"If Jesus had not existed, the Catholic church would never have invented him. Jesus of Nazareth is a colossal embarrassment to the Catholic church … The Roman Catholic church tell us to bow our heads, to take orders, and to be afraid … Rome stands between the individual and the sky, blocking the light."
(Matthew Parris, atheist,
quoted by Andrew Brown
at THE GUARDIAN)
Oh, my goodness. That's harsh.
ReplyDeleteBut there's definitely something to it.
Tragic, actually.
It´s not only some of the Romans...big dark objects can be seen ¨blocking¨ God elsewhere...thanks for the quote, popped my eyes open today.
ReplyDeleteLen is right. It's not just the RC church that blocks the light.
ReplyDeleteBrilliant, but Rome is not alone in the blocking business.
ReplyDeleteOi! What's with the fairness and balance, today? Ye gods! Where do you think you are - Thinking Anglicans?
ReplyDeleteOops, my bad! I forgot to enable the thinking filter.
ReplyDeleteWell, it is hard not to see the other objects when confronted by 51 page papers....
ReplyDeleteFWIW
jimB
He is talking about Catholics in particular and he's right on. And I'm not an atheist, either.
ReplyDeleteParris is speaking here (well 300 yards from here!) next week. Unfortunately it's a fund raiser for the Tory candidate - to go and hear or not - there's a moral dilemma!
ReplyDeleteGood for Matthew Parris, whose writing I have always really liked - he can be extremely funny. He is also gay and turned 18 the year the law against homosexuality was dropped. I don't really blame any gay man from his generation or earlier for being anti the church.
ReplyDeleteAnyway, it's a bit hard to argue with his quote here. Even if he sounds a bit too much like a Tory in the last line ... though only a shade too much.
That's quite a Christian apologia, coming from an atheist!
ReplyDelete[Whereas Rome is just another Babylon of GeeZus worshippers. Once again, I offer {{{Fran and other TRUE RCs, as contrasted w/ Popoids}}} all my best]
He's an atheist but he loves the liturgy and idea of the church (especially in its English manifestations). So that makes him the same as about 80% of the membership of the Church of England (and a much higher percentage if you restrict it to just the clergy).
ReplyDeleteHmmmm, then I have much in common with him.
ReplyDelete