Religion

I have a pope related theological question. The pope is elected pope
by God through the Counsel of Cardinals Show. He is elected by God
through them to be pope until he dies. Is resigning a defiance of God
who wanted him pope for life? Explanation?

1. . I am a lay expert on the origins of Christianity and the historical
Jesus. My academic exercise has taken me through a journey with the
top Christian theologians of the 20th century. It is an unusual hobby
for an atheist Jew. I am a big fan of the Bible. It teaches us
history. The bible has an oral tradition that predates the scriptures
of the Hebrew and New Testament. The information in the bible was
meant for the people in their time at their locations. As has been
written by Dominic Crosson, one of the leading academic historians of
our time, the writers did not write it wrong, we read it wrong with
our 21st century minds.

The story of Sodom and Gomorrah is a good example. It was told at the
time of the beginning of the Iron Age, when humans were transitioning
from hunters and gathers to living in communities. The story has
nothing to do with n sexual sin.NOTHING.

The  town's people wanted to rape the angels (strangers) of God. Lot
would not let them do so. He was willing to throw his daughters to the
mob for them to be raped but not the strangers. The story teaches the
people in those days that a different human era was now present. We
must be kind to strangers or our civilization breaks down. Read in
that light, the story is a wonderful example of a brilliant man or
woman explaining why strangers must be accepted for the good of the
community. The story is not about sodomy but the Church used that
story as an example of sexual sin being anathema to God. They knew
that controlling our sexual urges was to control us. Too bad the real
meaning of that story was never taught.

We were all told that the story of David and Goliath was a tale about
the underdog who believed in God\d and because of that belief little
David slew the mighty and evil Philistine. What a bunch of shit.

David was a shepherd. He was an expert at killing wolves with his
sling. If Las Vegas were giving odds on this fight, there would be no
odds. All of the bets would have been on David. He could kill a wolf
with his sling from thirty or more yards. Killing Goliath from thirty
feet or closer was very easy. God didn't help David kill Goliath. I
was like the scene where Indiana Jones walked up to the bad guy who
was waving a sword and just shot him. David's weapon was one of the
first examples of light artillery killing a soldier who had fifty
pounds of armor on his body. Goliath never had a chance and God had
nothing to do with it. The story is a story about mobile weapons an
against heavy armor not God's benevolence to David and the Jews.

2. I have a revolutionary idea for a new pope. The Church should go one of two ways. they should embrace that Hispanics and minorities  make up the majority of the followers. Accordingly, they should have a Black or Hispanic pope. I know the selection of the pope comes from God through the cardinals. I don't presume to understand god. i understand that he is ineffable but let's see how He feels about a new direction  based on new demographics.

My second idea is retro. The Church should go all the way back to Its origins and have a Jewish pope. Peter was the first pope and he was very Jewish, so much so that he and James couldn't stand Paul whose self proclaimed mission was to convert pagans. My guess is that there will be a Jewish or minority pope at the same time that Christ returns. Never!

3. Infallible until they become pope. Makes sense to me only if God has a hand in the pope's election which I cannot buy into and why Benedict was as fallible before his white smoke as he is now that he is a resigned pope.

Now Gathering in Rome, a Conclave of Fallible Cardinals

www.nytimes.com

A British cleric exited the selection of a new pope over alleged sexual advances toward priests, even as many accused of failing to remove clergy tied to child

4. The always honorable Rick Scott has pissed of his base. Fuck them. Where are they going to go? His change to a lefty is laughable. I liked him better as a criminal. Wait a moment. He is still a criminal.

5. The bible has so much rich history in it. According to my studies of over 30 years, there is virtually no word that is placed in the context of a text that is meaningless. The issue  and challenge is to read the words through the eyes of a writer in antiquity, who was writing for his reasons, to his audience, in his time. He was not writing for us. I have the deepest regard for people of faith. I am not one of those people nor do I believe that "people of faith" for the most part are as Jesus intended.

For example to read the Genesis story of Sodom as an example of God's wrath on a morally corrupt city is historically wrong. Sex was never that big a deal in the Hebrew bible. Solomon had 700 wives. David may have had a male lover, etc. The beauty of the Sodom story is that it was a moral tale to be kind to strangers that was written at the beginning of the Iron Age. It wasn't a condemnation of sexual behavior. Remember that Lot offered his daughters to be raped but not the "strangers". No. The beauty of this story lies in a brilliant writer realizing that man was entering an age of villages from an age of hunters and gatherers. The writer saw that being unkind to strangers in villages would be disastrous to a new era. Read the bible with perspective instead of blindly believing that the words were divinely inspired. I never under understood what words are divinely inspired or not. I assume one could answer that Dr. King's words or Gandhi's words were divinely inspired. How about Thoreau? How about Shakespeare? How about Mein Kempf? The point is that men write words. God does not.

6. According to some television stations, a war by gays is being waged and America is losing the war. Our secular degeneracy is causing the down fall of our society. Two things: 1. If our secular degeneracy is ruining America, that does not speak that highly for religious views which apparently, according to those who believe that.
                                  2. The whole premise of homosexuality being a sin in the bible is just plain wrong. Paul was against lust of any type. It took away from your ability to concentrate against God. The homosexuality prohibition is in the "holiness code" which also includes sex with women on their period, and planting in seeds in a field inappropriately. The Sodom story is totally misunderstood except by those Christian theologians and others. The sin was not homosexuality. The sin was being mean to strangers, a necessary lesson when people were transitioning between hunters and gathers and the iron age. The lesson is that if you are not accepting of strangers in this new world order, mankind will die. Lot didn't have to much of a problem offering his daughters to be raped. He refused to turn over the angels in the form of people, the STRANGERS.

6. The deceased Peter Gomes. To the enlightened, a good read. To me enlightened does not mean agreement with me. It means listening to all sides before you reach your own conclusion. Peter Gomes was a black/gay genius theologian of our time and maybe all times. He came from a fundamentalist preacher background and was educated at Harvard. He was Harvard's pastor. He was the head of the Theology Department and he was a  Christian.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/03/02/us/02gomes.html