Food for thought?

Question

1) Should the government tell a church what to do or say?
If you say that as long as the church follows the law of government, government should not dictate what the church says or teaches - then consider that slavery was once the law.

2) Should the church stand against what is wrong, going against the government? (the catholic church has taken much criticism about not speaking up agianst Hitler).

3) If something is true, is it wrong to say? (don't take the easy escape out with "who decides what is wrong" or "your wrong may not be my wrong" - we all know basic right & wrong i.e. murder, stealing etc).

Serious answers only please because I have seen a lot of people dancing around the issues on other questions today & I really want to hear what your view is. Thank you.

Answer 1

To answer the first two questions, when the government starts telling churches what to say, we are no longer a free country. To answer your third question, legally and morally I don't consider it wrong in most cases.

Answer 2

They are both influential entities with lots of disposable cash and secret agendas. They take turns being most influential. Neither can be trusted. Both are terrible.

Don't expect anything but nonsense from the Catholic Church or any branch of the government because they are oriented toward the protection of their narrow interests. Each has always behaved in this fashion and I don't expect their introverted behavior to ever change, yet nothing stays the same because everything is always moving.

Moreover, the conditions are prime for slavery to begin again, right here in the United States. Who could stop the beast? The UN? Warsaw? The church? Two million 9-mms and a few thousand assault rifles? The same citizens who sit around and do nothing (me included) while children are snatched from their homes, raped then killed?

It is already happening to a limited extent. Police departments can pick up any ol black person and charge him or her with a crime and execute that person for said crime though that person is innocent. Happens all the time. Wayne Williams is a prime example although he is serving life.

In this modern form of slavery, the goal is to thwart ones efforts toward becoming a productive citizen rather than exploit their labor skills. The profit is integrated in the legal system: court appearances, lawyers, judges, motions, trials, appeals, prisons, food, clothes, guards, courtrooms, bailiffs, sundries, tasers, rubber bullets, etc. Do you see the transition?

The Catholic Church would again sit on the sidelines like it did before. Rightly so, afterall, Catholics and Christians were slave holders and some might even relish the prospect of a return to that era. Time will tell.

Telling the truth may hurt you, but it is never wrong.

Everyone will have a turn at being someone else. The soul wants to experience all of it! The person you now condemn is yourself a little later on. Be careful what you think, say, and do because all is being recorded for our transitional review. That is the law of consequence.

Read Conversations with God by Neale Walsch for clarity.

Answer 3

The government historically, probably based on the general separation of church and state issue, does not generally influence what churches preach. The only place where this question actually comes into play is in cases where a church handles its finances in such a way as to jeopardize its tax exempt status.

Should a church take a stand on "right and wrong?" Churches generally teach the dogma of their faith. Sometimes those teachings are relevant and popular and other times those teachings are not relevant and are unpopular.

Answer 4

1. No.

2. Not a single answer. A church (or a person) can always speak out about what they think is valid. That doesn't give the church (or anyone in it) the right to break the laws. But it does give them the right to seek to change those laws, but only for generally applicable non-religious reasons.

3. Truth is relative, not absolute. But you can always speak your personal truth. Doesn't mean it's true for everyone.