Quote Originally Posted by Formalhaut View Post
I don't really think it is in 'bad taste', as such. It certainly isn't targeted to any individual, at least not on my part. I'm sorry if I have offended you Dr. Assenov! If there's any posts of mine that you feel has been disrespectful, I am more than happy to amend the mistake!

I do see where your coming from though. From a comedic point of view, jokes about Catholics and paedophilia is definitely in bad taste, perhaps even downright insulting, not to mention very old (as old as jokes about Aeroplane food)

I take a very pragmatic view to world religions anyhow. As a Christian, perhaps I'm not really in a position to argue with other religions as sometimes it does get a very bad reputation, not just for Catholics. All sorts of religions get a bad name, which really isn't justified: Muslims get called terrorists, Catholics are downright homophobes and child smurfers, Jehovah's Witnesses are downright nut-jobs with a door-knocking fetish. It is not on.

We should definitely have rights to disagree though. I'm definitely against many of the Pope's teachings on abortion, homosexuality, contraception etc. Does that mean I should call him and his religion a bunch of paedophiles? Of course not. It'd be a massive over-generalisation to do so. I guess it is easier when you have friends from many different religions. I was friends with a Jehovah's Witness and while I was incredulous with their lack of approval for birthdays, I liked him anyway.


I fear I may have gone off-topic, on my own thread. *sigh*
Thank you! All religions certainly have had their uh, bad apples that don't represent their teachings ("I love Christianity, but I hate the Christians.") I have a wide variety of friends from different religions, and even amongst my Christian friends, there's bantering and jokes there. I try to avoid it because it's ridiculous and like you said, as old as ever and will never end.
You definitely have the right and free will to choose what to believe, and that should never be taken from you or be made fun of. I'm sorry if I came across as um, excuse the term, hard-ass, but sometimes it's hard to express yourself online with only text! I still love hanging here with you guys and everything.

Anyway, it should be interesting to see who's next. Last time, for lack of motivation to actually GOOGLE it, I believe they had to pray for quite some time to select the next pope. Something about shutting in a bunch of bishops to pray and vote on the next pope for several days... I can't imagine praying that long! I think at the end of each day, they light a fire in the fireplace, and the color of smoke that comes out of the chimney signifies whether or not they voted on a pope yet. Very interesting... I guess they don't like using electronic ballots, ha ha.


Did not know about the lack of approval about birthdays-- had some interesting events with Jehova Witnesses in the hospital, though.