The Catholic Church is well known with the attack, torture, and decimation of those ‘heathens‘ who would dare rebuke ‘the Lord.‘ Those actions caused undo hatred and misunderstanding of those of alternate faiths with those of ‘The Word.‘
The largest issue is the fact of Catholics disowning thier children because they profess disbelieve in, or ask for proof for the existance of, Jesus or God. While the individual members of the church are innocent pawns in the Godly struggle, it is the establishment of Priests, Cardinals, and Papal Law that have brainwashed them into believing that the Lord would wire our brains in a way to gather, analyze, and understand evidence, to believe in what we see, and not believe what we cannot find evidence for, even though he wants us to believe without proof.
If God did make me, and he made me this way, why doesn‘t he give me the proof that I want? The average Catholic would say that it is a trial to be overcome, and that I will overcome it eventually (an act that I find now highly unlikely), but the Catholic Church says that I am to be damned to Hell because I dare to demand proof before I believe, regardless of whether I need it or not. My quest for knowledge makes me impossible to be a part of that group.
The Church therefore owes me, as well as Jews (who were tortured during the Inquisition and massacred in the Holocaust), the Wiccan religion (who were ruthlessly murdered in the name of God), atheists like me who are denounced and excluded, and the innocent people who followed ‘God‘s Law‘ but were accused of being in one of these prior groups, and was punished accordingly.
Speak Up
anonymous: You should enjoy the earthly persecution while you can. Your punishment in Hell will be infinitely worse.
anonymous: I agree that the Church owes a few groups, but let me fix a few points.
Jews were killed by Nazis, not Catholics. Catholics were also massacred by Nazis.
Witches hold a belief in a God, because they inherently hold a belief in Satan.
w00t! Stop killing sheep! It doesn‘t give you powers!
The Author of this Post: These comments are precisely the reason for my post... You still publically denounce Wicca and other ‘pagan‘ religions as being Satanic. They do not kill sheep in the current Wiccan faith. And they do not believe in Satan. They believe that good and evil are forces in the world, and that when you cause good, you recieve good, and when you cause bad, you recieve bad...
And you‘re correct that the Nazis killed the Jews, but the Catholics let them do it, which is just as bad.
BattlinMinerJr: Now wait. The the Catholic church had little to no power to save any Jewish lives during the Holocaust. And, it is historically accepted that the Church withheld official judgment on the Nazi party in the compelling interest of sparing its own members. Are you going to blame them for that? A serious question; in the Wiccan faith, who or what do you see as the source of these good and evil forces? How can you justify any supernatural energy without a divine or supreme power?
The Author: Well, Battlin, you may have a point in saying that the Pope had no choice but to allow the Holocaust, but that doesn‘t excuse the Inquisition, which was directly caused by the Holy Roman Catholic Church. And Wiccans believe that good and evil are forces caused by human choice and no forces that influence such.
anonymous: Ugh, another person whining about the "Burning Times" again...
I call shenanegans. Wicca wasn‘t around until about 50-60 years ago (give or take a few decades) and is a MODERN pagan-based religion. Unless you can show proof of actual mass murder of Wiccans in the name of Christ in the past 50 years, I will advise you to get your facts straight. All of the "witch" killings occured hundreds of years ago, and it is hard to prove any of these persecuted people even practiced witchcraft at all.
And yes, as The Author said, nature is indifferent. Human beings act and react to different things, and are capable of perceived "good" and "evil."
The Author, once again.: Sorry for any ambiguity, but the post is in reference to _any_ group harmed by a direct action from the Catholic Church, including looking away from the Holocaust, Witch Trials, the Inquisition, and public slander of ‘pagan‘ and ‘godless‘ peoples, like followers of the Wiccan and Shinto faiths (among others) and Atheists...