Holy War

[Dugout DickStone]

they would absolutely write in something about not taxing the church

[Trim]

Do whatever you want.

[BIG APPLE CAT]

Do whatever you I want.

[Pete]

 “Honor your Corporate Officers and your Board of Directors, that your days may be long in the land that the Lord your God is giving you”

[MadCat]

"Love your neighbor as yourself (unless your neighbor is from a shithole country or is infected with Woke Mind Virus)"

[DQ12]

Everyone's really getting some good digs in. 

IF, you want to live a life that makes God happy.

THIS is the part that I object to most.  Certainly I have defects of character that include anti-authority stuff.  Beyond that, I still find the idea of "pleasing" the all powerful god to be absurd.  Why does something that is omniscient, omnipotent, etc, need my validation?

INSTEAD, I choose to believe that the "rules" are not there to please God, and are instead there to help reveal the path to true contentment in this life...the stuff I am supposed to experience and learn in this life.  If we live a good life (kindness, love, tolerance, etc) then we get the truly good things in life and not simply the superficial good things from hedonism.  Like Plato's allegory of the cave...hedonism (and selfishness in general) are like staring at the shadows in the back of the cave thinking you are seeing the real truth. 

Alan Watts once described faith as not knowing, but that the not knowing is OK.  I CHOOSE to have faith in a God, and simultaneously acknowledge that I have zero way of knowing for sure.  I do this, because when I pray to a god (of my own understanding) to help direct my thinking and free me of selfishness, my life is better.  WAY better than it ever was when I struggled with thinking I needed absolute BELIEF in the Lutheran Christian god (which I would have never ever been able "believe" in 100%).

FWIW, I don't really think any of this is incompatible with my understanding of "why Christians are supposed to do good things and avoid bad things."    I get your point about, "I try to avoid hedonism, not because I think the avoidance will please a god, but because I think avoiding hedonism is good for me."  But it's not really a far leap to square that circle if you start with the premise that basically every Christian is supposed to start with: "God wants good things for me, and doing good things pleases him."  In other words, good things tend to be good for you and please God.

Perhaps a lot of these biblical rules (i.e. avoid hedonism even though it feels so damn good) were implemented because they were/are good for people, and God wants people to live in a way that was good for them.  Anyway, all that to say, I don't think your post I quoted is necessarily contradictory to why good Christians act in a particular way.

[Pete]

I agree, and further agree with your implied statement that it’s all about the Golden Rule.

[nicname]

I agree, and further agree with your implied statement that it’s all about the Golden Rule.

Also golden mean?

[nicname]

Confessional (like to a priest) Christians, please make me understand how the seal of confession isn’t misapplied when regarding potentially ongoing proclivity to heinous violent crime, even when a confesee is believed to be “truly” trying to repent?

Like, let’s say there is a case where a parishioner confesses something truly grave and though they are trying to repent and not continue in their sin, they fall back into said heinous activity, then confess again, rinse and repeat? Like, at what point is that not enabling said things from happening in the future.

I’m having a very hard time accepting this from a morality standpoint.

Obv the proposed law regarding seal of confession in Washington state has brought this to my attention.

[star seed 7]

The way I've seen it explained is that the priest is serving as the earthly vessel of God (or facilitater) and the confession is between the person and God and thus the priest has a duty to keep that confession confidential between the person and God.

[cfbandyman]

Right, my understanding from my upbringing it's exactly that, a facilitator. Kinda like not shooting the messenger and the priest is just that, the messenger (guide) to the person confessing. The priest should be impartial to it all, a witness on behalf of God, and not one to judge, that is for God to do.

Now, in terms of going back to confessing to heinous items again and again and that morality, for sure. I definitely think plenty of people see sinning as an act you can always ask atonement for, and that is enabling. But that is more on that person than anything else.

[catastrophe]

Yeah that doesn’t necessarily bother me. Also it seems very different than “confessing” to a crime you are GOING to commit, in which case I can’t see why a priest would have any obligation to stay silent.