I have come home to a Church that does not mistake tolerance for love...

Michie

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You know when you hear a word or phrase you’ve never encountered before, and suddenly it’s everywhere? While listening to the SCOTUS arguments on the health care case, I first heard the phrase a bright line used in its legal definition: “a clearly defined rule or standard, leaving little room for varying interpretations,” as Wikipedia has it.

I have come home to a Church that does not mistake tolerance for love...
 

WarriorAngel

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4 :thumbsup:

Being Catholic again has suddenly moved me (an old 60s hippie, an erstwhile political liberal, a woman, a person of complicated sexual identities) from US to THEM, from ally to enemy, in so many situations. And after a few weeks spent banging around the threads of the Patheos bloggers’ Facebook page, being tarred with the general brush of Privilege-Majority-Intolerant-Disrespectful by Pagans and Progressive Christians and the Spiritual-But-Not-Religious and even an Atheist or two, I’ve finally figured out why.I have come home to a Church that is all about bright lines, honoring clearly defined rules and standards that leave little room for personal interpretation—not in all areas, by any means, but in the ones that count. I have come home to a Church that does not tolerate everything and does not apologize for that—but one that, get this, does not mistake tolerance for love and intolerance for hate.

Amen.

I think if a lot of folks could see the uphill battle in coming home and seeing it is worth it - they wouldnt be deterred.
 
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paul becke

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GK Chesterton, as usual, could see it all coming from the first half of the last century, as he remarked that tolerance is the virtue of the man without convictions.

There was a lad on here yesterday who wanted the Catholic Church to adopt precepts which atheists would find unexceptionable. Of course, he dressed it up differently. And to contend with him was a sure sign you didn't practise what you preached.

Why he wanted to return to the most uncompromisingly authoritarian and 'straight down the middle', traditional, mainstream, Christian church, when there's a positive 'smorgasbord' of liberal, 'anything goes' churches out there, he never explained.
 
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