Saturday, 28 September 2013

So Satisfying

The second last episode of Ray Donovan and Ray killed the priest.

I'm with Bunchie(y?): "I'm glad you did it, I didn't think I would be, but I am."

It was a brilliant episode. Just watched the last 10 minutes again. Kudos to the writer Ron Nyswaner, the director Daniel Minahan & the creator Ann Biderman. Liev Schreiber is brilliant as always.

I will be writing about the show as a whole when I have watched the last episode. After reading a few critics, I think that there is a need to thoroughly digest and expound upon it. It just rings true on many levels for me.

So much of what I have commented on in earlier posts are reflected in this story line. See, for example, They Still Call Him "Father". The Power of the Belief System or Anger, Anger, and Rage. They both contain aspects of impact/response that make me feel very comfortable watching this show.

I will be watching the last episode shortly & will hope that it is a fitting end to the first season!

Tuesday, 10 September 2013

Poor, poor Richard - well there goes his credibility

http://www.salon.com/2013/09/10/richard_dawkins_defends_mild_pedophilia_says_it_does_not_cause_lasting_harm/

So Dawkins is not the great analytical thinker that he wants us and everyone around him to believe.

Has he never ever questioned by he is so evangelical about the horrors of "the God Delusion" as he calls it?

Obviously not. Do do so would take him back to "what didn;t really hurt him at all".

The fact that he is now focusing on it is amazing - he obviously can't let it go - a little mild form of PSTD, Richard?

Here is my post from another blog & and an earlier blog post on Dawkins - the first time he "admitted" that he had been abused sexually as a child at school.

WEDNESDAY, MAY 20, 2009

What Dawkins Doesn't Understand

Today I am going to write about the one thing that bothers me about Richard Dawkins' The God Delusion. I loved the book but if he needs to truly argue that religion is child abuse, then he cannot so blithely dismiss the impact of sexual abuse on children raised in Christian environments.

The absolute power of the Christian god is embedded in Christian children from their birth. Whatever that particular god structure is, it is consistently reinforced by their parents, their church communities and sometimes their school systems.

Dawkins wouldn't disagree with this, but when he uses an example of a one time experience of sexual assault by a priest (described as "yukky" by the woman recounting it) to point out that psychological damage is far more damaging, he is does a massive disservice not only to those abused in a Christian context but, of all things, to his own argument that religion is child abuse. Dawkins just doesn't really get it when it comes to the impact of sexual abuse of children in a religious context. Perhaps he needs to see Deliver Us From Evil (http://www.deliverusfromevilthemovie.com/index_flash.php). Or perhaps he needs to read Our Fathers: The Secret Life of the Catholic Church in an Age of Scandal by David France. He migh then get some idea, albeit secondhand of just what kind of damage the combination of religion and sexual abuse can cause.

There are two possible reasons for his dismissal. The first is that that it never really happened to him and he is therefore making a false generalization from his own experience and people who have had "minimal" experience of sexual abuse (these do exist - and it is a far cry from what I and millions of other children were subjected to). He quite clearly does not know anyone who has been devastated by the sexual abuse which includes all of the other forms of abuse that can knowingly be inflicted on children. The second possibility is that perhaps it did happen to him and he has never had to look at it. In other words, he has successfully managed to live a life without running into a situation that will cause him to have flashback or emotional crisis.

Saturday, 7 September 2013

but then again I was right about limbo!!

Direct from the Vatican site - the latest (I think) on limbo:

http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/congregations/cfaith/cti_documents/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20070419_un-baptised-infants_en.html

The conclusion of this study is that there are theological and liturgical reasons to hope that infants who die without baptism may be saved and brought into eternal happiness, even if there is not an explicit teaching on this question found in Revelation. However, none of the considerations proposed in this text to motivate a new approach to the question may be used to negate the necessity of baptism, nor to delay the conferral of the sacrament. Rather, there are reasons to hope that God will save these infants precisely because it was not possible to do for them that what would have been most desirable— to baptize them in the faith of the Church and incorporate them visibly into the Body of Christ.

Get your indulgences on Twitter - at least, they're free!

It boggles my mind, but purgatory still exists. I don't know why I thought it was gone & why I am surprised,but then maybe I have just been reading the wrong theologians.

Maybe it was just wishful thinking on my part. Had to send a note to my students :-). Maybe it's lack of sleep - who knows - but here is the relevant info:

Keeping up with the times: Indulgences through Twitter


Vatican offers 'time off purgatory' to followers of Pope Francis tweets

Papal court handling pardons for sins says contrite Catholics may win 'indulgences' by following World Youth Day on Twitter

The Roman Catholic Catechism on Purgatory from the Vatican's official site:


http://www.vatican.va/archive/ccc_css/archive/catechism/p123a12.htm


Catechism of the Catholic Church

PART ONE
THE PROFESSION OF FAITH

SECTION TWO
THE PROFESSION OF THE CHRISTIAN FAITH

CHAPTER THREE
I BELIEVE IN THE HOLY SPIRIT

ARTICLE 12
"I BELIEVE IN LIFE EVERLASTING"
1030-1032

1030 All who die in God's grace and friendship, but still imperfectly purified, are indeed assured of their eternal salvation; but after death they undergo purification, so as to achieve the holiness necessary to enter the joy of heaven.
1031 The Church gives the name Purgatory to this final purification of the elect, which is entirely different from the punishment of the damned.606 The Church formulated her doctrine of faith on Purgatory especially at the Councils of Florence and Trent. The tradition of the Church, by reference to certain texts of Scripture, speaks of a cleansing fire:607
As for certain lesser faults, we must believe that, before the Final Judgment, there is a purifying fire. He who is truth says that whoever utters blasphemy against the Holy Spirit will be pardoned neither in this age nor in the age to come. From this sentence we understand that certain offenses can be forgiven in this age, but certain others in the age to come.608
1032 This teaching is also based on the practice of prayer for the dead, already mentioned in Sacred Scripture: "Therefore [Judas Maccabeus] made atonement for the dead, that they might be delivered from their sin."609 From the beginning the Church has honored the memory of the dead and offered prayers in suffrage for them, above all the Eucharistic sacrifice, so that, thus purified, they may attain the beatific vision of God.610 The Church also commends almsgiving, indulgences, and works of penance undertaken on behalf of the dead:
Let us help and commemorate them. If Job's sons were purified by their father's sacrifice, why would we doubt that our offerings for the dead bring them some consolation? Let us not hesitate to help those who have died and to offer our prayers for them.611


Just in case you think this is just a Roman Catholic problem!

 It isn't, not by a long shot.  See this from the megachurch - Gateway Church in Texas (and even in Sault Ste. Marie ON?!) Texas megachu...