I'm not catholic. Never have been, probably never will be. Catholicisms confuses me. I'm not afraid to admit that I haven't really tried to understand it either. Just throwing that out there for you catholics (I know who you are).
I read this article on yahoo this morning.
I'm confused. If I am not supposed to "cause environmental blight" and I decide to throw away the yogurt container instead of recycling it, did I just sin? I guess you could say yes, because I was probably too lazy (one of the seven deadly sins) to rinse it out, put it in the plastics bin, and then on the appropriate day, drag the bin to the curb.
I understand the Vatican opposing stem cell research, but I am wondering how much they know about the research. Do they know that a life does not have to be lost to get the cells? Do they know that you can get the cells from an umbilical cord right after birth? What do they have against someone trying to discover a cure for a painful disease? I understand that they may feel that God issues what is needed to each of us, but if we were truly meant to have that disease, wouldn't He make sure that the medicine won't work on us?
The article also comments on the declining number of people who are going to confession. While flipping through the radio stations one morning, the cast on Bob and Tom were talking about it as well. The lone catholic in the group offered her opinion as to why. She thought that since the church was slowly taking away the confessional and confessions were taking place face to face, many people stopped going. They felt uncomfortable confessing face to face. I have a problem with this logic.
If you can't confess your sins to your church leader, how on earth do you think you'll be able to confess your sins to Him? If you can't look another human in the eye and admit you did something wrong, how are you going to look HIM in the eye and fess up. We know He already knows, but that's not the point. If you can't confess to the sin, shouldn't you think about that before you go back out and sin again?
Maybe my ignorance is due to my lack of knowledge in Catholicism. Maybe I'm just in a grouchy mood because I'm still pregnant, who knows. All I can hope is that if I confess my laziness about the yogurt container to Pastor Diehl, I'll be forgiven.
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The last sentence was not meant to be mean or harmful. It is just my sick sense of sarcasm showing through today.
3 comments:
Well, I think maybe I have a unique perspective, having been raised Catholic, and am now evangelical.
First, though, the article states that the Catholic Church opposes stem cell research that "involves destruction of embryos", so to me that means they are ok with research that does not destroy human life (embryos).
I always had a harder time confessing to a person than to God. I think it is because God knows anyway, so admitting it to Him didn't hurt that much (this is before I loved Him and causing Him sadness caused me sorrow), whereas admitting it to the priest was embarrassing.
Think about the worst thing you've ever done: would you be comfortable confessing that to Pastor Diehl? I know I sure wouldn't!! Yikes!!
That's just my $.02.
Indeed, I think Todd's right on about the stem cell thing: it's the embryonic stem cell research they're opposed to. Yet that's the most promising frontier as far as viable research is concerned. Beyond that I'm largely uninformed and neutral on the topic.
As for the yogurt container... First of all, I'd have to read more to understand that "environmental sin" bit, but I do know that in order for a confession to be valid (true), the person must be 1) aware that what they did--or did not do--was a sin, and know what they should have done (or not done) instead, 2) be sincerely sorry (regretful) for having sinned--i.e. causing a separation between you and God, and 3) have the genuine intent to not commit the same sin again--"Go and sin no more."
Hence, the yogurt container, being a trivial, yet useful hypothetical example, would only be a sin if you 1) *understood* that throwing it out was a sin, and that recycling was the right thing to do instead, 2) had genuine remorse for throwing it away rather than taking the time to recycle it (contributing to the further destruction of the one planet that God gave us to inhabit and to steward), and 3) sincerely meant it when you said you weren't going to throw away any more yogurt containers.
Love,
Your nutty (quasi-)catholic close-nun-call sister... ;)
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