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Yes, it's true, but they can change their own rules. I'm sure there have always been sexual transgressions, my family left their church two generations ago bec

Yes, it's true, but they can change their own rules. I'm sure there have always been sexual transgressions, my family left their church two generations ago because of a pedophile priest (Father Butch in Dauphin Manitoba). Search is cheap and getting cheaper, and their institution is being damaged by a policy that wants to defy gravity. The Catholic church is ancient, and no doubt resilient, but it has never had to contend with anything like the Internet.

TheFreim 5y ago
> but they can change their own rules In terms of the morality of contraception, they can't change their "rules" on it any more than they could change the "rule" against murder. Priestly celibacy could be changed though I don't know how it would solve problems. Do you believe that a someone being able to become ordained after getting married would stop pedophiles? Maybe I don't understand what you're saying because I don't see how that would be the case. It could possibly lower the chance of them committing other sexual sins but on the topic of homosexual activity it wouldn't change a thing since there always condemned no matter who does it. Any thoughts on that?
- _aleph2c_ 5y ago
  My concern is for the long-term survival of their institution. I see them as a critical, slow-moving part of our civilization. I don't understand how it works; I'm an individual, and they are an ancient religious institution. Here is an example, the Catholics resisted eugenics when it was considered scientific and rational. If I had been involved in the debate at that time, I probably would have been on the eugenicists' side because that was the popular point of view. I would have been wrong. The Catholics provide a slow moral feedback loop. My point about the pedophile is that they can't hide them now. The internet has changed the game. The Church worked even with its warts in the past because the Church hid them from view. But they don't have this power anymore. More and more families will leave as the warts are exposed. They will lose members and relevance. So remove the pressure, remove the temptation before it happens. I believe the Catholics call this "an occasion of sin": Don't go into the hotel room drunk and horny with the prostitute so that you don't have a moral struggle while sitting on the bed beside her. A challenging problem is turned into an easy problem by avoiding it in the first place. If they are worried about the corruption that can happen from priests having families, make it so they can't have families but can still find a remedy for their basic needs. Make it easier for a priest to be a priest. The early Christian Church did not have the celibacy rule. What's worse is other religious-like systems are antagonistic to the Catholic perspective. The Chinese Communist Party effectively owned Grindr for a time, and they could have built a social network map of the transgressing priests using their app. Then they could have leveraged these guys to do their bidding. It's hard to lead a flock while being blackmailed by another Sheppard.

TheFreim 5y ago

> but they can change their own rules In terms of the morality of contraception, they can't change their "rules" on it any more than they could change the "rule" against murder. Priestly celibacy could be changed though I don't know how it would solve problems. Do you believe that a someone being able to become ordained after getting married would stop pedophiles? Maybe I don't understand what you're saying because I don't see how that would be the case. It could possibly lower the chance of them committing other sexual sins but on the topic of homosexual activity it wouldn't change a thing since there always condemned no matter who does it. Any thoughts on that?

_aleph2c_ 5y ago
My concern is for the long-term survival of their institution. I see them as a critical, slow-moving part of our civilization. I don't understand how it works; I'm an individual, and they are an ancient religious institution. Here is an example, the Catholics resisted eugenics when it was considered scientific and rational. If I had been involved in the debate at that time, I probably would have been on the eugenicists' side because that was the popular point of view. I would have been wrong. The Catholics provide a slow moral feedback loop. My point about the pedophile is that they can't hide them now. The internet has changed the game. The Church worked even with its warts in the past because the Church hid them from view. But they don't have this power anymore. More and more families will leave as the warts are exposed. They will lose members and relevance. So remove the pressure, remove the temptation before it happens. I believe the Catholics call this "an occasion of sin": Don't go into the hotel room drunk and horny with the prostitute so that you don't have a moral struggle while sitting on the bed beside her. A challenging problem is turned into an easy problem by avoiding it in the first place. If they are worried about the corruption that can happen from priests having families, make it so they can't have families but can still find a remedy for their basic needs. Make it easier for a priest to be a priest. The early Christian Church did not have the celibacy rule. What's worse is other religious-like systems are antagonistic to the Catholic perspective. The Chinese Communist Party effectively owned Grindr for a time, and they could have built a social network map of the transgressing priests using their app. Then they could have leveraged these guys to do their bidding. It's hard to lead a flock while being blackmailed by another Sheppard.