Oh boy, between you and Warbler, it looks like I won’t be getting a lot of homework done tonight. 😄 (That’s my fault though 😛)
I’ll get to you in a bit. I assume you mean “How do we account for corruption in the highest levels of the Church when it is supposed to be guided by God” or something like that?
Anyway, I have a lot to say about The Young Pope now that I’ve watched a few scenes… The worst part about it is that people are likely to think that one side or the other is faithfully representing official Church teaching. The reality is that the truth lies between what the fictional pope says and what the more liberal clergy say.
They say that the worst sin in a priest is pride, so it’s scary to see how many people in the Youtube comments of those videos want a pope like that…
In Babylon, they were all unified under Nimrod with one purpose and program. Isn’t there much to be said for division? If one group strays, they are not taking all the others with them.
There are many different offices in The True Church, some are Prophets, Bishops, Deacons, Language experts, Teachers, Healers… Why must the local congregations be exactly uniform?
Could they be one under The Logos while diverse in other respects?
Absolutely, and I never said otherwise. The problem with identifying them as liberal or conservative is that you are then pitting them against each other, which is harmful. Diversity is important, but so is unity.
Conservatives are demonized as uncaring. I would contend that it is precisely the opposite. To care for others means to honestly recognize what lifts people out of destructive conditions and to courageously hold to those principles in the face of all the hatred they inevitably receive from the enlightened ones. Moral Narcissists will feed the poor for a day and prance around with great superiority thereafter.
There is truth to that, but I also think a lot of conservatives really lack in charity. I’m making sweeping generalizations, but my main point is simply that one must take a middle ground of charity combined with a firm resistance to moral relativism.
I just watched the trailer for the show and a few clips on Youtube, and now I have some objections! 😄 First of all, the pope is so incredibly arrogant (I mean not having sins to confess!? That’s not even remotely likely), the likelihood of his ever being pope is almost null. He goes so far as to say, assuming I heard correctly, “I’m God,” which is downright blasphemy. Then there’s some nun who sees the pope as being very holy, which either means the nun is insane or she is only pretending to be Catholic.
That pope would be among the very worst of the Church’s popes, although I do agree with a lot of what he says in various video clips. He’s very hypocritical and arrogant, but he strikes me as more misguided than evil in a lot of what I watched. He’s not the sort of leader I would want for the Church, but he does express a lot of truths that I would like to see a pope give voice to.
Unfortunately, I have not been able to see it. I do not have HBO. 😦 I was just curious what Catholics in general felt about TV shows and movies about their Church and the Pope.
Well that really depends on how the Church and pope are portrayed. 😄 If the Church isn’t being made fun of, then it’s totally fine. Representing the pope as less than perfect isn’t bad either, since the pope is human, but the fact that a pope is selected mainly for his holiness and suitability for dealing with present-day situations means that it’s a bit offensive when he’s demonized (unless, of course, it’s a movie about one of the bad Renaissance or Medieval popes…).
Why do you object to the idea of “conservative vs liberal” Catholicism. I thought in real life there were arguments within your church between the liberal and conservative minded.
The Church has a single, unified body of doctrine, with some room for personal interpretation in some areas. For this reason, speaking of it as if it were divided into two different camps with competing doctrine is harmful to the Faith, as it tends to polarize Catholics and pit them against each other instead of us all being united in our faith. There should be no “liberal” or “conservative” or “moderate” or whatever Catholics, we should simply be Catholic. If we start breaking off into factions, or talk about the Church as if it was made up of different political parties, we are violating the prayer Jesus prayed at the Last Supper, “that they may be one” (John 15 or something like that).
“Liberal” or “conservative” in this context usually refers to political views, which should only be secondary to religious ones. The truth is that the middle ground is the best road to take. If you’re too conservative, chances are you don’t have the same concern for the poor or social outcasts that you should and that you favour doctrine over charity. If you’re too liberal, chances are that you are less appreciative of the Church’s traditions as well as being willing to accept some degree of moral relativism, thinking of doctrine as less important than being “nice.”
Neither of those is healthy, since we are called to love and we are also called to uphold the truth. These are both of equal importance. Leaning one way or the other is usually what gets someone pegged as conservative/traditionalist or libera/modernist, which detracts from our main goal and vocation of living Christlike lives.
Hopefully that makes sense, and I’m happy to ramble on some more if you want me to expand on anything. 😉
I’ve never seen it (or heard of it before now), so I can’t really say a lot. Based on the Wikipedia article, nothing looks particularly objectionable, although I see some things that could be, depending on how they’re portrayed.
Have you seen it at all? If so, are there any specific parts that you’d be curious about? It does seem unlikely that there would be the level of corruption among cardinals that the article mentions, but it is possible. I also object to the idea of “conservative” vs. “liberal” Catholicism. Although I know what is meant by that, I disagree with the use of the terms (that’s a sidenote though, it doesn’t really have much to do with the show).
EDIT: It looks interesting, though. I’d love to have a discussion about some of the issues it references.
Whatever happened to just asking people to go on a date?
if only it were that easy.
It’s only as difficult as people make it.
That only goes for the asking part. Getting a date is where some people have all the luck, and others get stuck waiting for a while.
I recently found a 1959 Grundig Majestic Stereo Console on someone’s curb, they were giving it away for no cost. A few hours ago I worked on it some more and I got the thing working, and surprisingly it sounds GREAT! It plays vinyl records and it has a working radio. My guess is that it’s worth at least $800, and I have it for free. I am so happy 😄
This is awesome. Keep it and treasure it. They don’t make them like this anymore and it looks great in your place.
😃
We have a stalker on our hands! 😮
😉
Whatever happened to just asking people to go on a date? Why can’t people just go on dates without it having to be serious? Aren’t dates meant to test whether or not you want a relationship? All this backtracking and ambiguity and such is so confusing and pointless. The friend zone is not real, the methods were too ambiguous and there was never a chance to begin with.
That’s a fair point, but I also don’t really have time to date unless I either quit my job or stop doing homework, so I figure the slow approach is better than nothing.
I’m aiming to strike a balance between being too obvious and being just another nice guy. I’m not quite ready to date her, and also don’t want to get permanently friendzoned like the last guy who told her how he felt about her. 😛
^Yeah, I’m really not sure which is the better route in my situation. 😛 What I do know, though, is that I’m far from mastering the art of conversation (seriously, though, I suck at keeping a converstion going unless we start talking about something really controversial, LOL), so I’d probably have a better chance of not making things super awkward if I get more comfortable around her first.
I’d be happy with a nice, constant 10-25 degrees (Celsius). I’m not sure where I’d find that though–usually the places that stay consistent are either consistently freezing or consistently hot…
It’s not even mid February and it’s already been up in the mid-80s here.
I gotta get back out of the desert.
Meanwhile where I live, we’re enjoying a brief respite of about 40 from about -15 (Fahrenheit…in the system that the whole rest of the world uses, that’s 5 and about -25 to -30 respectively).
I’ve been getting better at it, but it’s hard to talk to her or text her without being a little too obvious (which I don’t think I’m ready for, especially given that she almost definitely doesn’t like me back). I don’t know any of the people she hangs out with, and she only occasionally hangs out with my friend group, so it’s a challenge to really find/make an opportunity for conversation. I’ve been trying to gradually develop a friendship with her, but I’ve been making awfully slow progress. 😛
Good for you!
Now if only I had the same luck with my crush…(it’s partly my fault, but it’s also hard just to get a seat beside her in class, never mind actually hanging out with her).
This is what your post looked like for me for about 30 seconds:
Gotta a hairstyle you love? Gotta a hairstyle you loathe? Post pics of them here.
I absolutely adore this hairstyle. Women had lots of ungainly hairstyles in the '80s; this wasn’t one of them.
I wanna use this hairstyle as toilet paper.
I was really questioning your taste for a moment. (Not to mention that it seemed really strange that liking a hairdo made you want to use it as toilet paper… 😛)
I was wondering how you were going to convincingly connect the message with the Carpenter’s song before the scene where it gets shut off, but you pulled it off masterfully. Looking forward to seeing this thing in all its pristine and finished beauty.
Yeesh, that’s a sure recipe for later loneliness when she gets bored of you after a week… (Honestly though, if you’re the kind of person who’s going to go up to a guy, and simply announce that you’re marrying him the next day, you’re probably not into fulfilling relationships, to say the least.)
I really don’t want to know how you know that…
Real men don’t ask, Frink–you have to be more assertive than that. Girls like confidence in a guy.
Cool, I didn’t realize you ever did any editing.
Maybe you’ll hate it slightly less than the past several years. 😛
I just realized that we’re probably going to see two of the most anticipated fan-edits on this site (ESB:R and ROTR) finally completed this year.
It’s gonna be a good year.
Yeah, they all seem to work as is, although the purpose/funniness of the dream isn’t clear to me–probably because I’m seeing it in isolation.
Good on you for approaching it in a respectful way rather than mocking your parents’ faith like some people do. It can be very hard for parents when their kids leave the religion they grew up with, so respectfully asking questions for now will make things easier for everyone.
