but there is no doubt in my mind the commonality here is an inability to think and reason rationally.
Scott Free, I am going to disagree somewhat. What you say probably would apply to many followers, they believe a religion and that is the end of it. Many times they couldn’t tell you why they believe what they believe (except that they were born it the religion). They simply follow their priest, Reverend or whatever.
So ‘inability to think and reason rationally’ may apply to some followers. But what about the leaders? Surely they can think clearly and rationally. They are after power and glory. Power over people and glory from God. They want to control their followers, keep the followers in line.
They have to think clearly, rationally as to how to do so. They have to use just the right mixture of promise of hope, promise of salvation, promise of rewards, they have to balance this with fear, eternal damnation for the soul, raining of fire and brimstone in this world and promise of Hell in the hereafter.
It is a balancing act. I personally think Pope, the Cardinals, Bishops etc. are quite capable of thinking clearly, rationally. They have to be if they want to keep millions of Catholics in line.
The act of not punishing the pedophile makes perfect sense, from Church’s point of view. It keeps the scandal bottled up, Church does not lose valuable clergy, the parishioners are none the wiser, so they don’t rebel, Church’s coffers keep filling up.
It made perfect sense to hush up, bottle up the pedophile scandal. Church was trying to protect its own, which is really its first mission. I have said it before, Catholic Church is really no different from General Motors, IBM etc. Its loyalty is to shareholders (Bishops, clergy etc.), not to employees (the parishioners).
So Pope and the upper echelon in the Church are quite capable of thinking clearly and rationally. It is the foot soldiers, the flock which many times blindly follow the leadership.
Although as a recent poll has shown, not in USA and Canada.
Scott Free, I am going to disagree somewhat. What you say probably would apply to many followers, they believe a religion and that is the end of it. Many times they couldn’t tell you why they believe what they believe (except that they were born it the religion). They simply follow their priest, Reverend or whatever.
So ‘inability to think and reason rationally’ may apply to some followers. But what about the leaders? Surely they can think clearly and rationally. They are after power and glory. Power over people and glory from God. They want to control their followers, keep the followers in line.
They have to think clearly, rationally as to how to do so. They have to use just the right mixture of promise of hope, promise of salvation, promise of rewards, they have to balance this with fear, eternal damnation for the soul, raining of fire and brimstone in this world and promise of Hell in the hereafter.
It is a balancing act. I personally think Pope, the Cardinals, Bishops etc. are quite capable of thinking clearly, rationally. They have to be if they want to keep millions of Catholics in line.
The act of not punishing the pedophile makes perfect sense, from Church’s point of view. It keeps the scandal bottled up, Church does not lose valuable clergy, the parishioners are none the wiser, so they don’t rebel, Church’s coffers keep filling up.
It made perfect sense to hush up, bottle up the pedophile scandal. Church was trying to protect its own, which is really its first mission. I have said it before, Catholic Church is really no different from General Motors, IBM etc. Its loyalty is to shareholders (Bishops, clergy etc.), not to employees (the parishioners).
So Pope and the upper echelon in the Church are quite capable of thinking clearly and rationally. It is the foot soldiers, the flock which many times blindly follow the leadership.
Although as a recent poll has shown, not in USA and Canada.
