Rob Rogers for June 25, 2015

Funny. Very funny. I think Rob Rogers rather likes this pope dude.

" He prays to idols.“

I love it when religious types rail against other religious types about what constitutes correct worship. @@We had Religious Instruction until the 9th grade and we usually had Lutheran teachers teaching about Religion (i.e. Christianity. :-| ). One in particular would always get on the Catholics’ case. My class was mostly Catholic, mostly Portuguese and Polish and the odd Irish. The others were likely of various Protestant sects and a few were Jewish. I was’t at all religious but I couldn’t get out of the class without parental permission (!), unlike the Jewish and JW. I could see my fellow classmates’ faces and grinding of teeth whenever she dropped a clanger like yours. (she also dropped anti-Semetic slurs but oh-so-innocent-like). Mostly I was amused.In high school I once dated an Afrikaans girl who thought I was Catholic and a means to piss off her ‘Dominee’ father (a preacher of some kind in some Christian sect or other), but man, she hit jackpot with me though.This is how I was introduced to her father….(I paraphrase): ”Hey Dad, this is omQ, you’ll be pleased to know he isn’t Catholic, he’s an atheist".

* sigh

Anyway, later, when I moved to Portugal, I had a run in with the pope at the time. I was attacked in some night-club and I laid assault charges against the bouncer. Know what happened next? Pope came along, visited Fatima and the president declared a papal clemency for lesser crimes and knocked a year off for some prison sentences; and the prosecutor decided that my case would be caught up in the clemency and threfore not “worth their while” to proceed.

Man, was I cheesed off! Bloody popes. (yeah, I know, wasn’t the pope’s fault for the prosecutor being an arse)But alright, this pope is making it more difficult to dislike the lot.

My favorite bumper sticker: I DON’T KNOW AND YOU DON’T EITHER

This Pope’s got the straight poop!

I don’t care if he prays to a pile of dog poop. He’s right on social issues and has the courage to say so. I would have been Catholic if this had been what they were preaching in the churches when I visited.

Other stickers: My Other Car is a 1984 Renault, If You Can Read This Thank a Nun! Honk If U R A Non-Conformist.

Speaking as a Catholic, you are incorrect. No Catholic “prays to idols.”

I’m not Catholic, not Christian, not a theist (spaces are important), and there is a lot of Catholic dogma I don’t agree with and some I don’t like, but I have known a lot of smart and good Catholics, people I have been proud to count among my friends. I was taught Latin by a nun. This Pope seems like the kind of Catholic I’d like to have as a friend. I bet he’s got enough friends, however, so I won’t bother him about it.

The Doctine for Catholics is that you Pray to God.The Statues are supposed to remind you to Emulate the actions of the person the statue honors..It actually Teaches that Praying to Anyone or Anything other than God is a “Sin”..

The difference is that in idolatry the idol is itself a manifestation of the deity. Romans described statues moving in approval, for example. In Catholicism, it’s just a statue, not the person itself.

Erasmus!! He’s my man! One of the founders of modern humanism. A great writer, too.

Jesus said “Judge not lest ye be judged and condemn not lest ye be condemned”.