Hitler's Pope

[Terrance F. Flaherty]

calbert at pop.tiac.net wrote:
> 
> > > I would only counter that few if any of the other faiths operate in
> > > the political arena like the RCC. It would be fair to say that it is
> > > a secular power player par excellence.
> >
> > Right, no other faith acts as the RCC in western history, no
> > other faith acts as the Islamic faith, no other faith acts
> > as the shinto faith and so on. How are they alike, that's
> > what we are after, right?
> 
> Wrong. This debate started with my posting the Gumpel reply to the
> Pope book. It was not an effort to compare religions and their crimes
> against culture and humanity, the "relativist" strain of this debate
> was intitiated by your post. I simply insisted that even after
> introducing other faiths, that the machinations of the vatican
> seperates them from the crowd. Not that other religions don't
> interfere in Ceasar's realm, none of them enjoys the world wide clout
> of the RCC.

Right, I'm the relativist around here, I thought someone
made that clear.
> 
> > The RCC has more in common with
> > other faiths and their actions--political and so on--because
> > it is a religion and Not a multi national corporation.
> 
> Once again - are you aware of what has been exposed relative to Banco
> A and P2? If you are then the suggestion that the RCC is a little
> more than a religion may not appear so heretical to you. Given its
> far flung operations, it would be entirely appropriate to compare the
> Vatican to MNCs.
> The Vatican was not refusing to turn over Teddy M over issues of
> religious doctorine, he was a suspect in crimes including
> embezzlement and murder, matters quite earthly.


Right, I understand this part of the debate and I have not
refuted any of these statements. 
> 
> > I can
> > give examples of other faiths that have just as much bad
> > blood and evil as the RCC, but this does not absolve them or
> > redeem them.
> 
> Go to it. It would be a useful exercise. You would find that few
> operate from the kind of central authority enjoyed by the Pope.
> Protestants are splintered, Jews have several schools of faith which
> often are in conflict, and I'm certain that the major eastern
> religions reflect a similar situation (there seems to be more
> diversity within Islam than there is within the RC).
> 

What I would find? Now that's a nice way of putting it. Do
you mean to say that you disagree, that I can not defend my
position? Say so, an I'll defend it, perhaps you will find
something, right? 

> > Yes, I know, but my point is that even as the RCC acts as a
> > political or economic power it is better compared to other
> > religions.
> 
> Why? If it quacks, etc......
> 
> love,
> cfa


Right, I think it reasonable to discuss religions with
religions. Now we both know that religions have and continue
to act in the political and economic, but my point was that
we could compare the RCC to other religions that have long
histories. 

TF