The New Church

[LordJugz]

A contemplation that I have had recently was about religious reform in the Catholic Church, and my thoughts are these:

For the longest time I have always begrudged the Church for the fucked up shit it has condoned in the past. I'm sure many of you know what I am referring to, but here are some examples: conductions of the Crusades, allowance of the Spanish Inquisition, witchunts and heresy burnings of many innocent people, the suppression of scientific thought, turning a blind eye towards such human atrocities as the conquest and genocide of the Native American peoples, the subsequent slave trade, and the Holocaust. All of these are indictments of the Church's past history, however, I believe that the Church, under new leadership, is beginning to right its wrongs and try to promote a more positive image of itself for the future world. How is it doing this, you may ask. Well, one need look no further than the Second Vatican Council.

Through research, I have found that the Second Vatican Council was an enormous step taken by the Church to bring itself up to speed with the 20th century. Many of the new concepts brought on by Vatican II have "liberalized" a lot of older, traditional viewpoints, such as the Church's mission statement and its interations with other wordly faiths. No longer does the Church see itself as a superior amongst the other religions, but rather as an equal. This has paved the way towards priceless interfaith dialogue that hopefully will resolve many of the misconceptions and problems that exist in the world today. I firmly believe that if religious leaders from all faiths would talk to each other and be on the same page, then the world really could be a lot more peaceful than it is now. For too long people have been calling God down on their side of an argument and making a big deal out of everything. Today, with the exception of fundamentalist extremists, that form of patronage is no longer promoted by many faiths, and finally, the Church has seccumbed to this mordern day philosophy.

My questions is: for all you people out there who say the Church is a corrupt, manipulative piece of shit, can you really judge the present Church on the actions of the old Church? Does Vatican II and other Church reforms at least in part make up for all the wrongdoings it has committed? Can you forgive the Church? Think about it.