Posted on 06/09/2008 1:00:14 PM PDT by Borges
Like I said, You don't know me or my history. I left the catholic Church out of ignornace and came back after investigation.
You spout off a lot of things tqhat on the surface seem to make a case, but the fact is that all in all you are dead wrong.
You need to investigate sources that don't have an axe to grind.
11It’s like this: When I was a child, I spoke and thought and reasoned as a child does. But when I grew up, I put away childish things. 12Now we see things imperfectly as in a poor mirror, but then we will see everything with perfect clarity.£ All that I know now is partial and incomplete, but then I will know everything completely, just as God knows me now. 13There are three things that will endure—faith, hope, and love—and the greatest of these is love.
Faith, Hope, and Love, and with GOD the center of the marriage the gates of hell won't prevail against it. That is what makes marriage. That is the Spiritual journey. Been there 23 years now and if GOD wills it hopefully 23 more which will put us both in our mid to late 70's.
I know and I fully understand marriage to a severly disabled person. If given the same situation I'd do it again in the same faith and obiedence.
The Catholic Church disagrees
Then you proceeded to prove that I was right and that you were wrong by posting:
papal infallibility is the dogma that, by action of the Holy Spirit, the Pope is preserved from even the possibility of error when he solemnly declares or promulgates to the Church a dogmatic teaching on faith or morals
How can someone be intrinsically infallible when his gift of infallibility only obtains under certain very specifically limited guidelines?
Think it through before you answer.
Never heard of St. Peter?
No one on your list ever took a wife after he was elevated to the Papacy. And your list contains a number of historical inaccuracies. John XI's father was Duke Alberic I of Spoleto, for example.
As far as the Catholic church condoning prostitution, I suggest you familiarize yourself with St. Thomas Aquinas words on the subject.
Thomas Aquinas never wrote a single word condoning prostitution. If you are going to make such a ridiculous claim, perhaps you should provide some kind of cite for it.
The astronomer Copernicus taught that the earth revolves around the sun. His book on the topic was published at Rome with papal imprimatur.
His friend and colleague Johannn Widmanstetter lived in Rome and delivered a lecture on heliocentrism to Pope Clement VII and his court and was thanked by the Pope. The Pope's right hand man, Nicholas Cardinal Schoenberg, sent Copernicus a letter complimenting him on his research and asking for more information - a letter which Copernicus proudly had printed in subsequent editions of his book.
The lectures took place in 1533.
Galileo published his book in 1616.
Leaving aside the fact that the Church has never taught geocentrism as a dogma (I challenge you to cite any authorized catechism, papal bull, papal decree, papal decretal, papal rescript, papal encyclical or any decree of any ecclesiatical council which makes such a claim), it is clear that Copernicus taught heliocentrism - 30 years before Galileo was born - without controversy.
Galileo's condemnation was not about science, but about court politics.
The claim was not that they were in "direct communication with God" in some way other than prayer (I assume you did not mean prayer, but an actual theophanic dialogue).
The claim was that Christ revealed His truth to His Church, that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost confirmed and strengthened the Church in His truth and that the Church's immemorial teaching derives from Christ's revelation preserved in the Church by the Holy Spirit as Christ Himself promised.
What I believe God wants from me, is for me to be kind to people.
And, in your opinion, it is always kind to tell people what they want to hear rather than telling them the truth?
The RC is no different than most toher churches. It strains at gnats and swallows camels as good as others. Let's see a marriage of a physically disabled man which harms no one banned. Politicians who support and help to make possible abortion and are members of the Roman Catholic Church are ignored all the way up to the top of the Vatican.
Nah you don't want to hear that. Or the fact that many of the Saints were scoundrels in their own right. Abraham too scared to say his wife was his wife. Jacob {Israel} who got Isaacs blessing of the first born male, David who murdered another mans wife, Peter who denied three times knowing The Lord, Noah who was drunk, Lott who slept with his own daughters, need I go on?
All have sinned and all fall short. None can fulfill the laws not one. Notice whom the GOD calls to get the tough things done. The way they get it done is far less than perfect and they stumble and fall in the process.
No man is not tempted married or no. It is how you respond to that temptation that matters. Would the woman who marries the paraplegic be tempted? Likely. Would she act on it? Actually far less likely than if she were married to him and the accident had occurred afterward.
So if the man had not married in a civil ceremony what would the church have done for him? Say bless you brother and left him in his loneliness? The woman was willing to surrender a great part of her life to the man to give unto him. What was the words of our LORD? "No greater love hath a man than he lay down his life for a friend". That can mean dying to save someone else's life or it can mean surrendering of ones future to serve someone in need.
I'll point some things out to you that you do not understand. If they had not married yet this woman wished to help this man in his needs she would have been looking upon his nakedness. Such things as required assistance bathing, inserting a catheter if needed, their bowel issues which to quite a few means digital stimulation to accomplish a movement. You lack understanding in quite a bit. You know Canon obviously but you do not realize realities and necessity.
Nor do you realize what a testimony of faith and devotion their marriage may have been and quite likely will be. Read the marriage vows that is if the RC vows are the same as others. Do you take this person to be your lawfully wedded to have and to hold from this day forward, for richer or poorer, IN SICKNESS and IN HEALTH as long as you both shall live?
I've been quite both amused and annoyed at different churches attitudes toward those who are confined to wheelchairs. I've also been amused and annoyed at what conditions some churches place upon their members. I think I mentioned them before. Charismatics are hung up on Spiritual Gifts manifestations especially speaking in tongues, some are hung up on the exact words used in Baptism, Some are hung up on Baptism itself or where a person can be called to Christ. {I can't think of one Disciple Christ actually found in the Temple when He called them}.
I suppose too some would say my marriage is adultery because my wife was married before. Never mind her husband left her and committed adultery doing so leaving her no means of support no not even water in the home. Oh BTW did I mention he beat the crap out of her as well? What should a man have done? Say bless you dear and walked off? What would it have done for the situation? A clue is given To those who give so much as a drink of water in Christ name shall no means loose their Salvation. How much more so a devotion of their very life?
You need to read the Bible. Read the situations many were in even the ones GOD called Righteous and clear up your thinking some more.
The answer can be found in scripture actually
I Peter Ch 4: 7The end of the world is coming soon. Therefore, be earnest and disciplined in your prayers. 8Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. 9Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. 10God has given gifts to each of you from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Manage them well so that God’s generosity can flow through you. 11Are you called to be a speaker? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Are you called to help others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then God will be given glory in everything through Jesus Christ. All glory and power belong to him forever and ever. Amen.
A persons calling is between them and GOD himself. I've had three callings two of which I answered immediately which was Salvation and my marriage. Another was to come later which was a call to preach the Gospel. I said yes actually. Then when I did the call was taken from me. I was being prepared for more trials to come and more adversities and I mean serious ones. I know what I was called to do and answered in obedience and faith. The third call is to help others with this struggle. As for preaching a sermon forget it. But I can give testimony as to experience and to The LORD who brought me and my wife through hard times.
I'm not perfect and I have many sins. I will sin till I die and leave this body. When I die I will answer for what I have done before GOD who will not see my sins but rather my Savior standing in my place where I should be. I have faith that the Blood Of Christ has cleansed me of those sins. When I die that very day I will be with The LORD in spirit in his presence. Only one sin can not be forgiven of man and that is the complete rejection of the call to salvation.
“The claim was that Christ revealed His truth to His Church, that the Holy Spirit at Pentecost confirmed and strengthened the Church in His truth and that the Church’s immemorial teaching derives from Christ’s revelation preserved in the Church by the Holy Spirit as Christ Himself promised.”
Does the church always do the will of God? It is doubtful. We should consider the following examples:
During the Medieval Period, the Catholic Church instituted the Inquisition to allegedly protect the faith. However, the inquisition rapidly devolved into a witch hunt, used to persecute the Jews. Some of the motivation of the Inquisition had nothing to do with faith at all, it was simply a means of confiscating the wealth of the Jews. That hardly qualifies as Christian behavior.
The excesses of the Inquisition were a major reason the Founding Fathers were opposed to the establishment of a state religion. A theocracy is one of the more serious threats to human freedom.
I have previously mentioned the suppression of Galileo’s research. He was not a heretic, he was a scientist describing the nature of the Solar System and ultimately the nature of the Universe.
Furthermore, the head of the Southern Baptist Convention actually claimed God would not answer the prayers of Jews. The Jews are also God’s children, just like everyone else.
Then, we have the case of such illustrious religious leaders such as Lonnie Latham and Ted Haggard. While they were busy preaching that homosexuality could be changed, they were out soliciting gay prostitutes. It would seem they were not following their own preaching. We also have the case of Leroy Ray Owens, a minister who was charged with raping one of the female members of his congregation. Then we have the priests who were convicted of child molestation.
As I have mentioned before, Allen Brockaway, chairman of the board for the Methodist Church claimed (in 1977) that women have a duty to submit to rape. He certainly did not ask women for their opinion on the matter. The general board of the Presbyterian Church also argued that it was sinful to defend oneself against violent assault, as if a person was to welcome their murderer with open arms.
This was the case I was refering to in another thread.
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