Quote:
Originally Posted by CaptainCrunch
People tell me to love the sinner and hate the sin, and that forgiveness is next to divinity, but honestly when it comes to kids, I'm just not a big enough person to forgive someone for molesting an innocent, and I can never find it in my heart to forgive someone who molests children.
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I thanked your post cause I think you hit the nail on the head for what can and should be done.
But I just wanted to comment on this part. I think this is important, whether one is religious or not. Forgiveness is important to all parties and helps everyone heal and should be pursued in most situations.
But like you have suggested, this is a bit different, and I see it this way... What prevents people from forgiving the church (fairly in my view) is the churches own actions. When one seeks forgiveness they are supposed to admit wrong doing, and try and fix the problem.
The problem with the church abuse scandals is not the fact that they are (were) abusing kids (which is horrendous enough). It is the fact that there has been a systematic cover-up and denial of responsibility.
It has been argued that all groups (even those with good intentions) have bad apples you can point to. And I guess this is true. But what other group continually helps and hides their bad apples to this degree? Over something so serious?
How can you forgive someone or some organization that consistently tries to hide and get away with their crimes and or sins? That won't admit fault?
And to add insult to injury, hypocritically suggests you do what they cannot.
The crimes are bad enough. But the whole organization is so rotten from within I don't know how anyone can defend or follow it. I really don't. They aren't trying to make things better and they aren't trying to fix their mistakes. They take no responsibility and it's gotten to the point that yes, in my eyes, EVERYONE IS ACCOUNTABLE. Cause no one is taking a stand, no one is fixing it.
If you want to extrapolate this to many peoples views on organized religion and what it's really good for or used for, then I hope you do. But I don't want to litter the debate with more subjective topics and conclusions and I'll just leave it at this.
Hopefully organized religions, not just the Catholic Church, can move from their spotty pasts, and become the true beacons they claim to be. And in that, I think you made an excellent post.
I however, won't be holding my breath.