Thoughts and Prayers for the next Pope

[Thtwudbeme]

Dear God,

Please make the next Pope pay attention to the words and actions of your Son, Jesus Christ, instead of Paul's outdated letters to the Romans.

Please make His Holiness understand that not condoning the use of certain means of birth control can mean the difference between life and death, poverty and the ability to afford food and medical care, to so very many people.

Please make Him apologize for the atrocities committed by organized religion over the centuries.

And please, please grant me the patience to understand, and the insight to be able to learn to live with people that don't understand this prayer, or want to argue with it.

Thank you Lord,

Stephanie

[roguevalley]

1. Amen

[Misunderestimator]

2. Amen

:thumbsup:

[moobu2]

3. Amen

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

4. A-fuclem=MEN!

ooooohraarh!

[flordehinojos]

5. did the pope die already?

[SouthernDem2004]

8. No, he is just in the hospital.

[El Supremo]

6. What the hell is wrong with Paul?

If it wasn't for him there would be no remembrance of the words of Christ today.

[Thtwudbeme]

7. You must mean Paul McCartney?

I am not sure what you mean, seriously.

Stephanie

[El Supremo]

9. Through Paul's insistence of spreading the Gospels to the Gentiles...

the entire history of the western world was changed. And by superposition, the history of the world.

I believe (as a book about 10 years ago said) that St. Paul was the most important man in the recorded history of the world. Even more than Jesus.

[Desertrose]

15. He certainly changed the message of Jesus

as he took it out into the world.....totally different message.

Christianity as we know it today is basically founded on HIS (Paul's) ideas, not Christ's. The message was changed by Paul....not that he didn't have lots of help down the road....


I would have to agree he is more important than Jesus because it is more Paul's version than Jesus'.

[davidwparker]

10. People don't like Paul because some of his teachings

disagree with how they want to interpret the Bible. Paul was the greatest teacher to the Gentiles, saw the risen Messiah, and like John, was called up to Heaven at some point in his life.

[moobu2]

11. Oh really? what if he was just psychotic with delusions of grandeur?

[MemphisTiger]

13. What if he wasn't?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

12. Well, that and he was a homophobe, racist, and misogynist

or, so they have interpreted in his writings.

[MemphisTiger]

14. nice disclaimer

What do YOU think, not THEY?

[WannaJumpMyScooter]

16. Oh, me? I think people read waaaay too much into little things.

Of course the Catholics followed Paul, and the fact they became Homophobic, misogynistic, racist pharisees had more to do with their powerful position as the religion of the Empire.

I believe the Reformation was on the right track, and that train was derailed by the Puritans in America. And it still is.

I am an adherent to the words and life of Christ, without all the imperial trappings which followed.

How's that?

[aneerkoinos]

18. Are you?

Do you read your words and life of Christ from Nag Hammadi or Bible, or both?

Reformation was the wrong track, because it nowhere else to go but the Bible. Which is also wrong.

[mojaverose]

21. Paul - I Think They Would Have Managed Without Him

There were a lot of other people preaching about Jesus, too.

Paul is the single most responsible party for the fact that women were considered Evil simply by being. Everything that was done to women from the "Maleus Malificarum" to the "Honey, I'm Home" of the 50s can be laid straight at Paul's feet.

When I was a little kid going to parochial school, and trying my darndest to like myself in the face of all that masculinity, and with the Creation Myth ringing in my ears, Paul made me cry.
When I was a young woman trying to find a spiritual path I could follow, Paul made me mad.
For years I fought with what he said, half believing them - after all, I was programmed to.
Then, I Found my way (or rather, God showed me) and I could release Paul.
Now I think of him as an inspired writer who had some wonderful things to say. It's just that God quit talking and Paul kept writing.

Incidentally, for those of you who are gay, it might help you to understand that Paul, himself, was gay. He believed the Greek tradition; that women were only walking wombs, with no soul or intellect, and that Love could only exist between men. When he rediscovered his Jewishness, and read all the strictures against homosexuality, he hated himself. The poor guy had a double whammy, and he passed his psychic breakdown on to us.
How do I know this? Reading more books than can be counted, studying late into the night. In my case, Know Thy Enemy was a reality and an obsession.

[aneerkoinos]

23. Couple comments

Yes, Paul and his followers succeeded in pretty much fucking up the spiritual revolution of the first century. And yes, it is pretty obvious that Paul driven by inner demons, a self-hating homosexual of the misogynist persuation. He never got married, very much against the custom and expectation of those times.

However, your caricatur of Greek tradition and especially Hellenistic culture goes pretty widely of the mark. Any female from the House of Ptolemy would beat you to pulp for calling her a "walking womb with no soul or intellect". ;)

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

17. Amin

I think it is interesting that His Holiness the Dalai Lama believes in birth control and family planning (see "The Path to Tranquility", one book where he mentions this). His Holiness is also against the death penalty, and talks of tolerance and forgiveness-two actions which are needed to maintain tranquility and happiness.

[aneerkoinos]

19. His Holiness

is also currently more communist than the Chinese State Capitalists in power... :)

[aneerkoinos]

20. Last pope next?

Google St. Malachy...

[DemBones DemBones]

22. You mean: "Dear God, make the next Pope a Protestant like me."

Why not admit it? :shrug: