Pope enthralls large crowd with message of love, mercy

[Act_of_Reparation]

50. Flogging dead horses, again.

More tu quoque bullshit.

My position is this: dropping money in the collection plate funds an organization which in no small part works against the progressive principals of equality, secularism, and reproductive freedom, as well as going towards efforts to cover up or otherwise evade punishment for the rape of minors.

This is not a command. This is not a suggestion. This is an observation. If what I do personally affects others' ability to evaluate this observation on its own merits, the problem lies between their ears, not in my tax returns.

So you would be willing to go on financing an organization whose policies you do not approve to avoid unpleasant consequnces. Conscience ends where discomfort begins.

Why stop with taxes, then?

If you don't agree with where the United States is going, you could always just up and leave. Living here is a choice, after all.

If you don't like working long, back-breaking hours for a pittance, then just quit. Working is a choice, as long as you don't mind the "discomfort" of not having money to feed yourself. But rest assured, eating is a choice, too. As long as you don't mind the "discomfort" of dying.

If anyone here were to make such suggestions honestly, they'd be ridiculed and promptly tombstoned.

The consequences of some decisions are such as to probabilistically exclude them from consideration. It is unrealistic to expect people not to eat. It is unrealistic to expect people to accept imprisonment. It is unrealistic to expect people to endanger the lives and well-being of their loved ones. Any choice that as a consequence expects one to deny oneself the essential necessities of life, freedom, or the safety and well-being of those important to them is hardly a choice at all.

And you compare this to the wholly voluntary act of church collections, for which the consequences of non-compliance are measurably nonexistent.

The comparison is wholly invalid.