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Hi iamn0one
The Roman Catholic church provides a vocation for people who would rather 'walk with christ' than spend time with the women they love. It is called the priesthood.
Stuart
This new thread has been started to mirror one in which I can't post, presumably because religious faith is too weak to answer simple questions from atheists and hence needs protection from the real world.
Stuart,
I realize your response was tongue in cheek but will respond with my thoughts anyway. The Catholic priesthood is a mixed bag, there are some who really feel that they can contribute more to humanity and God by sacrificing that aspect of their life, to those who can do so I lend my admiration. There are others on whom giving up woman is no burden at all (homosexuals both self aware and unaware) and they often find the priesthood attractive as well. And there are those who enter young, thinking they can give up women and carnal desires and end up terribly afflicted, I am afraid a lot of the Catholic Church's recent public problems stem from this. I think in most cases their insistance on celibacy has created more problems then any supposed advantage from purity has delivered. Recruiting efforts in recent years reflects this problem. Outside of this particular example I am sure that walking with Christ, so to speak, and healthy relationships with the opposite sex are in no way incompatible. If anything, it is the nature of these realtionships that may be incompatible but not the relationship itself.
Quote (Cato @ Feb. 12 2008,01:55) Stuart, I realize your response was tongue in cheek but will respond with my thoughts anyway. The Catholic priesthood is a mixed bag, there are some who really feel that they can contribute more to humanity and God by sacrificing that aspect of their life, to those who can do so I lend my admiration. There are others on whom giving up woman is no burden at all (homosexuals both self aware and unaware) and they often find the priesthood attractive as well. And there are those who enter young, thinking they can give up women and carnal desires and end up terribly afflicted, I am afraid a lot of the Catholic Church's recent public problems stem from this. I think in most cases their insistance on celibacy has created more problems then any supposed advantage from purity has delivered. Recruiting efforts in recent years reflects this problem. Outside of this particular example I am sure that walking with Christ, so to speak, and healthy relationships with the opposite sex are in no way incompatible. If anything, it is the nature of these realtionships that may be incompatible but not the relationship itself.
My other line on the priesthood is (as you point out) that it was invented by the Catholic church as something for their gay men to do. Of course gay men would have to give up men in order to be celibate too so I don't see how it only affects heterosexual men. It amounts to suppression of sexuality either way. They add the insult of accepting into the priesthood married protestant ministers who convert.This all raises the wider issue of the attitude of the church on sexuality. I find it particularly encouraging that Catholic countries in South America, and to some extent Spain, are beginning to stand up to papal hegemony on issues of sexuality and reproductive rights. Having a murderous bully in the bedroom must be losing its charm. If sexuality is 'carnal desire', to be suppressed except in the narrow conditions imposed by the popes, how can you expect anything but schizophrenia? That particular church has failied in its self-appointed pastoral care of people by abusing them with its doctrines.
Stuart
Yes, Catholics (or I should say the church hierarchy) in particular seem out of touch with reality when it comes to sexuality. That is probably why most Catholics in the US and Canada like to ignore Papal dictates on such topics and why the evangelicals are the fastest growing religious group in South America. The Catholic Church can no longer look to domination by simply outpopulating other groups (after all according to them sex is for reproduction and the go forth and multiply line is still a divine dictate no matter how overpopulated the earth is).
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