Is the Catholic church a puppet of the
right? Has it been suppressing women and the sexuality of its own
members for over 3,000 years? brought up
these thought-provoking questions in her seminar last night titled,
“Failing America’s Faithful,” sponsored by the Boisi Center for
Religion and American Public Life as a part of their annual Prophetic
Voices of the Church lecture series.
A reader (and blogger) sent me this which is from the BC Heights
which is an
independent student newspaper for Boston College. I guess the
3,000 years could just be a simple typo since I doubt if the author is
intending to see Catholicism as a fulfillment of Judaism – though even
then the number would be off.
The Boisi Center is an organization
supported by Boston College that aims to bring up questions of politics
and religion and create a dialogue in order to help our community move
closer to truth. Although, the Center tries to remain unbiased in its
portrayal, while acknowledging that it does exist within the context of
a Catholic university. Eric Owens, assistant director of the Boisi
Center, said, “Religion is a crucial part of American public life and
needs to be understood in the most rigorous way possible.” Due to this
fact, the Boisi Center works to promote the understanding of religion
and the way it functions in society. The Prophetic Voices of the Church
lecture series is an annual series that focuses on the Catholic church
and where it is moving by bringing in speakers that are knowledgeable
in a certain aspect of the church.
Townsend was the first lay speaker
in the series.
When it comes to progressives I think
you could easily substitute the
word prophetic with pathetic and have it to be more correct.
The Bible doesn’t exactly mince words when it comes to false
prophets and I don’t see exactly why I should either. Calling
people to go along with the culture is anything but prophetic.
Can you see Isiah or Jeremiah calling people to live out the
modern times of their times?
I also wonder calling the Catholic
Church a suppressor of women a
dialogue and a promotion of understanding of religion.
…She said that the Catholic Church
has lost its way in the latter half of the 20th century, following the
“moral majority” mindset and focusing on only three issues.
“The churches have been hijacked by stem cell research, same-sex
marriage, and abortion,” she said. By only focusing on these issues,
Townsend argued that the church has lost sight of the issues on which
it was founded, such as “loving your neighbor, not torturing people,
and not discriminating against women.”
So which is it. Has the Church
been suppressing women for 3,000 years or has she only lost her way in
the last 50 years. The funny thing is that I thought that
protecting the innocent child in the womb and going against
experimentation on human life via embryonic stem-cell research was
“loving your neighbor.” I think that Kathleen Kennedy
Townsend might need to hear Jesus’ parable about who is your neighbor.
I do wonder about her definition of torturing people. I
wonder if it means calling people to live lives of genuine holiness, to be perfect as our Father is perfect?
15 comments
The Bible doesn’t exactly mince words when it comes to false prophets and I don’t see exactly why I should either.
I love that line.
On what basis is Townsend claiming that the Church has focused only on issues of abortion, same-sex marriage, and stem-cell research? These may be some of the pet issues of Karl Keating, but I hardly think Townsend has probed the homilies issuing from every pulpit, carefully read the statements of every bishop and the pronouncements from the USCCB and from Rome. So what does she mean by the church?
If she wants to explore the question of the suppression of women in Church history, fine. It�s a fair question, but could she at least explore it without suppressing accuracy about the Church in favor of her own wildly unsupported idea?
KKT, as we called her here in MD,is a moron. She managed to lose the 2002 election, despite running as a liberal democrat in one of the most left states this side of the Pond. Pay her no mind.
I like that “as unbiased as possible” means, in effect, as critical of Catholicism as humanly possible… It’s the old swinging-too-far-in-the-opposite-direction-to-prove-we’re-not-biased thing.
…the Center tries to remain unbiased in its portrayal, while acknowledging that it does exist within the context of a Catholic university.
When did the Jesuits and BC become Catholic? Did I miss something?
Ms. Townsend—if I’m following this correctly—is claiming that the Catholic Church has lost sight of “the issues on which it was founded, such as ‘loving your neighbor, not torturing people, and not discriminating against women.'” (Emphasis mine.)
The Boisi Center brought her in as a “speaker that [is] knowledgeable in a certain aspect of the church.” I’d be very interested to know which aspect they had in mind.
We can perhaps pray that Ms. Townsend may improve her knowledge of the circumstances of the Church’s founding, at any rate. In fairness, it wouldn’t hurt any of us to improve our knowledge in that area :-). But most of us don’t get invited somewhere as a knowledgeable person, only to respond with public displays of deep cluelessness.
Peace,
–Peter
“She sees the church and America moving in a new direction, toward social justice-what she views as the primary function of the church-and away from a personal salvation idea. “
Ah, let’s get rid of personal salvation? Uh huh? And the alternative is? bzzzzzzttt
It appears Cardinal Biffi was right on the money with his prophetic assessments.
Something must be very wrong and I think that the world will come to an end soon: I completely agree with Hoodlum on something! In fact, his posting is precisely what I was planning on writing.
All that personal salvation stuff is overrated. Well, actually, it’s overrated for you. Not for me. Personally, I’m looking for every advantage I can get.
🙂
Could she be a disciple of one of America’s great voices in his own wilderness of thought, the ever-chirping, Professor and self-appointed prophet, Gary Wills, so notably mentioned in your previous post? They do seem like peas in a pod.
When can parents start getting refunds for tuition paid, for a Catholic education not received.
All self-appointed (self-annointed?) prophets should be run out of town on a rail…
When I made the decision to convert to Catholicism one of the factors for doing so was my realization that I no longer agreed with or believed what my former church (WELS Lutheran) was teaching and preaching.
I could have stayed.
I could have whined and moaned and b!@$%ed about how the church’s teachings were “unfair” and “discriminatory” and “oppressive.”
But I didn’t.
I left. Not only out of conviction for my Catholic conversion and faith, but out of respect for the Lutherans I grew up with. Because I believe the radical notion that life isn’t always about *ME* (as many others are wont to think). Had I not converted to Catholicism, I would still have left the Lutheran church rather than try to change it to suit my “spirituality.”
People like this need to hear one phrase and hear it often: The Episcopal Church welcomes you.
And then we need to pray for their souls.
It is in opposing abortion, embryonic stem-cell research, and same-sex “marriage” that the Church is most fiercely fighting on BEHALF of woman and her offspring!!!!!!!!!!
A little known fact, certainly not something often brought up by Kathleen Kennedy Townsend and her political advisers, is that she is the Goddaughter of that famous 1950’s extreme leftist Sen. Joseph R. McCarthy.
Comments are closed.