Posted on 05/01/2011 12:17:34 PM PDT by Zionist Conspirator
To begin, I must state that I do not know what it was that led to the banning of Verdugo from Free Republic. It is quite possible he said something absolutely outrageous. However, if this is the case, I am unaware of it. I also wish to state that I do not in the least dispute the right of Jim Robinson to ban anyone from this site--his private property--at any time for any reason. However, I believe the banning of Verdugo was an injustice and I wish to protest it.
I hope everyone who reads this will recall that my own views on many important issues were one hundred eighty degrees removed from those of Verdugo. Certainly as an ultra-right wing sedevacantist Roman Catholic his views on Jews, Israel, and the Middle East fit this description. Furthermore he was an apologist for Robert Sungenis, a man who has over the years become an out-and-out anti-Semite (Verdugo denied this). And he made the absolutely outrageous statement that the Jewish authorities who sentenced J*sus to death for blasphemy "knew" that he was actually "fulfilling messianic prophecy" but did so anyway.
Now, all that being said, I hope my protest against the banning of Verdugo will be accepted as exactly what it is. Despite my own profound disagreements with this poster I never once asked for him to be banned. In fact, I admired him for his dedication to his beliefs and his refusal to change them with the times.
In spite of his own obvious devotion to his religion, his "co-religionists" branded him an "anti-Catholic" and a "hater" (an outrageous falsehood) simply because the stated the obvious truth: that the Catholic Church has changed radically over the past several decades and does not teach what it once did on a variety of issues. This fact is so obvious that only someone willfully blind or willfully mendacious would deny it. Yet for simply stating this the Conciliar Catholics on this forum ganged up on him worse than they have on any Protestant critic and have caused him to be banned while bitter Protestant critics of Catholicism remain. Why is this?
I am aware that most of the Catholics on this forum, a couple of whom are allies of mine, define Catholicism strictly as a cult of personality concerning the reigning Pope. This papolatry is not Catholicism at all as traditionally defined. The fact remains that, however good and well-meaning their supporters may be, the past Popes since at least Pius XI (yes, I said XI) have been liberals. And this goes double for the current Pope and his immediate predecessor, both of whom were and have been remiss in their duties and promoters of extreme radicalism in Biblical and ecumenical matters.
While I am neither a sedevacantist Catholic nor the owner of this site I believe that sedevacantist Catholicism (though not its anti-Semitism) is a legitimate religious opinion for conservatives and feel that a very dangerous precedent has been set here. How long before other sedevacantist or traditionalist Catholics are banned from this forum? (I do not count the case of Catholic monarchists who have been banned because their political beliefs conflicted with the purpose of this web site.)
As I said, it is quite possible that Verdugo said something outrageously offensive and was banned for that reason. If this is the case I apologize for this vanity. But so far as I know he is gone simply because the conciliar Catholics on this forum formed a solid block against him, denying his identity as a Catholic and acting against him in a way they have not acted against any Protestant "bigot." If this perception of mine is correct, then Catholicism is truly gone round the bend. It is now defined exclusively in terms of modernism (especially in Biblical studies) and any Catholic who dares to dissent is now a "closet Protestant bigot."
Again, Jim Rob is the boss. I merely wish to register this protest. Having done this, I have nothing more to say on the matter.
Many RC’s HAVE ganged up on Dr E and I significantly worse.
Thankfully, fairness, sensible integrity and wisdom have prevailed.
I know. That's what made the banning of Verdugo disturbing (along with their labeling him "anti-Catholic" when he was anything but).
As usual,
You were exceedingly clear.
Some folks have no eyes to see nor ears to hear.
Many seem to run in packs.
.
Awwwwwwwww
Obsessive people need love too.
Or is it just more soap and water?
Fierce RELIGIONISTS
also tend to like to mud-wrestle.
What’s new about that?
Love, soap, water, cookies, and a pangolin.
ABSOLUTELY INDEED.
I makes the rest of the Forum workable.
Most conservatives are fierce Christians of one stripe or another.
Without the Rel Forum—there’d be no keeping the rest of the threads from being swamped with Rel comments.
Also—
THIS IS ONE OF THE RARE PLACES WHERE CONSERVATIVES CAN HAVE A VIGOROUSLY ENERGETIC TOWN-HALL MEETING
VERY MUCH GIVEN TO IRON SHARPENING IRON
FOR THOSE WHO AREN’T WIMPS and have sufficiently thick hides.
THAT’S HELPFUL for learning to handle fierce exchanges with the enemy
whether political or RELIGIOUS.
Ahhhhhhhh
OK.
I see your point.
Thx.
BTW, have a blessed week.
BELLY LAUGH
I can just see the critter . . .
I think as a general axiom people tend to disagree most vehemently with those whose beliefs are closest to theirs.
We have a COMMON enemy, whether you are a Jew, a Baptist, a Catholic or a Mormon. We share much more in our faiths than there are differences to divide us, unless we start the CONSTANT HAGGLING ABOUT NITSHIT! We do not have time for it right now!
Good Grief! There's a thought I really didn't need to envision. ; )
I mostly agree in terms of the hair-splitting stuff.
However, that, like beauty, tends to be in the eye of the beholder.
And, as things intensify, the chaff will fall off because there literally will be insufficient time and energy for it at raw levels.
Looks like that could be this week, month . . .
INDEED.
Don’t try to give him a bath, or he’ll kill you!
If his local parish was not in full communion with Rome, I would agree with you. He repeatedly said that he was not a sedevacantist. He defined himself as a Trad Catholic. He appeared to be an SSPXer. I have no idea what his local parish believed, or what bishop they were under.
Only certain kinds of Catholics are permitted to post in the Religion Forum, according to his more vocal detractors - the kind that adore JPII and BXVI to the point of ignoring any and all faults they have. Verdugo believes in the Magisterium of the Catholic Church, so much so that he holds all popes accountable to it. He doesn't bow to the cult of any one pope ("papalolotry", I believe he called it). He believes that the Catholic Church is currently under God's judgment (and IMO he made a pretty good argument). History tells us that popes have been excommunicated by the Catholic Church in the past (Pope Honorius, for one).I don't see how calling for excommunication of more modern popes, on specific canonical grounds, is enough cause to label someone out of communion with Rome.
Verdugo was certainly no friend to Protestants and the Orthodox, from a doctrinal POV. But that didn't stop him from being honest about his beliefs, from avoiding the character assassination that is all-too-often engaged in on the forum, and I for one found his honesty and forthrightness refreshing.
If Alex Murphy or Quix did the same (which they wouldn’t) they would get the same thing.
Certainly true. And it wasn't that long ago that I was accused of being "Verdugo" i.e. posting via a sockpuppet account, probably because he was exasperating the other Catholics so much.
Mean claws, for sure!
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2701081/posts
Did you see what happened to the Swedish flamingoes? And those were just ordinary anteaters, not armor-plated steampunk aardvarks from the Far Side.
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