Swords, Roses, and Feminism!

closertothelost:

muffinmafiaattack:

I doubt that you realize how wrong your religion is, or the very fact that you contradict what you ‘believe in’. 
I doubt that you realize that being gay IS in fact, wrong. And that even though the PERSON is not wrong, their choices and lust for other people of the same sex is wrong. You can even look it up if you want to, Leviticus 18 or 20 perhaps?  No, still choose to think you’re in the right? What If I told you that God made Adam & Eve, not Adam & Steve. Or, that the Pope chooses what is ‘believed’ or ‘taught’ in the church. Shouldn’t it be taught from the bible? Not from some man who is believed to be connected to God more than you?
Or Perhaps you’d like to tell me that the Pope IS closer to God than you? And why is that? Does he pray more than you? Well, he should, right? He’s the Pope!  Does he believe in God more than you? No, that cannot happen. There is no level to which you believe in God, either you do.. or you don’t. So what is there to say that makes the Pope a better person that you? What makes you let him change the WORDS from the BIBLE to ‘suit everyday life’? 

The bible does not want us to ‘suit our everyday lives’ ! It wants us to walk fearfully into the world! Because As I do believe it is written, Jesus did not come to condemn the world, but to save it. Does that not mean you should be different? Not suiting your fancy and changing the rules of the bible?

Though these things are confusing, nothing confuses me more than why Catholics pray to Mary. Why do you do so? What is the point? - Yes, I realize she gave birth to Jesus. But, why do you pray to her? Do you not realize that praying to someone/thing other than God is against the bible? It is against the 10 Commandments. It is wrong. And by paying to her, you are creating a sin. Did the Pope also teach you to pray to ‘Mother Mary’? I’m sure one of them did. I’m also sure that nowhere in the bible does it state that you should pray to Jesus’ mother. And, truly. Can you explain why she is the ‘Virgin Mary’. Yes, I do realize that she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but there is NO way on earth that she stayed a virgin. It clearly states that JESUS HAD BROTHERS. James, who wrote the book of James, was a brother to Jesus! Clearly you cannot be so blind as to think that she was ALWAYS a virgin? 

Dear Catholics, why don’t you fix what’s broken? Please. You’re making more and more people contradict what the church actually believes, you make non-believers not want to experience the love of Christ. Stop pushing people away with your pagan ways. Live for God, not for yourself. 

I really don’t know what to make of this, but I’ll break it down piece by piece, okay?

I doubt that you realize that being gay IS in fact, wrong. And that even though the PERSON is not wrong, their choices and lust for other people of the same sex is wrong.

Um, yeah. We believe exactly this. The Catechism (concise set of everything Catholics believe and practice based on Scripture and Tradition. Oh, and Tradition is affirmed by Saint Paul in 2 Thessalonians 2:15) says:

2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that “homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.”They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life.They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.

2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial.They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God’s will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord’s Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.

2359Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.

We believe that being homosexual is not a sin, but acting on it is. That’s the complete opposite of how you’ve defined us.

So what is there to say that makes the Pope a better person that you? What makes you let him change the WORDS from the BIBLE to ‘suit everyday life’? 

I’ll take this an an attack on our Pope. 

Basically, Matthew 16:18 tells us that Jesus built His Church on Peter, the Rock. This made Peter the head of the Church on Earth. And since clearly, Christ wanted the Church to continue after Peter’s death, Peter had to ordain someone to lead the Church. And that person had to ordain someone, and so on, and so forth. So we arrive at Pope Benedict XVI, a guy who was ordained by a guy who was ordained by a guy, and so on, all the way back to Saint Peter himself. So I don’t think attacking the Pope’s credibility is very smart, because you can’t argue with apostolic succession.

Secondly, The word “pope” just means “father.” And yes, the Pope is our “father” in that he guides the Church according to the will of the Holy Spirit. God is our Father, but the Pope guides us to Him. 

The bible does not want us to ‘suit our everyday lives’ ! It wants us to walk fearfully into the world! 

Yeah, we don’t suit the Bible to our lives. We suit our lives to the Holy Word of God. That’s why Catholics are so persecuted. We’re labelled as out-of-date and old-fashioned because for 2000 years, we’ve refused to conform to any political or social agenda. I think this can speak for itself. 

And walking “fearfully?” I don’t think this should be our attitude at all. Luke 10:19 tells us that Jesus gave his first disciples the power to “tread on snakes and scorpions and overcome the power of the Enemy,” pointing to the fact that we should most definitelynot be walking “fearfully.” We should be walking with the assurance that the Holy Spirit is there walking with us.

But, why do you pray to her? Do you not realize that praying to someone/thing other than God is against the bible? It is against the 10 Commandments. It is wrong. And by paying to her, you are creating a sin.

Why do we pray to her?

Have you ever asked someone else to pray for you? Of course you have. Mary just brings our intentions to Christ in a very special way. I mean, what archangel calls Mary “full of grace” without meaning it? Mary has a special connection to Christ because she is His mother. And so Mary invites us to take advantage of this relationship and allow her to intercede to Christ for us. 

Have you ever heard the Magnificat? In it, this is what Mary said in the first two lines:

My soul magnifies the Lord,

and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior

Notice how she only refers to herself as the “magnifier” of God’s glory? We are called to see God through her, but not to worship her. If you are looking out the window and you see a rainbow, you won’t comment on how great the window is, will you? You’ll be focused on the rainbow. In the same way, Mary is a “window” to Christ.

Even Saint Paul tells us to pray for each other (and this goes for praying to the Saints, too): James 5:16 says that we should “confess our sins to each other (aka the Sacrament of Reconciliation) and pray for each other.” Why should this intercessory prayer end once we die? If we get to Heaven, won’t those prayers for someone else be even more effective?

And while I’m on it, a few definitions:

Latria: Pure adoration/worship reserved only for God the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.

Hyperdulia: High amount of respect (but not worship) reserved for Mary.

Dulia:  Respect and admiration for all holy men and women, also known as the Saints.

Latria falls under “worship” and both forms of dulia fall under “veneration,” which point towards latria and ultimately, the worship of God (and not Mary or any other Saint). 

Can you explain why she is the ‘Virgin Mary’. Yes, I do realize that she was a virgin when she gave birth to Jesus, but there is NO way on earth that she stayed a virgin. It clearly states that JESUS HAD BROTHERS. James, who wrote the book of James, was a brother to Jesus! Clearly you cannot be so blind as to think that she was ALWAYS a virgin? 

Mary chose God her entire life.

And it was God’s will for her to stay a virgin her entire life. Even God appeared to Joseph and affirmed that he was to stay chaste with Mary, because she was going to bear the Son of God. I just don’t think it makes sense for Mary to have any other children other than Christ, because they would have been explicitly mentioned. 

Which leads me to James, and the other men in the Bible who were Jesus’ “brothers.” The word used for “brother” at the time was the same word for “friends, cousins,” and anything in between. If you were a man and I knew you, you were my brother. So it doesn’t stand that Jesus had biological siblings. And even if he did, they would have been mentioned! James didn’t have an explicitly special place in the Bible like John (“Son, here is your Mother”) or Peter (“On this rock I build my Church”) did, and if he was Jesus’ literal brother, he would have had a more important role.

Dear Catholics, why don’t you fix what’s broken?

We’re really trying. And we keep getting misunderstood.

God bless you.

THIS COMMENTARY OMG THIS COMMENTARY IS GREAT