[lbo-talk] for want of a rope

[Carrol Cox]

Boccaccio has a fine story about two friends in Paris, one xtian, the
other Jewish. The Xtian kept trying to convert his friend with no
success. Then the Jew told his friend that he was going on a trip to
Rome. The friend gave up all hope of converting his friend after he was
exposed to the corruption of Rome. But his friend  came back eager to
convert. Why? He figured that if an institution could last with such
creeps and incompetents running it, it must have somethng to offer.

Carrol

Shane Mage wrote:
> 
> Pedophilia is to the Catholic Church as tax evasion to Al Capone.
> 
> Shane Mage
> 
>   Porphyry in his Abstinance from Animal Flesh suggests that there
>   are appropriate offerings to all the Gods, and to the highest the
> only offering acceptable is silence.
> 
> On May 17, 2010, at 6:01 PM, Joseph Catron wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, May 17, 2010 at 4:57 PM, Alan Rudy <alan.rudy at gmail.com>
> > wrote:
> >
> > Somehow its an excuse - or presents a normative equivalent - that
> > Catholic
> >> priests, local mediators between the laity and God - are no worse
> >> than the
> >> non-Catholic, non-priestly public in terms of their rates of
> >> pedaphilia?
> >> That their position of power and responsibility in the community
> >> isn't
> >> different than that of other individuals, other pedaphiles?
> >>
> >
> > Yes, Alan, excusing and normalizing pedophilia is exactly what I am
> > doing.
> >
> > I really don't get your point here. Are you saying that you consider
> > child
> > molestation bad, and frown on it in any quantity? That just seems
> > like an
> > exercise in moralizing laziness.
> >
> > Are you saying that the church should be free of pedophilia
> > altogether? A
> > capital good idea, but unlikely to happen soon in an organization
> > with 1.147
> > billion members.
> >
> > I could guess at what you mean, but my guesses would as likely be
> > wrong as
> > right (and everything that comes to mind is equally self-obvious).
> > Perhaps
> > you might just tell me?
> >
> >
> >> Is there an equivalent non-religious social hierarchy, over the
> >> last 50
> >> years (or far longer), that has done as much to suppress discovery
> >> and
> >> dissent and to displace responsibility as the Catholic hierarchy,
> >> where
> >> Ratzinger has long been a loyal, very conservative major player?
> >>
> >
> > That must be a joke. Surely you've heard of the legal profession?
> >
> > How do Ratzinger's loyalty and conservatism relate to the topic at
> > hand?
> >
> > --
> > "Hige sceal þe heardra, heorte þe cenre, mod sceal þe mare, þe ure
> > mægen
> > lytlað."
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> 
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