Pretty much what GM said.

Keep in mind, he was over 18, That's a no-go.

The only thing anyone should be angry about is how much the media twists information to promote their own agendas.

Luke, GM isn't talking about Catholism. The Bible says that your good works, without righteousness, are like filthy rags (Isaiah 64:6 and a few other verses). And confessing to some dude in a closet is not the same as confessing to God. Jesus Christ was the mediator between God and Man. Now that the veil has been torn, we each have a straight line to God through prayer. Not through a priest.
And Confession without Repentance is pointless. There is no amount of good works that will get you into heaven. The Bible pretty clearly states, Jesus is THE way, THE truth, and THE life, and no one comes to the Father, except through him.
And Ephsians 2:8-10 8 "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— 9 not by works, so that no one can boast. 10 For we are God’s handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Dan wrote on Mar 9^th, 2013 at 5:15pm:


I believe the original request was to keep respectful. It seems to have turned into a Catholic-bashing thread by some members and as a Catholic myself, is frankly one of the recurring themes I really don't like about this forum, re: those that study the Bible are somehow true Christians, whereas other denominations are lesser and imperfect, not to mention other religions. IMO this comes across as being rather arrogant and certainly not respectful. Catholics believe that an ordained priest acts as an intermediary getween them and God through the sacrament of confession. And no, it isn't necessarily a "get out of jail free card", by "spending five minutes in a closet with some dude". You have to mean it and it's not something to be taken lightly.

You might not believe, like nor understand what others believe but ridiculing them isn't particularly attractive either. I don't much care if others here are Hindu, Sikh, Moselms or other types of Christians. I see no need to raise myself at their expense. It would be nice if others here did the same.

Sorry guys. PM sent to snow celt.

Its really not about me, its about Christ.

As the Bible says "While we (including myself) were yet Sinners, Christ died for us."

I really didn't mean to come off as arrogant but sometimes I forget to temper my zeal with wisdom and my words can come out as self righteous. Still not a fan of Catholism, nor do I agree with its theology, nor do I really respect it, but I don't want to come off as pompus or serriously offensive.

I'll try to choose my words more carefully next time.

Masiakasaurus wrote on Mar 10^th, 2013 at 12:44pm:



My grandmother is very catholic and both of my parents were Catholic into their early 30's. I've had a few Bible classes where we review Catholism. That's why I know i disagree with most of its theological view points. I understand it farily well though probably not as well as some Catholics.

Sometimes I oversimplify things when I'm in a hurry to post or if I want to make a point. Sorry if that makes what I say opaque or offensive.

I felt I buried the hatchet pretty well in my earlier post.

This thread is really about Boy Scout's decision more than Catholic Theology. If its cool with you, it'd probably be better to cover this in PM or in a different thread. 

bigkahuna wrote on Mar 10^th, 2013 at 2:45pm:

The Boy Scouts of America is a separate organization from the World Scouting Movement. Christianity is not a requirement of BSA, but they call themselves "faith based." It doesn't matter what you believe, only that you believe. Their prohibition against gay member is separate from their faith requirement.

  Depends how you interperate "through him".  Through him could easily be seen as meaning by his teachings, the term of god is just a face put to an ideal, people won't believe in an idea but they will follow a person!  "do not covet they neighbors wife!" "interesting, who said that?" "dunno, just heard it somewhere!"     "Do not covet thy neighbors wife!" "Who said that?"  " The son of god, Jesus, told me!"  Now he listens.
  I have always thought of the bible as simply one big metaphor rooted loosely in fact.  Everything there is meant to teach you a path to follow and it doesn't matter whether any of it is true as long as it helps you and others.  The entire thing can be interperated hundreds of different ways, much like the Muslim faith is being distorted to fuel terrorism, and in the end there is no right way to understand it, just believe in the message.

Quote:


All I can say is that I'd rather have a filthy rag through genuine kindness than do a kind deed because I feel I should - whether I want to or not.

When I help someone - I do so because I want to and because it's what i feel is the right thing to do, not because someone told me I have to.

That is some twisted interpretation of kindness Dan.

Anyway, lets try and keep this fairly civil.

I'd have thought the discussion would have been better centred around why you would ban a homosexual when you're really trying to keep out paedophiles. Who most often aren't homosexuals.

Curious Aardvark wrote on Mar 11^th, 2013 at 8:23am:


As with everything, It helps to have some context. What its saying is that when you are standing before God taking account for what you've done, if you haven't accepted Jesus Christ, those good works mean nothing. We were born into Sin, that alone is enough to keep us out of heaven.
Another way of saying it is no man can 'earn' his way into heaven. Hence later, Ephsians 2:8-9.

I'll send a PM to Luke since CA, just about wrapped this up.