I agree that chuckles post at #11 was heartfelt, sincere and honest. I responded with what I felt was respect, acknowlegement of valid points and “IMO perspective”. I do wonder if chuckles felt he was the recipient of accusations of “biogtry and bashing” on this thread. I don’t see any and certainly don’t believe that any were intended.
No, not on THIS thread. I have before, but frankly, this particular thread has the MOST support I've ever had. When I first started to gripe about the Church government ignoring, and out and out rebellion against much of the dogma the Church allegedly supports, I was attacked almost universally by Catholics as a Basher. It was almost akin to griping about Obama and the only reason I could possibly have to oppose his policies was that I was a racist. The Church seems to have a short fuse with complaints. Many thought I was griping about my local church,...not true. If I have a problem locally, I say so and have had pretty good results.
Having said all that, the Church at large is IMHO in disarray and needs to address at least a few of the glaring problems to remain credible as a world religion. If the World Church preaches pro life, then what is the world to think if you have people that are right out front rebelling against the Church. ( I use abortion as a touch stone for almost any conflict in the Church because it is the most glaring, but there are many other issues that need to be addressed by openly anti Catholic, Catholics.) If gay marriage is your issue, fine, we can use that also. There are many conflicts in the Church that could be argued from Latin Mass to fish on Friday, I don't care. But the belief that life comes from God and is sacred, for me at least is beyond argument. If you don't agree with that, then find another denomination. I understand arguing over married priests, women priests, and other discussions within the church, but abortion arguments? I don't "get" that much disagreement in the doctrine. We have politicians with ash on their foreheads, on TV that have voted to murder babies. Why is their no price to pay for that? I can't insist that the Church "do something" to these people. It's above my pay grade.
I have been encouraged, frankly, by FR Catholics agreeing with me to a certain extent. It is a start, but the bigger picture IMO, is the MAJORITY of Catholics lean more to the Phleger side. The only way I can see that happening is the pulpit is preaching error and it is accepted.
As far as me and FR, I'm a big boy and understand people will disagree from time to time and sometimes it gets disagreeable. If it bothered me, I could always post my opus. I find FR people funny, smart, and serious. Some have been "mean" to me, but that is mostly because I can't spell. Religion is a tough issue, but so is politics. Guess what we talk about here on FR? Most of my posts are just rants to vent frustrations, but I learn more here in 10 minutes than all day surfing elsewhere. One thing I can always count on here is if you look at someone needing help, the posts come in faster than I can refresh my screen.