Just because they wrote an article based on Michael doesn't change peoples belifes about The Vatican
Who said it should?
MJ was innocent and proven so by CIVIL trial nobody kept secret,so they can keep on hating as much as they want.
The church position about gay people,hiv,abortion,child molestations committed by priests,divorce,science etc are questionable and are not just stereotypes,they come from the Pope himself and he represents everybody else.He's prob the only Pope who has been boycotted by almost the entire science community and especially science/medicine universities voiced their concerns.
I'm very disappointed in general with the way the church is approaching the younger generations,it's very sad,even if I can appreciate they recognize the greatness of artists like MJ of course,why not!
And back on topic I'm actually very surprised they mentioned Pink Floyd(despite their severe opinions about organized religion and politics),Fleet Foxes and Muse(lol@Thoughts of a dying Atheist and Knights of Cydonia)
You make a fair post and Snow White 1973 answers well.
By the way, when I said 'sterotype' I meant the whole child abusing priest stereotype, based on some individual cases. The Pope said he was outraged and disgusted by the henous crime.. so I don't know what you mean about that stereotype coming from the Pope.
Not every priest and every catholic is a child abusing, gay hating person who doesn't live in the 21st century. Some are actually nice people believe it or not.
I wish things would change!
However, the problem with things like gay people has nothing to do with the Pope. The Bible says no to gays, and that is the problem. With HIV, well, the catholic church is against protection like condoms because they say abstinence is the best protection. (Personally, I think it's unrealistic, because people are just not disciplined enough) If the Pope said, "oh, we live in different times now, let's ignore the Bible and accept gays", then the credibility of the whole church would be in jeopardy, because then we might as well ignore everything that the Bible says.
Don't misunderstand, I am not religious. I am just trying to see their point of view. Doesn't mean I agree with it.
To be fair, the Pope speaks mostly of love, peace and forgiveness. I think he is actually a very humble man and very intelligent. I don't agree with all the things he stands for, but I respect him as a person.
I studied R.E for A level so I'm interested in stuff like this.
When the Bible was written there was no HIV.. at least we don't think there was. The Bible was written when there was not advances in medicine, it wasn't written with HIV and sexual diseases in mind. I think they think its ok to use the rhythmn method and of course abstinence. Artificial birth control - condoms, the pill, sterilization, etc. is seen as wrong because it is preventing life from being formed, which is God's will - purpose of sex is procreation. ie. sex is for within marriage and is primarily for the creation of children -(this is probably where the idea that being gay is against 'the natural way' came from too..as a couple of the same sex can't create children. Though we know people don't choose to be gay so being gay is natural for some and that is lack of understanding by the church.). The belief is that if sex is just for pleasure and sterilization is ok then it could lead to all sorts of problems! This is what was said in 1968 -
In 1966, there was a Papal Commission on Birth Control. This Commission voted 30-5 to relax the concerns on birth control. But in 1968, Pope Paul VI in Humanae Vitae reiterated the anti-birth-control stance. He said this was necessary for several reasons: * The commission was not unanimous. It would be wrong on such an important issue to force church members who were strongly against a drastic change to accept it. Especially when the church was 100% steady on this issue for almost 2,000 years.
* If the church said that birth control was a moral thing to do, it could lead to governments forcing sterilization on people. For example, the government could force mentally challenged men to be castrated, and mentally challenged women to have their tubes tied. Governments could force sterilizations on "undesireable races" to prevent them from having children. It wasn't that long ago that Sweden force-sterilized 21,000 people.
* If sex was not about creating children in a loving family, then sex would solely be about pleasure with no responsibility. Men who used women for sex as a pleasure object would lose respect for them. Once men treat women as an object, it leads to emotional abuse, physical abuse, and rape.
* God created sex to create children. That was his specific desire and mandate. Man should not second-guess God and interfere with His system.
Anyway, me personally no I do not agree that birth control should be discouraged no no no.
With the HIV/AIDs epidemic the ban is even more unpractical. Though the church says the best way to prevent it is fidelity and abstinence. There
is disagreement within the church about it, leading figures, Cardinals, Bishops, etc. have written documents arguing that it was difficult and sometimes impossible to obey the birth control ban. Some are campaigning to the Pope to change. Wikipedia has just informed me that 78% of Catholics believe the church should allow Catholics to use birth control, and 96% of Catholic women have used birth control. I went to Catholic primary school, secondary school and college and we were never told birth control was wrong, we had sex ed. classes telling us to use it. Catholics definitely use birth control, trust me. So although the Pope may be saying these things.. I don't think it is really enforced and its not really obeyed down the line.
Hopefully things will change with the next Pope, things nearly changed in the late 70s with Pope John Paul I, he was going to allow birth control and make some changes.. but he only lasted 33 days before he died :/
I personally really don't agree with abortion though, unless in certain situations where the actual birth would cause serious physical or mental harm to the mother or child.
