Universalis, your very own breviary in pixels...

Monday, 20 October 2014

"No One is Forced to Be a Christian"

A new (to me,) blog by a Father Bede Rowe, (who has a charming Father Brownish avi,) highlights this bit of commonsense from the Pope Emeritus, spoken back when he was plain ol' Joe Ratz.
When, for example, in the name of non-discrimination, people try to force the Catholic Church to change her position on homosexuality or the ordination of women, then that means that she is no longer allowed to live out her own identity and that, instead, an abstract negative religion is being made into a tyrannical standard that everyone must follow... 
The danger is that reason - so-called Western reason - claims that it has now really recognized what is right and thus makes a claim to totality that is inimical to freedom...
No one is forced to be a Christian. But no one should be forced to live according to the "new religion" as though it alone were definitive and obligatory for all mankind.
Common sense... what a lovely concept.

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