I have written many times on this site, about unfair anti-tactics and a seeming inability of some on the Left to tolerate people who disagree with them, as if their ideological perspective was a ‘default’ truism and indisputable. The 2000-year-old Roman Catholic Church has been clear about what it believes for two millennia; I thought there would be little confusion about that.
The NZ State-owned co. Meridian’s controversial huge public billboards that appropriated the Catholic Pope Benedict to support something he is theologically and titularly completely against.
Now a website has been established to help people ‘de-baptise’ themselves (something completely impossible) from the Roman Catholic Church. I feel this is unnecessarily provocative and partisan. If you believe in redefining Holy Matrimony, then don’t be Catholic, if you do, stay Catholic. I don’t always agree with the Catholic church either (Should the Pope make “Saints”?). But why this constant reflecting on ‘the other side’ tribalism that seems to hallmark so much of the same-sex marriage debate? Why is it so important to the Left to constantly reflect upon and attack the other side?…“well, because they’re bigots!” Just put the merits of your own case, argue the points (not the peeps) and let others disagree with you. This is how life works. No, some Lib.s have to re-invent the world in their own image. It’s about Utopia.
Reuters reports, “that some Dutch Catholics are researching how they can leave the church in protest at its opposition to gay marriage, according to the creator of a website aimed at helping them find the information.” Do they not know what the RCC stands for?
Tom Roes, whose website allows people to download the documents needed to leave the church, said traffic onontdopen.nl had soared from about 10 visits a day to more than 10,000 after Pope Benedict’s latest denunciation of gay marriage.
“Of course it’s not possible to be ‘de-baptised’ because a baptism is an event, but this way people can unsubscribe or de-register themselves as Catholics,” Roes told Reuters.
He said he did not know how many visitors to the site actually go ahead and leave the church.
About 28 per cent of the population in the Netherlands is Catholic and 18 per cent is Protestant, while a much larger proportion – roughly 44 per cent – is not religious, according to official statistics.
The country is famous for its liberal attitudes, for example to drugs and prostitution, and in April 2001 it was the first in the world to legalise same-sex marriages.
Maybe the website creator could be as tolerant of Catholics and not pull silly anti-Catholic stunts like this to make his point? Or is his point only strong enough when defined in opposition to something else rather substantial, historic and cultural?
Hmmmm. What do you think the RCC stands for? I don’t understand why you think it’s somehow evil to point out how silly people who like to oppress other people are. What’s that about, John?
Depends on what you mean about being ‘silly.’ The Catholics are simply maintaining what they’ve always believed. It is the Left who are seeking to redefine things and change what belongs to others (the Church, various cultures, heterosexuals, etc). So, who’s being silly? Why do you think the Catholics are being ‘silly’? They are entitled to believe marriage should be man/woman – which everyone has believed for several millennia.
Thank you, John, for your agreement with the Catholic position – which is, after all, the true Christian position, and most of our conservative and evangelical people who are truly Christian believe also. To renounce one’s baptism is a very serious and terminal step – unless theose who do so do not again accept their baptism, they are certainly doomed. To reject baptism is to reject God, and we know what Jesus said about that: “You who deny me to your brothers, then I will deny you to My Father…….” – or words to that effect – can’t recall the exact quote.
Enjoy your blog – keep it up. This 70 y/o Catholic is very pleased to see something truly Christian in the blogosphere. Still , have a bit of fun riling up the atheists around the place, including kiwiblog.
God bless you.
Thin skinned much, John?
>If you believe in redefining Holy Matrimony, then don’t be Catholic, if you do, stay Catholic.
Isn’t that the whole point of the website? To help people who no longer want to BE catholic make that leap of faith away from the church?
No one is born catholic, most Catholics were baptised without being given a choice, without being asked, it was simply done to them. As it is in almost all religions. So why the big deal? Why the cry of persecution?
Try a google search “how to leave the church”, you’ll find a lot more than this site, and ,most of what I found seems to be written BY Christians.
Maybe the website creator could be as tolerant of Catholics and not pull silly anti-Catholic stunts like this to make his point?
Sorry, but where’s the intolerance? Opposing a position is debate, not intolerance.
Here’s another google search for you to try. http://www.google.co.nz/search?q=certificate+of+approval&rlz=1C1CHLW_enNZ508NZ508&aq=2&oq=ceertifi&sugexp=chrome,mod=17&sourceid=chrome&ie=UTF-8#hl=en&tbo=d&rlz=1C1CHLW_enNZ508NZ508&sclient=psy-ab&q=certificate+of+debaptism&oq=certificate+of+debaptism&gs_l=serp.3..0j0i30l2.1851.3730.0.4096.9.6.0.3.3.1.440.2491.3-1j5.6.0.les%3B..0.0…1c.1.kdlfOwldoPE&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.cGE&fp=b440ac92e81425e9&bpcl=40096503&biw=1920&bih=955.
Well, except – as the website author acknowledges – the whole thing is a croc. You can’t ‘de-baptise’ from the RCC. So it seems to be just a gimmick to have a go at the Catholics.
So what? It’s clearly metaphorical and symbolic, not literal. Religions never, ever engage in metaphor and symbolism do they? Oh wait…