Pope Francis

Quote: rxwine

God could have provided Jesus with some very convincing evidence. Give a general explanation of the combustion engine. Some principles of electricity. Some description of viruses. How deep the ocean is.

Well there is the Big Bang in Genesis. But really is that the evidence you want. What about the understanding of the human person and morality? What Jesus taught is universally respected. His teachings are also in many ways the foundations of Western civilization.

Quote: FrGamble

What Jesus taught is universally respected.

Love your neighbor, try and get along,
treat others as you want to be treated.
All these concepts pre date Jesus by
hundreds and hundreds of years. He
spouted nothing new, another fact
always ignored by the Church.

I think there was more to His teaching than that. The idea that everyone is equal and loved by God. This means that little children are the greatest, women are equal to men, there is no slave, the poor and vulnerable are to be cared for, your nationality doesn't define you, and we are called to serve others and not be served. This runs counter culture to a society that saw certain people are worthless and gave no rights to the poor and needy. Another radical idea is that we are unconditionally loved by God and that even when we break the law of men or of God we do not lose our inherent dignity. That our sins don't define us and that God looks past our sins and sees the original goodness marred by sin but never destroyed. So He ate with tax collectors and prostitutes and convinced them of their worth when the world wanted only to destroy them. There is so much more than Jesus saying be nice to each other, it would take another website to talk about the Lord Jesus' teachings.

Quote: FrGamble

The idea that everyone is equal and loved by God. This means that little children are the greatest, women are equal to men, there is no slave,

Yet little children are the victims
of pedophile priests, women are
still kept out of the priesthood,
and Jesus nor anybody else in
the Bible ever spoke out against
slavery. Why would they, it was
part of their environment, they
were for slavery and totally
accepted it.

Quote: FrGamble

women are equal to men

Women can never be priests because Jesus only had male apostles. The reason given by the church is not about equality.

Quote: rxwine

Women can never be priests because Jesus only had male apostles..

But that's a specious reason. Men didn't
let women vote in this country until 1920
because the men claimed the women were
not smart enough to vote responsibly.

It was just a ploy by men to keep women
in their place as long as possible. It's
the same with not allowing women in
the priesthood. Any excuse to keep women
out of the all mens club decision making
process.

Quote: rxwine

Women can never be priests because Jesus only had male apostles. The reason given by the church is not about equality.

It also might not be true. Someone named "Mary" may have been an apostle, but the stories to support that didn't make it into the official bible.

Quote: Dalex64

It also might not be true. Someone named "Mary" may have been an apostle,

Of course she was an apostle, maybe
the most important one. The Gospel
of Mary never made it into the NT
because it threatened the all male
dominance of the Church.

Quote: Dalex64

It also might not be true. Someone named "Mary" may have been an apostle, but the stories to support that didn't make it into the official bible.

Yeah, she is waaayyyyy too important to be just an Apostle. She is the perfect model of what it means to be a Christian. There is not, nor will there ever be, a more perfect human being than Mary.

Yet still women can not be priests.