I am a complete and utter heretic.
So it's a good thing I'm not Catholic-with-a-capital-C.
Here's what heresy I'm considering disseminating today:
The Roman Catholic church is a web of sins held together by more sins, but primarily that of covetousness. Lust for power, for control, for more more more of everything permeates the history of the church.
Despite the fact that the bible SAYS, right in the New Testement, that one should preach the Gospel to the heathens in their own tongues, the RCC spent years telling the common people that they were too stupid to be allowed to read the Bible. (This is why Wycliffe started his translations that were, surprise surprise, censored, banned, and otherwise looked down upon by anyone who had an ounce of power in the church.)
An aside: wow. I just came across a site where people are agitating for a return to the Tridentine mass, and it's using words like "Divine Victim" (caps and all). That's really fucking CREEPY. With just a few tweaks, Catholicism would make an amazing horror show. Ew.
For the curious, it's in #2 on this page: http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/tradition/page5.phtml It's Yur Doin It WRONG! all the way down. It also serves to illustrate the whole separation of the clergy from the people they're supposed to be serving -- after all, it's not like Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors or anything. Nope. He stayed holed up in the temple with the Pharisees as his lookouts, avoiding anything that even hinted at getting involved with the people he was supposed to be a "Divine Victim" for.
Catholicism--and the clergy's responses to people trying to find something a little less hypocritical/frightening/just plain obnoxious--has been responsible for everything from suicides to actual wars. Kinda violates that whole "thou shalt not kill" commandment, doesn't it? Sure seems like it to me.
(The complaints about communion on that page are particularly amusing, since if you're going to worry about "particles of Jesus whole and entire" left on the hand, what about Jesus stuck in one's teeth? Those communion wafers are pretty sticky (and I can't say I find them particularly crumby. The yummy honey-wheat loaves at my Fringey Episcopalian church actually produce more crumbs -- the altar guild has a special Dustbuster they use after services. I like to imagine that it was consecrated like the altar cloths are, because the idea of blessing a household appliance delights me.)
Of course, being the heathen that I am, it doesn't matter that I think their whining is that of a child who suddenly discovers he's not special any more and consequently wants more attention. "Waaaaa! I don' wanna be treated like I matter in the whole of the service! Waaaa! I just wanna be a groupie, not actually responsible for my own faith! Waaaa! Tell me what to believe 'cause thinking for myself is tooooo haaaaaard!"
And that's another thing: papal edicts setting out what is and is not To Be Done. Last time I checked, Jesus had precisely this to say about two people of the same sex getting married, whether or not I should have an abortion or use birth control, or be allowed to make my own decisions*: "..."
On the other hand, he *did* say that I'm supposed to love everyone else the way I love myself. Oh, and that most of the old covenants were fulfilled. Unless you're Jewish, I'm pretty sure that means that Leviticus and friends doesn't really apply--but the ten commandments do, since they can be applied to pretty much anyone with only minor modifications.
There's more besides, but I just spent the last hour getting totally sidetracked by this instead of writing. Whoops. And to think, all I really wanted to know was when did Catholicism spread to Brittany?
* He was a product of his time, naturally, so I cut him some slack. He did get his perspective shifted by a Gentile woman, so there is that.
Here's what heresy I'm considering disseminating today:
The Roman Catholic church is a web of sins held together by more sins, but primarily that of covetousness. Lust for power, for control, for more more more of everything permeates the history of the church.
Despite the fact that the bible SAYS, right in the New Testement, that one should preach the Gospel to the heathens in their own tongues, the RCC spent years telling the common people that they were too stupid to be allowed to read the Bible. (This is why Wycliffe started his translations that were, surprise surprise, censored, banned, and otherwise looked down upon by anyone who had an ounce of power in the church.)
An aside: wow. I just came across a site where people are agitating for a return to the Tridentine mass, and it's using words like "Divine Victim" (caps and all). That's really fucking CREEPY. With just a few tweaks, Catholicism would make an amazing horror show. Ew.
For the curious, it's in #2 on this page: http://www.communigate.co.uk/ne/tradition/page5.phtml It's Yur Doin It WRONG! all the way down. It also serves to illustrate the whole separation of the clergy from the people they're supposed to be serving -- after all, it's not like Jesus hung out with prostitutes and tax collectors or anything. Nope. He stayed holed up in the temple with the Pharisees as his lookouts, avoiding anything that even hinted at getting involved with the people he was supposed to be a "Divine Victim" for.
Catholicism--and the clergy's responses to people trying to find something a little less hypocritical/frightening/just plain obnoxious--has been responsible for everything from suicides to actual wars. Kinda violates that whole "thou shalt not kill" commandment, doesn't it? Sure seems like it to me.
(The complaints about communion on that page are particularly amusing, since if you're going to worry about "particles of Jesus whole and entire" left on the hand, what about Jesus stuck in one's teeth? Those communion wafers are pretty sticky (and I can't say I find them particularly crumby. The yummy honey-wheat loaves at my Fringey Episcopalian church actually produce more crumbs -- the altar guild has a special Dustbuster they use after services. I like to imagine that it was consecrated like the altar cloths are, because the idea of blessing a household appliance delights me.)
Of course, being the heathen that I am, it doesn't matter that I think their whining is that of a child who suddenly discovers he's not special any more and consequently wants more attention. "Waaaaa! I don' wanna be treated like I matter in the whole of the service! Waaaa! I just wanna be a groupie, not actually responsible for my own faith! Waaaa! Tell me what to believe 'cause thinking for myself is tooooo haaaaaard!"
And that's another thing: papal edicts setting out what is and is not To Be Done. Last time I checked, Jesus had precisely this to say about two people of the same sex getting married, whether or not I should have an abortion or use birth control, or be allowed to make my own decisions*: "..."
On the other hand, he *did* say that I'm supposed to love everyone else the way I love myself. Oh, and that most of the old covenants were fulfilled. Unless you're Jewish, I'm pretty sure that means that Leviticus and friends doesn't really apply--but the ten commandments do, since they can be applied to pretty much anyone with only minor modifications.
There's more besides, but I just spent the last hour getting totally sidetracked by this instead of writing. Whoops. And to think, all I really wanted to know was when did Catholicism spread to Brittany?
* He was a product of his time, naturally, so I cut him some slack. He did get his perspective shifted by a Gentile woman, so there is that.