Subject:   Catholic abuse

Hey Bartcop,
        Just saw your e-mail argument with the catholic site reader.
Doesn't he realize that an obscure priest named MARTIN LUTHER had
basically the same problem with the church's shenanigans that you do?
(Although I think he expressed his disgust a little more tactfully.)

I believe it was the Catholic church's 'selling tickets to heaven' (your
reader has no right to be outraged for you using that phrase. That is
EXACTLY what they have done in the pass, leading to Martin Luther's
revolution) which lead to the creation of the Protestant church.

It is truly amazing how many people willingly wear the blindfold....

Your heretical Christian friend,

J. Mark Batchelor

Mark, if I remember my religious history, Martin Luther traveled to Rome
and posted, right there on the front door to the Pope's Vatican palacial estate,
a list of 16 religious "crimes" he wanted the Church to stop committing.
One of those was to stop selling Heaven to the highest bidder.

...and that was hundreds of years ago,
so maybe I'm wasting my time trying to point it out.

From:   pipecover@mediaone.net

Subject:   I'm with Rick

B.C.,
My sentiments are with Rick Stump regarding your continued Catholic
bashing.  While I cannot answer for what some higher-ups decide to do
in my church, I do know that every organization on Earth is rife with hypocrisy.
I could demand that you defend the fuckin hypocrites in your beloved Democratic party
-- then ask how you could belong to such a whorish chur...I mean party.

Listen, Bart: Catholic Church, Democratic Party.  They are not perfect,
but as far as I'm concerned, they're the best we've got.  I like Big
government and I like Big church: we need them to counteract Big Multinationals.

I'm a frequent reader but I am getting disgusted.

Bill Nilsen
 

Bill, when you say you're with Rick, I believe you, because you have also
refused to address the problem I was talking about.

Are you saying, "It's my church, and I'll back them no matter what?"

If your local parish priest was having sex with young housewives who
came to him for counseling, would you turn a blind eye to that, too?

Now you might ask, "Why use such an outrageous example?"
I admit, it's a trap.

If you say "No," to priests screwing young housewives, but you say "Yes,"
to selling tickets to Heaven, at least we have established that you have a tolerance level
for hypocrisy, we just need to find out where you draw the line.

You tried to bring the Democrats into this, which isn't exactly Kosher since the Demos
aren't selling access to Heaven, but I'll admit the Demos are politicians and that makes
them guilty of all the things politcians are guilty of.

Sidebar:
Sometimes it's funny being on this end of the web page.
I can spend weeks writing something that I thought was a very well-thought out expose
of why George Bush was forced to throw the election of 1992, (to hide his and RR's crimes)
and that puts everyone to sleep.

But then I see Tina Sinatra explain that her Dad purchased a "Get out of Hell card"
from the Catholic Church, my mailbox fills up with worked-up Catholics.

I have no desire to lead the anti-Catholic brigade on the Internet.
But when lots of people write to condemn and vehemently disagree with something I wrote,
without adressing the reasons why, it makes me wonder about the nerve I've struck.

I did get one letter, perhaps from the original Rick, that the church does NOT favor
the wealthy, that they wink away the rules for people of all economic strata.

Does that make it any better?
They break the rules for everybody, not just the rich?

Perhaps in the same letter was this:
"Do you even know what the meaning of the word "annulment" is?"

How Clintonian that sounds...

I got another e-mail from a guy who said his uncle was not wealthy,
and got FOUR of his marriages annulled - can we believe that?

Since you made the Democrat parallel, let me make a Republican one.
I think if the GOP would drop the Nazi hate, they could win elections without the help
of some want-to-retire partisan whores sitting on the Supreme Court.

Similarly, if the Catholic Church would clean up a little, drop some harmful rules
(like no women priests and that insane celibacy rule that puts altar boys at risk)
and drag themselves into the 18th or 19th century, don't you think a lot of people who left
might consider coming back?

<big sigh>

Maybe (words mean things) it's time to call a truce on this subject.
I like winning political arguments, but I don't like winning religious ones.

In 1977, I worked in an Arby's restaurant with a severely religious kid.
We worked in the closest restaurant to Oral Roberts University.
When I met him he was "Jesus loves you," and "Are you saved?"
When we got thru talking, I had broken him and what remained wasn't very pretty.
I don't want to break anyone else.

All I was looking for when I mentioned the Sinatra scandal
was the rationale for supporting such an outrageous system.

If that rationale doesn't exist, and people just accept the flawed system,
I can live with that, because I don't have enough time to fight Republicans
and Catholic Democrats at the same time.

So, if I slip, and point out other flaws in the Catholic's money-raising machinery,
send me an e-mail that says, "There you go again," and we won't get back into it.

Deal?