[Vision2020] Papal Forgiveness

[Chasuk]

On Fri, Jan 16, 2009 at 12:58, Campbell, Joseph <josephc at wsu.edu> wrote:

> I'm neither a Catholic or an atheist but I have friends and family in both camps and it bothers me that their beliefs are discussed in such a flippant, insulting way.

To you feel this way about beliefs in general, or just beliefs that
are "religious?"  I don't hold any beliefs to be sacrosanct, including
my own. Mock or criticize any of my beliefs.  Maybe I'll learn
something from the experience.

> I find the whole idea of taking bits and pieces of someone's fundamental
> beliefs out of context and making fun of them to be a worthless exercise.

I agree with you, except that isn't what occurred here.

> Why stop with Catholics? Why not find comments from other religions – Mormons, Muslims, Jews – that we can take out of context and make fun of? And what do we gain from this exercise? I just don't get it.

Agreed.  I would never stop with Catholics.  But always in context.

> Ultimately it leaves us all open to the same kind of pointless ridicule.

We are all already open to ridicule, so this doesn't leave us anything
new.  What is one person's ridicule is apparently another person's
pointed criticism.

Chas