1989

I suppose the difference is that Pell was charged criminally, while McCarrick was found guilty by the Church itself. I'm certain that since McCarrick's crimes happened in the early 70s he won't face a criminal court, but that the Church inquiry voluntarily turned up anything is pretty amazing. I'm just wondering if this is something new or just something to placate the masses (no pun intended) while it's business as usual.

So a top US Cardinal was pretty much booted from the Church after a Church trail. Of course, it happened after said Cardinal resigned his commission, but I don't know how much power these old fucks have after they "retire". Should we expect more cases like this to come down the pipeline or is this just a one-off deal? https://www.cnn.com/2019/02/16/us/theodore-mccarrick-defrocked-intl/index.html

Cookies. I'm pretty easy to please.

See, I knew there was an oral sex joke in there someplace, but figured it would be in bad taste.

Unfortunately, there's no moral high ground here. The priests are child molesters and Duterte is a fascist thug, so neither one of them are wrong in what they say. Still, it shows what one man on a mission will say or do. I'd be surprised if he wasn't directly or indirectly involved in the deaths of those three Priests, and am really surprised that more of them aren't dead.

It's similar to the Fallen World argument. It's a poor attempt to explain why bad things happen to otherwise good (i.e. Godly) people. Add to that the supposedly innate sinfulness of man they deserve pretty much every horrible thing that happens to them. Like the other members have intimated, it's a sick method of thinking. To be fair, not all fundamentalists believe this sort of thing. Andrew Wommack comes to mind, though he's quick to mention that he's been attacked for having that kind of theology. Whether that's a proud persecution moment or a statement about his contemporaries (or both) is debatable.

I've never had children of my own, but I'm certain they do communicate. They cry when they're hungry. They cry when they've messed themselves. They coo when they're happy. They even laugh when something's funny. As for aspirations, well, animals don't have aspirations as we understand them either. Should we execute dogs and cats for being boring? And no one's too nuts for someone to not pay attention. I doubt this kid would survive a life of public service anymore. Gotta be careful what you say and do or they'll get 'cha! As for the handicapped, well, don't they already allow that in Belgium? I only kind of kid. Pretty much anyone at any age with a disease can be euthanized in Belgium. Maybe this dimwit college student could move there and bask in infanticide.

It's just like life: when you're in the "In Crowd" you tend not to care about anyone else. I'm not the first person to recognize that Heaven is a place where victims can welcome their murderers with open arms. I was conflicted about it then and kind of sickened by it now.

Without being God everything kind of has to be an assumption when dealing with His motives and ideas. Besides, the right decision may not even be the right decision, even when things don't end up in chaos and heartbreak.

Attention whores? Seriously. When Harold Camping predicted the end of the world his followers sent him all kinds of cash. Some people sent or spent their entire life's savings. It made a hell of a lot headlines but in the end it ruined a lot of lives. The problem isn't the crackpots who make wild predictions, but the crackpots who believe them.

See, you talk in parables and you confuse people. That's a Jesus move right there. Seriously though, like you said, the assumption is based on your mindset. If I were to play Devil's Advocate, I would say God's plan didn't work because you left. He sets you up, but it's up to you to walk away. You chose to go left when God wanted you to go right. Still this opinion includes the Free Will argument that Christians love, so if I were one this would be my answer, because to admit that God's Plan didn't work is pretty much blasphemy and a step too far.

There's a third option: you leaving the faith was God's plan. If God knows us before we were born, knows every hair on our heads, then He knows pretty much everything about you, up to and including your entire genealogy. Do you think that a supposedly omnipotent being that can and does manipulates or foresees your birth down to your Nth degree grandparents can be thwarted by a mere mortal? We already know that God saves some of us and destroys others (Book of Romans), so your leaving the faith is simply an excuse to have you destroyed for His glory. Just a thought.

St. Augustine said that dead babied went to Hell because they weren't Christened, though he would later be reversed by a Pope who stated that babied without Christ went to Limbo, where they were separated from God, but didn't suffer because they didn't know what they were missing in their lives. It took about 800 years for the Church to restate this and officially proclaim that dead babies could go to Heaven after all. If you could say that about babies, what would an "all-loving" God say about someone who actually had a chance to live and such? This too renders the New Testament as irrelevant as well. If someone can be good and go to Heaven, that goes against not only the only way to the Father is through the Son, but also the inherent sinful nature of man as preached by Paul. No one can be good without God, so they say, so an ignorant person is simply screwed. ANd yes, this contradicts my opinion in my last post. It just proves that it's all subject to human opinion and error. The whole thing is a clusterfuck.

I'd agree with that wholeheartedly. I agree with this too. The problem is that once you're dead it's too late, so they say. Again, this is a measure of control. If the churches can't have obedience and/or money when you're alive, then there's no happy ending waiting for you postmortem. Heaven is a reward, not a promise, as I understand it.

Paul says in Romans 19-20 that the truth of God is known instinctively, so there is no excuse. 19 They know the truth about God because he has made it obvious to them. 20 For ever since the world was created, people have seen the earth and sky. Through everything God made, they can clearly see his invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse for not knowing God. That's some mighty justification right there. I'm not sure that it means that everyone knows God or they know God once they're told about Him, but to me it sounds like the former.