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Originally Posted by Awar
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What I see here is mostly a way of life which was contemporary with those times. It is wrong to judge past events through modern sensibilities.
I do not argue that there was some political ambition amongst some of the Popes. The Popes are not personally infalliable, in fact we have had some downright rotten Popes - a fact confirmed by Popes themselves.
But I don't see they acted any worse than the majority of temporal rulers anyway.
Despite the ambitions of some individuals, the teaching has always been the Temporal and Spiritual powers working in concert for the good of all
"Give to Caesar what is Caesar's, and to God what is God's"
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The wisdom of the individual is irrelevant when the entire institution
is acting like a power-hungry animal.
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Again, it could be said that this is based on the ambitions of some individuals. The Popes of then were Temporal rulers as well and acted as such oft-times
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There was a long example which lasted from the early medieval times,right up to today
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I'm afraid that's too vague.
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If we're talking about all Christian churches, you can see nice examples in the US "bible belt",
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Depends if you class them as Christians. I tend to think of that as a situation peculiar to America
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or, if we're talking about all religions, then the entire world.
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That's a very sweeping comment
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It isn't any more dogmatic. That's just human nature, and the way various institutions become through time. If the church should want a role as the leader of humanity, then it sould reform itself in such a way that it would be impossible for it to fall victim to its own bureaucracy, and the subsequent corruption.
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What would you propose?
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Power doesn't only corrupt, it also attracts individuals prone to corruption,
if the internal structure of an institution isn't immune to such corruptions and manipulations, then it shouldn't be revered.
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Nothing on earth if completely free from corruption, therefore nothing is worthy of being revered?
Also at work is the adage - "Keep your friends close, and your enemies closer"
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It's like if we had a member who's an employee of Microsoft who is emotionally attached to the gigantic corporation which stiffles free progress of IT everywhere in the world, just to make a buck more.
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But again, that's working on the belief that the Church stifled knowledge and enlightenment when in fact it was involved in many breakthroughs
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I understand that you all have a great love for your religion, but, there
are many things which should be improved with it, not turned a blind eye to it.
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I don't turn a blind eye. That's why I criticise the current heirarchy.
I simply feel the need to counter claims if I feel they are not fair or are unwarranted
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Or, we're destined to repeat the mistakes from past, up until the punishment becomes execution.
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Some day, you may be remembered for that astute quote, St AWAR