Well, check again:

http://www.geocities.com/WestHollywood/9361/basic-hogtie.html

Bert

It is true that the church has survived many scandals involving priests and popes and the like, and by most accounts I’ve seen Christianity is still the largest religion and is a growing religion. However, Islam is growing at a faster rate and one has to wonder if many of the current issues with clergy have affected that at all. And I know that birth rates figure into the equation as well.

I think that this is key. To me, at least, it is clear that if the Church was built solely on the clergy, it would have failed centuries ago. There is something about the faith that transcends man, thanks goodness.

Part of my problem, I will confess, is a personal disillusionment with the clergy in general (and it has nothing to do with the more sensational stories, although they don’t help). This is not to say I am off on the clergy overall, however.

In Catholic theology the Church is considered holy; its members are not. We are, in fact, a bunch of knuckleheads who regularly screw things up and took centuries to figure out a few simple truths that now form the foundation of our faith. St. Peter himself denied Christ three times and had to be rather sternly corrected by Paul for his misdeeds. Only the grace of God keeps us from making an even bigger mess.

Truth is Truth, even if the person speaking it doesn’t believe the words he is saying and fails to follow them in his own life. Of course, the truth is much more persuasive when you are living it as well as speaking it. Our clergy would do well to keep this in mind.

My basic point is that–while these incidents “do no favors” to the Christian faith–the track record of “sinful” Church leaders is centuries old, yet the faith prevails.

So maybe these incidents don’t amount to much in the grand scheme of things.

I am quite interested in the larger issue of religiousity within the context of increasingly secular West–although the US seems to hold on to Churches more than the Western Europeans.

However, I am thinking of joining up, if I can find one of these Churches that are using Halo as a recruiting tool!:

http://tinyurl.com/2rusnj

I am all for the truth, and hope it prevails. I am not sure where my slingshot was aimed, save at the press, and quite frankly, it would seem to me that you are ultimately agreeing with me that this story hasn’t been well reported, if not for different reasons than I.

In regards to whatever offense I may have given over Christianity, sorry but I have been an active churchgoer and Christian long enough to have some right to comment.

Ratoe:

Granted. I certainly am not suggesting that this is emblematic of Christianity. However, if oen takes the Catholic priesthood’s problems and any number of other problems, not to mention lower level issues that I have observed at a number of churches over the years and it causes one to be a bit jaded on the subject.

I know, however, that I am not expressing myself very well on topic, and perhaps should have left that final point off the post, but it was on my mind and therefore there it is.

I will reiterate one clear point, and it is that these types of story don’t do the Christian faith any favors, and illustrates that perhaps a lot of people who are in the clergy ought not be. Ted Haggard, of course, is an even better example.

But, I think it is important to recognize that there is a long history of people in religous leadership being scoundrels–hell wasn’t the corrupt practice of selling indulgences what motivated Martin Luther to tell the pope to bug off?

This, of course, does not mean that creepy behavior like we see with this unfortunate guy and Ted Haggard, is emblematic of Christianity.

One issue the press and media local to you have failed to mention are the following facts;

Portions of this post were removed due to the fact that specific allegations were made against a person by name

What type of accountability is there with your local police department? Can we see published a detail record of how exhaustive their two month investigation was, who they questioned, was there any DNA evidence left at the crime scene. Hard to believe that if this was a supposed sexual trist that there was not hair samples, etc. left in the room.

Some have indicated to me that perhaps the police were paid off to make this case dissapear. Woudn’t surprise me a bit given the south, the number of crimes and how small the criminal investigation dept. is. Something is not right here.

The last time I checked, it is impossible to tie up yourself in a hog tied fashion.

There is a clear cut motive here for murder over family issues and money.

The police have dropped this case and I doubt the authenticity of what type if any investigation was truely done in this case.

The Atty. General has already been called to task on this matter and now the FBI will be brought in.

You overtures about Christianity are offence at best.
You do not have all the facts and to assume anything at this point is immature at best.

I would suggest you put your sling shot down and pray for the family who is greiving and ask God to purge out the murderer.