We met Chicago Cardinal Francis George before when he threatened to close down hospitals and other Catholic service institutions if their health insurance providers had to comply with the requirement to provide contraceptive services free of charge to their employees.
George explains what is driving the church’s strong opposition to what almost everyone would consider to be the perfectly benign and acceptable practice of contraception: “The categories that count in the Gospel are true and false. The bishops try to be people of God. And those are the first questions we ask is: ‘Is it true or false?'”
Two points: If the bishops are trying to be people of god, then their behavior reveals a truly terrible god because if there is one thing that the pedophilia scandals revealed, it is that the bishops and cardinals are the most corrupt and dishonest elements of the church. More importantly, I would advise him to steer clear of talking about the importance of true and false, because that is the weakest point of religion. Better to stick to their focus on faith: Faith that despite all the evidence, the Church reflects wholesome values and is not a greedy, authoritarian, and oppressive institution.
No, see, you’re mistaken, because they’re not using the same sense of the word “true” that you are. They don’t mean “consistent with logical and empirical fact,” they mean “consistent with what Jesus wanted.” That’s what truth means “in the Gospel.”
(Like that passage in John 22 where Jesus explains how evil abortion is.)
It proves that the opposition to equal rights for women is more important than feeding the poor and healing the sick. Those things were ok for thier saviour, but not for them.
It was blunt in the attack on the Nuns.
Yeah, I saw the whole ‘what God does is good by definition’ put forward just yesterday. It baffles me.
For all the crap about God or gods providing an absolute moral standard, the real standard underneath it all is “might makes right” and “God owns you, therefore he can do what he wants and call it whatever he wants”.
Biblical scholars and even amateur Bible students have now established beyond reasonable doubt that the New Testament is fraudulent. Half of the letters claimed to be written by Paul are forgeries. The Gospels were written decades after the events that they claim to describe and by nobody knows who. Matthew, Mark, Luke & John are names that were later appended to them to make then seem more authentic. The words “The Gospel According To” at the head of each Gospel are lies. These Gospels are full of claims that the Old Testament Prophets foretold the story of Jesus. These Old Testament passages only have to be read in their original context to see that claims that they were prophesies are contrived and false. Both the Epistles and the Gospels are riddled with interpolations, paragraphs that have been clumsily added to bring the writings into line with the beliefs of the time.
What was George’s point about truth again?
Actually, Catholics tend to be less concerned with the Bible than, say, evangelical Protestants. By “Gospel” the Bishop probably means general Catholic doctrine, the “good news,” not the books “Matthew”, “Mark”, “Luke”, and “John.” (Usually when you hear “the Gospel,” in the singular, that’s what is meant.)
Which is indeed good news for Cardinal George, because the Bible has no opinion on contraception that I am aware of. He is free to make up God’s laws directly rather than having to twist a Bible passage to make it fit.