tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post3035751633692886651..comments2023-10-30T08:00:43.585-05:00Comments on Shameless Popery: The Funniest Religious Joke of All Time? Or a Painful Truth?Joe Heschmeyerhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06998682878420098470noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post-87085235033543300822011-08-05T16:08:48.106-05:002011-08-05T16:08:48.106-05:00And how did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors?...And how did Jesus treat pagans and tax collectors? He ate with them. He visited them in their homes. He spoke to them without fear or favour, but with love.<br /><br />Let us, by all means, treat those who fall away from the community as Jesus treated pagans and tax collectors - as people who do not share our faith, witnessing to them boldly, and behaving towards them always with respect and love.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post-8011259186195996022011-08-01T20:52:14.782-05:002011-08-01T20:52:14.782-05:00Funny joke...and painful truth!Funny joke...and painful truth!Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post-79223089478197966082011-08-01T14:41:23.456-05:002011-08-01T14:41:23.456-05:00Christianity is the only religion that multiplies ...Christianity is the only religion that multiplies through division...Danielhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01915100833433055951noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post-67735776951845255292011-08-01T11:46:47.027-05:002011-08-01T11:46:47.027-05:00kudos lee, and God Blesskudos lee, and God Blessscredsoxfan2https://www.blogger.com/profile/10162308671130564720noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4999044146888823867.post-62608378705624761122011-08-01T11:34:59.561-05:002011-08-01T11:34:59.561-05:00"If he refuses to listen even to the Church, ..."If he refuses to listen even to the Church, treat him as you would a pagan or a tax collector...."<br /><br />This is one of those very hard verses in Scripture, the New Testament, no less, which no one is talking about. And in my view this silence is absolutely killing us.<br /><br />Full disclosure, when I left the Church at age 18, my dad asked me to move out, since he could not have my influence exerted on my seven younger siblings. In other words, he all unwittingly obeyed this New Testament COMMANDMENT. This together with his fervent prayers had me back in the fold within three years.<br /><br />Generally, however, we Catholics today have an altogether different approach and in my view it is contributing heavily to the widespread apostasy we are seeing.<br /><br />At Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, the Fourth of July and other family holidays the issue comes up in Catholic homes all over the country, for what Catholic family does not have its fallenaways, its young people living in sin? <br /><br />How can we not invite atheist Uncle Jason, Aunt Pat and her lesbian girlfriend, cousins who have become Evangelicals and the like? It would be so unloving. How will they ever come back if we hold them at arms length, if we are unfriendly to them? We will seem hard, cold and judgmental. <br /><br />For us the issue has become, not what God asks, but what others think, especially the fallenaways.<br /><br />Now the first effect of this is that we are, albeit unwittingly, disobedient, and there is no blessing in that.<br /><br />Secondly, from what I have seen up close and personal is that this line of conduct is very faith- weakening. From what I have seen, the people who followed this line of conduct are precisely the ones whose faith has been swept away by the recent scandal. "When strong wind blows, only the weak branches fall off the tree." And there have been plenty of strong winds lately.<br /><br />Also, it is a very great cause of scandal to the young in the family. The lesbian aunt is very amusing, the atheist uncle is also witty, the evangelical cousin knows the bible very well and is very concerned, Uncle Tony's live-in girlfriend is very sweet. They all left and fire did not fall from Heaven. There is no difference between the just and the unjust- or so it seems.<br /><br />And did not Jesus eat and drink with sinners? Yes, but eating and drinking with sinners as a priest and evangelist, and often with a very sharp tongue be it also noted, is a very different thing from friendly and warm association with the enemies of Christ and his Church at family gatherings year after year over the span of decades. This amounts to a willing acquiesence in the de-evangelization of the Catholic family, a phenomenon we see all around us, and something that many find very mysterious.<br /><br />There is no mystery at all, really. We are simply disobedient, having hardened our hearts against the demands of the gospel. Hence, we are out of grace.Lee Gilberthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16506547355314136320noreply@blogger.com