Mar 25, 2010

Sacred Heart of Jesus: Show them the money

Found this fascinating response to the Sacred Heart scandal with equally fascinating responses below - at ClayBonnymanEvan's Blog

 

Absolutely predictable that many Boulder residents (and many elsewhere, too) are outraged by the Archdiocese of Denver’s decision to boot a preschooler and kindergartner from Sacred Heart of Jesus school because their parents are gay.

Archbishop Charles Chaput (he says it's pronounced "slap-you") has never been much bothered by a hypocritical or inconsistent application of doctrine.
Even some parents of children at the school have strenuously objected.
I appreciate the sentiment, but guess what? Unless and until parents start withdrawing their children from the school – i.e. hitting the church in the pocketbook, where it really counts – all the protest in the world won’t make any difference.

2 Responses to “Sacred Heart of Jesus: Show them the money”

  1. When I hear about stuff like this, I’m reminded that we’re not doing our job properly. Our job as secular humanists, is to temper the tendencies of religion to devolve into its natural state of demonizing the infidels. The Christians would have you believe that their god is one of love and nowadays, well, generally they’re right. But if you look at history, every religion (except Buddhism which is not a religion in the normal sense) degrades into this faithful/infidel where the influences of secular humanism is not strong. Remember the Spanish Inquisition and the Puritans and the dark ages in general.

    It’s funny since the theists like to complain about secularism yet its secularism that keeps them as “loving” and “caring”.




  2. When will we relegate this antiquated (and dangerous) religion to the dustbin of history? Not anytime soon, it appears, and we owe that to the Catholics who either tolerate the church’s indiscretions – or worse, endorse them. We have a prolonged, widespread pedophilia scandal in the church where the leaders are shown to hide (or even defend) serial child molesters and many Catholics (most?) still look to the church for moral guidance. How sick is that?
    Slowly but surely reason will overcome “faith”, science will overcome religion and theism will fade away. Give it another 100 years, but that time is coming.

    Well, I can't say I blame these individuals for their sentiments about the nature of organized religion, given the toxic witness of Catholic leadership in our times. For those of us spiritually connected to the Christian/Catholic tradition, it is both a sad and heartbreaking time to see the mystery of the Church so wounded and abused by those in power. But it is also a time of hope as we witness the false idols of the clerical caste system and hierarchical power crumble into dust. Out of the ashes......Jayden

4 comments:

Frank said...

It is truly unfortunate that the church seems to have completely lost sight of its role as a spiritual facilitator. For Catholics who still live in faith, they must be hanging on by the remnants of what used to be. I had a aunt who, with severe arthritis, would say whenever she performed a simple task, "I couldn't do it, but He did it for me". This kind of faith is certainly simple, but profoundly spiritual. Her faith endured not because of the hierarchy but likely in spite of them. The fact that there are still Gay and Lesbian Catholics who keep faith is also in spite of the Cardinals, Archbishops, Bishops and Pope. Somewhere there is a remnant of something spiritual, that they hold dear. I personally can no longer tolerate the slaps on the face and cannot "turn the other cheek". But for those who can, perhaps they are the modern Prophets.

Richard Demma said...

Wonderful anecdote about your Aunt, FD, the kind of simple faith that will sustain the church -and that 'remnant of something spiritual' - through this present time of trial. I also keep my distance from the institution and don't attend formal liturgies (except rarely)because of the toxic nature of the Church's homophobia. But the whole house of cards seems to be falling faster than we can blink these days. Shocking turn of events. Great post over at Wild Reed on the situation.

redtown said...

I'm convinced that the Roman theocracy are the Pharisees whom Jesus constantly criticized for their self-righteousness, their presumptive assertions of infallible “Truth", their inability to think outside-the-box of tradition and legalism, and their dearth of spirituality and compassion.

Like Jesus, we are called to separate our faith in God from the abuses of hierarchy. As Saint Mychal Judge urges us, "Don't let the institutional church get in the way of your relationship with God."

Mychal Judge, you'll recall, was the beloved, openly gay FDNY chaplain who perished on 9/11.

"There will always be people who want to destroy what God builds up through good people, but God will overcome. I don't know how He's going to do it, but someday God will make the headlines instead of the devil. So don't give up. We pray together, we hold hands together, we believe together, we love together, we're saved together, and God reigns."
+ Mychal Judge

See http://SaintMychalJudge.blogspot.com

PS: A Franciscan friar friend is convinced that there is a Divine hand behind the timing of this story with the latest Vatican scandals -- revelations that the Pope personally enabled and protected serial pedophiles, and the male prostitution ring operating out of the Vatican. "What goes around comes around," he says.

Anonymous said...

Did you see the latest outrage by the Roman bishops?

In retaliation for a Maine homeless agency's support for gay civil rights, the bishops have slashed $40,000 of funding to the homeless.

http://www.pressherald.com/news/diocese-penalizes-homeless-aid-group_2010-03-23.html

Catholics for Marriage Equality is asking for donations to the homeless agency to make up this loss of funding.

http://catholicsformarriageequality.net/preble

You can donate securely on-line here:
https://npo.networkforgood.org/Donate/Donate.aspx?npoSubscriptionId=1001732

Or send a check to
"Preble Street Resource Center"
Development Department
PO Box 1459
Portland, ME 04104

The bishops' obsessive homophobia was already unhealthy, but now it’s become cold and ruthless.