Saddam, the RCC & the Death Penalty
As the US Bishops prepare to meet in Washington, let us look at one of the issues they plan to address: their continued opposition to the death penalty
I am continually amazed that no one seems to have a problem with the "high moral road" supposedly taken by the Catholic Church (RCC) against the death penalty. Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, Rome's position should amuse you.
This is just another example of why the Bible is to be trusted as the sole source of unchanging truth. Luther noted at Worms that "Popes and Councils have often contradicted each other." The (historically) very recent opposition to the death penalty by the RCC is just one more example.
Scores of Popes throughout RCC history have (infallibly) pronounced the death penalty for hundreds of thousands (most often for the charge of heresy). Today, they suddenly find a "new truth" that the death penalty (even for a murderous butcher like Saddam Hussein) is somehow not "truth" at all! Maybe the RCC has discovered a new dispensation. If so, it would only be one of the constantly changing dispensations in Roman theology... I'll stick with the eternal truths of the Word of God.
Jon Hus, William Tyndale and thousands of Waldenses, Albigenses, and Huguenots might not be as amused as I am. If Jon Hus was burned at the stake for suggesting that one could be a Christian without being a Papist, imagine want Saddam Hussein deserves! Rome's answer: a cozy cell and most likely access to a free education to better himself! Most of all, he probably should be allowed to practice Islam so he can achieve salvation [by] striving to lead a good life (Vatican Council II).
Look Out Giddy Conservatives
Many conservatives were giddy when the US bishops threatened to withhold communion from Catholic officeholders who supported abortion rights. This threat is much harsher than just a symbolic show in support of public morality. The RCC believes that its communion is a necessary installment to pay for sins. Withholding this "means of salvation" is serious business and puts Catholic officeholders in the position of choosing whether they will support what they believe what the Constitution allows or denies and their "means of salvation." Remember, that piece of bread is God in Catholicism.
That puts all Catholic officeholders in a very precarious position.
Well, that's all well and good when they're threatening the likes of John Kerry and other liberal pro-choicers, but how excited will conservatives be if they ever make the 5 Catholics on the Suprem Court choose between a "means of salvation" and the Constitutinality of something like the death penalty?
It's not so exciting anymore now is it?
I am continually amazed that no one seems to have a problem with the "high moral road" supposedly taken by the Catholic Church (RCC) against the death penalty. Whether you support or oppose the death penalty, Rome's position should amuse you.
This is just another example of why the Bible is to be trusted as the sole source of unchanging truth. Luther noted at Worms that "Popes and Councils have often contradicted each other." The (historically) very recent opposition to the death penalty by the RCC is just one more example.
Scores of Popes throughout RCC history have (infallibly) pronounced the death penalty for hundreds of thousands (most often for the charge of heresy). Today, they suddenly find a "new truth" that the death penalty (even for a murderous butcher like Saddam Hussein) is somehow not "truth" at all! Maybe the RCC has discovered a new dispensation. If so, it would only be one of the constantly changing dispensations in Roman theology... I'll stick with the eternal truths of the Word of God.
Jon Hus, William Tyndale and thousands of Waldenses, Albigenses, and Huguenots might not be as amused as I am. If Jon Hus was burned at the stake for suggesting that one could be a Christian without being a Papist, imagine want Saddam Hussein deserves! Rome's answer: a cozy cell and most likely access to a free education to better himself! Most of all, he probably should be allowed to practice Islam so he can achieve salvation [by] striving to lead a good life (Vatican Council II).
Look Out Giddy Conservatives
Many conservatives were giddy when the US bishops threatened to withhold communion from Catholic officeholders who supported abortion rights. This threat is much harsher than just a symbolic show in support of public morality. The RCC believes that its communion is a necessary installment to pay for sins. Withholding this "means of salvation" is serious business and puts Catholic officeholders in the position of choosing whether they will support what they believe what the Constitution allows or denies and their "means of salvation." Remember, that piece of bread is God in Catholicism.
That puts all Catholic officeholders in a very precarious position.
Well, that's all well and good when they're threatening the likes of John Kerry and other liberal pro-choicers, but how excited will conservatives be if they ever make the 5 Catholics on the Suprem Court choose between a "means of salvation" and the Constitutinality of something like the death penalty?
It's not so exciting anymore now is it?
posted by bleechers at
6:12 PM
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