catholic Church. That doesn't make me special as I am sure the majority of my fellow citizens would do the same.

    ReplyDelete
  3. mark anthonyOctober 17, 2018 at 7:48 PM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete
  4. mark anthonyOctober 18, 2018 at 6:46 AM

    This comment has been removed by the author.

    ReplyDelete

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