We all know how out of whack your "reflections" are (kind of like a religious Jack Handy) but perhaps you don't really want to quote anything from Saginaw. http://www.snapnetwork.org/mi_victims_blast_saginaw_bishop_over_missing_priest
Which god? I want to make sure that we are on the same page. There are close to 3,000 different gods.
According to the Church, we were all created good by a loving God who does not make mistakes, but He also gave us free will. There is also a Spiritual reality that is always operating "behind the scenes", in our hearts (at the level of the soul). Love changes hearts. People can and do change. The spiritual battle is between the Spirit of God (His Angels) and the Spirit of satan (demons). We are all, myself included, affected by demons (as evidenced by some of my posts lol!). With free will, we need to surround ourselves with good influences, go to Church, pray, read Scripture, etc, to create an interior environment for ourselves (in our soul) that will invite God (the Holy Spirit) and displace any demons we may be dealing with. This is how people can, and do, change over time.
http://www.pennlive.com/news/2016/03/altoona_diocese_catholic_clerg.html Priests and church leaders sexually abused hundreds of children in Altoona Diocese: AG office Hundreds of children were sexually abused over a period of at least four decades by priests or religious leaders in the Roman Catholic Diocese of Altoona-Johnstown, a statewide investigating grand jury has concluded. The findings by the grand jury, released Tuesday by the office of state Attorney General Kathleen Kane, detail widespread abuse involving at least 50 priests or religious leaders. The findings reveal a troubling history of diocesan superiors concealing the child abuse as part of an effort to protect the church's image. The 147-page report details — at times graphically — accounts of sexual abuse of children at the hands of priests and church leaders. The late Monsignor Francis B. McCaa, the report notes, was "a monster" who groped and fondled the genitals of at least 15 boys, many of them altar boys. McCaa was assigned to Holy Name Church in Ebensburg for more than 20 years. At least one of his victims committed suicide, the investigation found. "The heinous crimes these children endured are absolutely unconscionable." Attorney General Kathleen Kane _
....and in a related story, a child abuser was signed by the Jets: he somehow passed the background checks. Therefore, football players are child molesters. lol Your routine is getting old dude. Notice how you never see this in the mainstream news anymore. Even the Church-haters are getting tired of their bogus smear campaign. Yeah there were probably a few legit cases years ago, and that's all it took: Priests are easy targets given their celibate lifestyles, the Church has a lot of money, and NEWSFLASH - there are unethical people out there trying to make a quick buck. Who knew?! lol ...btw, I recently heard a respected businesswoman on the radio question how guilty Bill Cosby actually is, using similar logic. Here's the scenario: a woman shacks up with Bill, they have a steamy night of sex, she thinks it might go somewhere, Bill had other ideas, ....time goes by, the woman's feelings are hurt, [demons enter], she decides to claim he raped her to get revenge AND a nice payout. ... The Church imposes rules that makes some people feel guilty, Priests are easy targets, the church has lots of money ..... same scam. ... Let's not be naive here. ...same thing probably happened to Michael Jackson too btw. Not to mention the fact that the Catholic Church is a major worldwide organization to oppose potential abuses by entire countries and societies...abuses like pornography (a multi-billion dollar industry), Abortion (another big money industry), and so on. These are powerful "lobbies", so of course they would like nothing better than to get the Church out of the way. ... again, let's be real here, and not be naive about it.
Planned Parenthood and Vivid Productions are funding spurious lawsuits and accusations against Catholic priests. Just like happened to Michael Jackson. When you study the science, it all makes perfect sense.
Let's recount the lies: No priest has ever been convicted of raping a child. The Catholic Church is being shaken down by gold diggers. Bill Cosby is not a rapist. He's just been shaken down by gold diggers. The God of the Roman Catholic Church is the bestest God. The first sexual encounter you ever have is scientifically proven to be the most intense chemical bond. Porn is unhealthy. Science has proven the existence of God. Michael Jackson just liked to cuddle. Science can't disprove the existence of God. _
Explain AIDS, diarrhea, cancer, foreskin, herpes, parasites that only live in eye balls, Hillary Clinton, small penises, depression, still born babies, rape, murder, torture, Sum 31, slave trade, catholic priests, heart attacks, The XFL, strokes, choking, constipation, and The New York Jets.
It seems as if you want to burn in the fires of hell for all eternity. Once again you have denied the atrocities that even your pope admits to. Lying about such subjects is a mortal sin that will get you punished forever. I suggest you get yourself to Peter Luger and ask for a tour of the kitchen. Look into that 1800 degree broiler and try to imagine yourself in a fire a hundred times hotter that never goes out. Then come back here and tell us those children are lying. Better yet, seek out some of those children and look them in the eyes and try to feed them your line of shit, coward.
The devil! Satan! Demons! Hellfire! Cut the crap already. Religion is something that just leftover from the infancy of man's knowledge. It will die off eventually. Not in our lifetime but one day. And that world has a pretty good chance of being a cool place.
This can't be right. I thought young Catholics are rallying and creating a resurgence. http://www.religionnews.com/2016/03/11/religion-secularism-god-church/ The US: One nation not quite under God (RNS) Politicians often cite American “exceptionalism” and the country’s high level of religiosity when boasting about one nation under God. But this country isn’t so unique on the faith front any more, say two sociology professors. Their new study shows Americans steadily sliding toward secular Europe with increasingly fuzzy — or fading — ties to church, God and religious denominations. These changes are generational, long term and unlikely to reverse course, say Mark Chaves of Duke University and David Voas of University College London, in the latest American Journal of Sociology. You don’t have to be an academic to notice. “You see it everywhere, even in the electoral politics where it is no longer essential for a presidential candidate to be religious,” said Voas, pointing to Donald Trump, who strikes many as what might be called a nominal Christian, and Bernie Sanders, a secular Jew. Or you can look around at your friends and family. Everyone knows someone who is not religious and not shy any more about saying so, observed Chaves. Their study addressed the debate among social scientists on the relationship between modernization and secularization. Some argue, pointing to Europe, that the more developed a nation, the less religious its people. Other experts cite America as the exception because of its high rates of belief in God, church attendance and religious identification. That’s no longer so, Chaves and Voas claim. In discussing their findings, Chaves pointed to the rise of the “nones” – people who say they have no religious identity – from a barely noticed fraction in the 1950s to 21 percent of Americans in the 2014 General Social Survey conducted by the National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago. “A society in which the least religious people still claim a religious identity is importantly different from a society in which such people admit to themselves, and even tell others, that they in fact have no religion,” Chaves and Voas write. A summary released by Duke University highlights key findings: 94 percent of Americans born before 1935 claim a religious affiliation. For the generation born after 1975, that number drops to 71 percent. 68 percent of Americans 65 and older said they had no doubt God exists, according to the study. But just 45 percent of young adults, ages 18-30, had the same belief. 41 percent of people 70 and older said they attend church services at least once a month, compared to just 18 percent of people 60 and younger. And the study reports the number of people who never attend religious services has doubled in two and a half decades: It was 26 percent in 2014, up from 13 percent in 1990. While other Western nations are even less religious than the U.S., the patterns are very much alike. Chaves and Voas did 10 charts detailing shifts in belief in God, worship attendance and religious identification for the U.S., England, Australia, New Zealand and Europe as a whole. “No matter which one you look at, they all look the same — the trends are heading the same direction” toward secularization,” said Chaves. “The evidence for a decades-long decline in American religiosity is now incontrovertible. Like the evidence for global warming, it comes from multiple sources, shows up in several dimensions, and paints a consistent factual picture,” the study says. The authors do not speculate as to whether there’s a cause-and-effect relationship between modernization and declining religious attachment. But, said Chaves, “We are not as exceptional as we once thought.” (Cathy Lynn Grossman is senior national correspondent for RNS) _
older people are always more religious though. theres something about knowing you are getting closer to the end of life that draws you closer to a spirituality promising an after life. I'm not sure the results of the survey wouldve been much different at any time in modern American history. also the author's discussion of our society becoming more secular is certainly not true of the American south