Thursday, March 13, 2008

I wonder how the declaration that extreme wealth (amongst other things) is one of the new deadly sins will further distance people from the Catholic church... especially non-Catholic Christians with their strong Protestant work ethic and belief in the wealth doctrine.

It's weird that in many ways, the Catholic church, oft viewed to be the most traditional of all the Christian faiths is un-fundamental enough to be willing to keep up to date with changing times in such a way as to actually address issues of today.

Even though I think they're still behind the times in a lot of ways (hell-O birth control a sin? really??) the Catholic leadership seems to take to heart the idea that religious teachings are meant to help people cope with their environments* .

Can you imagine if Leviticus was written today? Instead of telling us to burn down our homes when we find a certain type of mold it would be telling us to vaccinate our kids, but not demand antibiotics from the pediatrician when the kid has a virus... But even more fun than that- instead of various cleanliness laws it would forbid the driving of Hummers and mandate the driving of Hybrids.

So, back to the point I started with (sort of) do you think rich Catholics are going to give up their fortunes and middle-class soccer-mom catholics their SUVs, or just seek absolution? I'm guessing the latter...

(*Sorry T, did I just plagiarize your Flickr rant with that phrase? I think I might have...too bad)

2 comments:

Trav said...

It's all good. I never mentioned Leviticus. For anyone who's curious in what she's referring to: Jesus! vs Darwin!

Trav said...

I have a confession to make.

I used your Leviticus reference in a later bout with that dude on that J v. D link.