Posted on 04/22/2002 2:43:14 AM PDT by kattracks
Your example is meaningless. I'm sure you condemn the misbehavior as a whole and not just in your own child right? So what is the difference between that and this? I'll help you..NONE!
A person can't conceive anything else but a human being, even if that human being produced has a body consisting of only one cell. When the nucleus of the sperm cell fuses with the nucleus of the egg cell, you have a *new person.*
Brain function or sentience or appearance have nothing to do with it. People can only come from people.
a fetus in the earliest stages has no brain activity at allThis is true, but has no bearing on the classification of the fetus as either human or alive.
Virtually all abortions take place after the beginning of brain activity.
One is left with the argument that only "celibate" Catholic priests are the class of sex-starved adult males who seek sex from male teenagers.The arguments you present and defeat are all straw-man arguments. The arguments that form a nexus between mandatory celibacy and ephebophilia in the diocesan priesthood are based on the former's having restricted the pool of otherwise qualified heterosexuals as well as having offered a respectable cover to the sexually confused and underdeveloped, thus contributing to -- not causing -- the hyperincidence of homosexuals and perverts within the diocesan system, which skewed demographic has in turn contributed both to the hyperincidence of sexual abuse of teenage boys and pederasty. Please note that these are not argument based on simple cause and effect but arguments based on having provided the right conditions for sexual immorality to flourish.
Moreover, absent the prerequisite of mandatory celibacy for the diocesan priesthood, sexual immorality in the diocesan priesthood would simply be a matter of individual responsibility and discipline; however, to the extent that the institutional church has made mandantory celibacy a prerequisite, which prerequisite has in turn contributed to the hyperincidence of sexual immorality in the diocesan priesthood, the sexual sins of a minority redound to the institutional church itself and undermine the authority and respect of the majority of diocesan priests who serve us so well in our parishes and schools.
What I am pointing out is that baptism is not a means of salvation, that is through being Born Again, as stated very clearly by the Lord in John 3:3.
I have no problem with baptism, and as matter of fact, both recommend it and perform it, but only upon those making a decison to be the Lords and after having made that decison, ask to be baptised. At which time, I require the one being baptised to make a confession of faith and to give their testimony as well. A lot differant than the baptism of sprinkeling a bit of water on a sleeping infant who has no idea of what is going on.
Tell that to the liberals making them. There can be theological discussions and debates about celibacy. Linking that to homosexual teenophilia cases, as libs and media journalists have done (rather than address homosexuality), implies that they think there is a connection. The idea that the Catholic priesthood causes a normal person to become a homosexual teenophile is absurd. If the men in question are normal and attractive, they would have no trouble finding agreeable females or prostitutes. But that's not what is being reported.
It has more to do with the homosexual movement than with celibacy actually. I recommend Cardinal Medeiros' 1979 letter to the Vatican outlining the new homosexual subculture which was becoming apparent in the 1970s in Catholic seminaries.
Not untruthful, Ms. Duddy? And if it is not untruthful, how is that at all horrifying and irresponsible? Isn't supression of the truth the greatest horror and irresponsibility imaginable?
Tell me, Ms. Duddy, how many of these episodes of sexual molestation were between Priests and girls? Hmmmmmmm?
Shalom.
P.S. I spewed my tea when I read "teenophilia." LOL! : )
If they choose not it is not our place as Christians to force our beliefs into them.
LOL! You sound like the way I thought up till about 10 years ago.
What right does any man have to tell me what to do!
If Islam was the major religion here, we would no longer have the United States of America.
You would not have a computer. You probably would not even know how to read or write.
What has made this country what it is is it's Judeo/Christian values.
That means living by the 10 Commandments, ALL of them.
Throw our morality away and we will cease to be the most powerful nation in the world.
That is not what my Church teaches. Otherwise there would be no reason why I couldn't lie, cheat, steal, or kill... You'd better re-think your Faith's teachings.
Each of these statements needs some support before they can be accepted.
I will agree with everyone here that the actions of a particular homosexual priest and his enabler are their own responsibilty. But I will also agree with those who have said the church should have kept the homosexuals out to begin with. Does the Boy Scouts have this kind of problem? Anyone want to guess why not?
Shalom.
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