[Gamecock]

*widening paedophilia scandals*

We shall know them by their fruits.

[wideawake]

We shall know them by their fruits.

So the actions of one individual are another individual's "fruits"?

There is no church, even the Reformed Church, that is free of similar scandals.

Predators - whether they are Catholic or Reformed or Jewish - seek out opportunities to prey on children. And, like most sociopaths, they are very good at deceiving normal, decent people.

When they are caught, like most sociopaths, they know exactly what to say: they express remorse and plead for forgiveness and they cite the Scriptures their superiors teach as arguments that they should be forgiven.

Predators can infiltrate the most devout communities, and they do so by depending on the Christian charity of the community's members to give them the benefit of the doubt, to avoid spreading gossip, to assume the best of all people, etc.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Plenty of fruits in your neighborhood, goober.

[Quix]

True.

However, Scripture reminds us all that the heart is deceitfully wicked, who can know it . . .

[HarleyD]

Ratzinger recently admitted he had "given slaps" at the beginning of his tenure and that he had always had a "bad conscience" about it and felt "relieved" when a law banning corporal punishment was made in the early 1980s.

Well, thank goodness for those laws to keep one on the straight and narrow. Had they past the law sooner he wouldn't have had to suffer so long with a bad conscience. Shame on them for not acting sooner. ;O)

[wmfights]

We shall know them by their fruits.

I wonder how many became Born Again Christians because they left this church and went to Evangelical or Reformed churches.

[Antoninus]

We shall know them by their fruits.

Indeed. And your fruit is bigotry and scandal-mongering. What did our Lord say about those who spread slander and scandal? I would ponder it well, if I were you.