[Conservative til I die]

My dear brother Kosta, you have said the most important thing in the end.

If the bulk of us spent more time loving each other, feeding the hungry, and biting our tongues when we would like to speak in anger or hostility, and especially in prayer, think what we could become.

This is one of my least favorite cop-outs. Rules are important. There are reasons that we have them. Neither of our religions are just about some New Age/Protestant-style "be nice to each other."

Besides, this is all irrelevant since the discussion at hand is specifically about clarifying the teaching on contraception. So the discussion is about more than just loving each other.

[MarMema]

This is one of my least favorite cop-outs. Rules are important. There are reasons that we have them. Neither of our religions are just about some New Age/Protestant-style "be nice to each other."

What did Christ say in the Sermon on the Mount? How about the parable of the goats and sheep? Do you place these things higher in importance than what the church tells you about birth control?

[monkfan]

This is one of my least favorite cop-outs. Rules are important. There are reasons that we have them.

And there are reasons why we make exceptions to them. Adherence to a rule for the sake of the rule is the way of the Pharisee. When the rule fails to be helpful and instead becomes harmful, we can address the situation. We do this on a case-by-case basis. Just because a bishop bends or waves a rule in one case, doesn't mean he'll do it in another. That is for the bishop to decide. If anyone has a problem with that, they can deal with it by either taking it up with the bishop or minding their own business.