The Pope vs The Donald

[Alan]

What would make someone bad at their religion?

It obviously depends upon who you are and whether your actions, although perhaps abhorrent, are popular. It's been said here many times that all Christians are hypocrites, that Christians not in favor of a welfare state are bad Christians, etc., although it now turns out that someone like Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton, who believe that infanticide within one day of delivery is OK can still be good Christians. It's weird I know, but, there it is.

[Ultralight]

It obviously depends upon who you are and whether your actions, although perhaps abhorrent, are popular. It's been said here many times that all Christians are hypocrites, that Christians not in favor of a welfare state are bad Christians, etc., although it now turns out that someone like Nancy Pelosi or Hillary Clinton, who believe that infanticide within one day of delivery is OK can still be good Christians. It's weird I know, but, there it is.

So anyone who does anything -- no matter how cruel or frightening -- can be good at their religion?

[Ultralight]

I guess I am the only one who sees this as a red flag.

Oh well...

Moving on.

[Williamsmith]

Okay so For me....it's not about being good or bad at ones religion....I already accept defeat there. It is really not about anything I can do to earn favor with my God. I trust Jesus Christ, the son of God who was made a sacrifice for my shortcomings. In other words, through him I become acceptable to God. Now I go about my life trying the best I can to not be a hypocrite. You either get it........or you don't.

[Miss Cellane]

I guess I am the only one who sees this as a red flag.

Oh well...

Moving on.

A red flag for what? There are so many possibilities here.

[Ultralight]

A red flag for what? There are so many possibilities here.

A red flag for "this don't add up!"

[LDAHL]

A red flag for "this don't add up!"

It's difficult to answer your question with precision from this plane of existence. In the Catholic tradition, the general formula "to save a wretch like me" is something along the lines of:

(x)Faith+(y)Works = Redemption

Fortunately, we can also apply fudge factors of grace and mercy for the universal condition of insufficiency.

[catherine]

I also think it’s a mistake to condemn capitalism on moral grounds. It’s a resource allocation system, not an ethical system. Since it’s a more efficient system than feudalism or communism, it tends to produce more total wealth, which some seem to confuse with greed and selfishness. But any system can be exploited for selfish reasons. If morality is at base an individual challenge, isn’t it futile to demand that our political system force morality on us?

I struggle with this, and I do see your point.. as strong as my socialist leanings are. Dorothy Day went from being a political activist for justice and mercy to being a spiritual one, and she left politics and capitalism out of it, although I do believe she preferred distributism as an ideal economic system, as did Peter Maurin and Chesterton.

The problem is, can capitalism survive without exploitation and consumption for the sake of consumption? I think it is fundamentally at loggerheads with environmental and human rights issues. I've read Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken and I think there are probably ways around the pitfalls of capitalism, but I don't think many true capitalists see the pitfalls as pitfalls.

[Ultralight]

I struggle with this, and I do see your point.. as strong as my socialist leanings are. Dorothy Day went from being a political activist for justice and mercy to being a spiritual one, and she left politics and capitalism out of it, although I do believe she preferred distributism as an ideal economic system, as did Peter Maurin and Chesterton.

The problem is that that capitalism can't survive without exploitation and consumption for the sake of consumption, and so it is at loggerheads with environmental and human rights issues fundamentally. I've read Natural Capitalism by Paul Hawken and I think there are probably ways around the pitfalls of capitalism, but I don't think many true capitalists see the pitfalls as pitfalls.

Do you ever just wish the Big Guy would come down and sort it out?

[catherine]

Do you ever just wish the Big Guy would come down and sort it out?

No. Anyway, he's not "up there."