Mahoney Part Deux.
There but for the Grace OF GOD, go any mortal bags of flesh.
Christ and Paul both demonstrated Servant-Hearted Leadership. God and Man leaders and the demonstrable bulk of the New Testament demonstrations in Scripture were servant leaders.
Not a single one of them were "into" hierarchical structures and pontifications. Christ and Paul both DEMONSTRATED THE POWER OF GOD as their authority.
THE POWER OF GOD.
Not a form of RELIGION DENYING THE POWER THEREOF--BUT THE DEMONSTRATED POWER OF GOD.
Paul mentioned his authority coming from direct dialogue and comissioning with Christ on the Damascas road and perhaps by allusion to the years in the wilderness. Yet he persistently appealed more to THE POWER OF GOD backing up his words--not to some comissioning document with umpteen wax seals and lots of gold leaf on it. It was NOT a structure nor a hierarchy nor an affiliation with the Jerusalem Disciples nor even his comissioning by Christ directly that Paul asserted and appealed to most frequently as evidence of his legitimacy of his Apostleship.
It was persistently:
1. THE POWER OF THE RESURRECTED JESUS THE CHRIST.
2. THE POWER OF THE BLOOD OF JESUS.
3. THE POWER OF THE NAME OF JESUS.
4. THE POWER OF HOLY SPIRIT DEMONSTRATED IN HIS LIFE AND MINISTRY.
5. THEIR ANOINTING BREAKS THE YOKE.
Such brought healing, deliverance, wholeness, divided the bone from the marrow; error from truth; brought back to life sleepy-heads fallen out of windows and turned the rebellious over to satan for discipline.
NOT some bureaucratic political power-mongering clique of self-serving ecclesiastical elites deciding theology and truth on the basis of what was best for them as individuals and for their exclusive clique in Rome.
Henry Wright is correct. All sexual acting out is a desperate longing and search for a father's love that wasn't sufficiently available in sufficiently convincing quantities and qualities to fill the young child's empty love-buckets the first years of life--essentially an ATTACHMENT DISORDER set of problems--whether it be heterosexual promiscuity, homosexual acting out, whatever.
Only the Active Anointing of the Blood of Jesus, The Cross, Holy Spirit can bring deliverance, cleanse and begin to fill such holes of spirit, mind, body, soul.
1. Hierarchy will NOT do it.
2. Structure will NOT do it.
3. Fossilized and lichen encrusted edifices will NOT do it.
4. Prissy, hypocritical, phoney, jury-rigged pseudo-'authority' will NOT do it.
5. Ritual will NOT do it.
6. Formulas--even Biblical formulas persistently, (at some point) will NOT reliably do it.
7. Organizational fancy footwork will NOT do it.
8. Systemic cover-ups & rationalizations will certainly NOT do it.
A relatively small percentage of Roman Catholic et al's 'famous' 'leaders' have demonstrated similar authentic servant leadership, imho.
INSTEAD, it's been SAVE, PROTECT, WHITE-WASH THE INSTITUTION AT ALL COSTS, FIRST, LAST AND ALWAYS. NOT GOD. NOT CONFESSION AND REPENTANCE AND WHAT COULD BE DONE TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT--NO--THE INSTITUTION ABOVE ALL.
Such is the nature of man, the tendencies of the flesh alone or in groups. No individual or group is entirely free of such in this mortal sphere.
And the more prissy, lofty and self-aggrandizing the individuals and groups, the worse the rot that sets in. And soon, the rot becomes wrapped in velvet and gold lame and gold leaf and very pontifical in tone and ceremony. And no one dares to tarnish the images, the pomp and circumstance; the prancing princes of RELIGIOUS power . . .
1. regardless of the hearts.
2. regardless of the attitudes.
3. regardless of the actions, activities.
4. regardless of the hypocrisies.
5. regardless of the smell.
6. regardless of the idolatries and blasphemies.
7. regardless of the horrors in the name of Gilded Gawd Stand-ins.
Yes, the Roman Catholic et al's edifice is blackened yet again by serious sins and levels of cover-up. And given the purported pontifications of how pristine, righteous, authoritative and exclusively 'Godly' said RELIGIOUS INSTITUTION holds itself out to be--the horrors are manifestly multiplied in their realities and implications.
However, Protties will be well advised to be cautious about judgmental haughty self-righteous attitudes.
The purifying fires of Holy Spirit are just getting warmed up. They have hardly begun to burn fiercely brightly.
AND NO Christian institution, organization or congregation will be left unscathed, will be left with anything but faces to the floor before God.
The Roman Catholic et al edifice currently is having yet another opportunity to COME CLEAN BEFORE GOD AND MAN and to purge and ask God to purge and help purge it of all sexual and other idolatries. It will rise to the occasion or it won't. So far, it looks like a very mixed bag.
So far, it looks like it's only interested in wrapping itself in its usual robes of claimed exclusivist self-righteousness, rationalizing at least as much as confessing and repenting and pretending that it can pretty much mostly go on with business as usual.
I think God has a different opinion.
And a different set of expectations of the leadership.
I don't believe the edifice will get the message very thoroughly nor change very thoroughly.
Oh, sure, candidates will be screened much better. That's been in place for a while and PRAISE GOD for that. And other self-policing structures and policies are better and better in place and functioning.
However the root attitudes do not seem to have greatly changed nor do they seem about to.
The exclusivist self-righteousness remains a hallmark of the edifice. The rampant idolatries so !!!!TRADITIONAL!!!! about THE INSITUTION ABOVE ALL AND AT ALL COSTS mentality continues to reign supreme.
God is NOT fooled.
God is NOT amused.
There may be pockets, congregations, retreat centers, personal ministries within the edifice who/which will put God and God's priorities and ways sufficiently FIRST AND FOREMOST to regain some hint of God's blessing and anointing. If so, it will be along the lines of servant leadership operating in the ACTIVE ANOINTED DEMONSTRATED POWER OF GOD that has nothing to do with the !!!!TRADITIONS!!!! or 'exclusivist pretentions' of the INSTITUTION and everything to do with servant hearts face-to-the-floor-humble right before A FIERCELY HOLY ALMIGHTY GOD.
God has hardly begun to clean the House of God on earth. He will get blazingly going in all His fierceness and HE WILL FINISH THE JOB. NO INDIVIDUAL, NO GROUP will be unscathed. That is, no group or individual that really seeks God and wants to live eternally WITH HIM and be authenticall called by His Name.
God must do that. He PROMISED to begin the END TIMES cleaning house with the household of faith.
This man is NOT an archdiocesan priest and does not answer to the archbishop. He answers to his own superiors. Yes, the archbishop can ask the order to remove him and it looks like he did, but they are under no obligation to do so. Every one of the accusations that's come out of San Antonio has been for a member of an order, not an archdiocesan priest. Gomez isn't their superior. Archbishop is not a CEO position.
If these allegations are recent, they should be investigated both in civil and ecclesial courts. The problem comes in, and we've seen this over and over, once the accusation is out, there's no putting the genie back in the bottle if the accused is innocent. That's a good part of the reason that things have always been kept very quiet.
Gee, what a coincidence that the lawsuit came out when Gomez was named the new archbishop of LA. Yeah, what a conincidence.
I bet this is to try to discredit Archbishop Jose Gomez. Read the links about him below.
Latino Immigrants Proud That L.A.'s Next Archbishop Is 'One of Us' [Can We Get Rid of Ethnic Pride?]
In Defense of Archbishop Gomez's Handling of Abuse Scandals
Archbishop Gomez: Who is He?
Why Archbishop Gomez is like other Bishops Appointed by Pope Benedict An Interview with Archbishop José H. Gomez
Gomez vows to be an advocate for L.A.'s immigrants...(misleading title alert!)
San Antonio's Archbishop José Gomez named by Pope to be successor to Cardinal Roger Mahony. ...
Precious words from the archbishop... [Jose Gomez]
New Coadjutor of Los Angeles One of 22 Opus Dei Bishops
Opus Dei Seeks to Make Everyday Life Holier
Archbishop Gomez 'deeply grateful' for Los Angeles appointment
Cardinal Mahony grateful LA will have Hispanic archbishop
Vatican: Archbishop Gomez appointed to Archdiocese of LA
Pope's 'Revenge' As LA Gets Opus Dei Bishop [Pope's "Revenge" on Hollywood Sodomites!]
Gomez Holds Both Conservative And Progressive Views [Denounced College for Pro-Abortion HRC Invite]
Pope Names Latino Leader For L.A. Archdiocese [Member of Conservative Opus Dei Movement]
Historic Appointment to LA Archdiocese
Report: Gomez is going to L.A.
It's Official: New Archbishop [Gomez} for Los Angeles
El Tiempo Ha Venido -- Reports: (Archbishop) Gomez Up to LA (Catholic Caucus)
[To replace Cardinal Mahony] Vatican rumor: an American prelate in play?
Los Angeles Getting a New Archbishop (Part 1)
Los Angeles Getting a New Archbishop (Part 2)
And criminal charges were not filed at the time ... why?
threatened him with a pistol?
then there was that Minnesota case of a girl saying the priest threatened to kill her family if she didn’t come with him...
Uh, anyone think these accusations are getting more and more bizarre?
Next week: They had a satanic ritual and killed people...
Abuse is serious, but this scandal is going the way of the daycare hysteria a few years ago....
Pdf of lawsuit here:
http://www.ksat.com/download/2010/0409/23096365.pdf
I see John Doe I’s attorney’s specialty includes:
Catholic Church Child Sexual Abuse
Baptist Church Child Sexual Abuse
Greek Orthodox Church Child Sexual Abuse
Church Child Sexual Abuse
Plain and simple it is news and not Religion or discussion of Religious Beleief -on this premise alone it is easily seen that this a hate mongering thread -this is what hate mongering trolls do and get away with in unmoderated forums.
Second, to suggest that ANY on Free Republic support child sex abuse is bad enough BUT to suggest Catholics do and to get away with it under the guise of "religious discussion" IS condoning a personal attack on all Catholics here...
The question is simple -what on earth does this news of sexual abuse have to do with Religion? Since when did FR allow the same leftist moral relative attack methods we see now in the mass media to be employed here in our Religion Forum? Where does this end --will we next see threads about violent Catholic Tea Party activists because of the Spanish Inquisition?