SEX IN THE RECTORY

I thought it might get your attention!

The other morning, I went out to get the paper, and read the headlines on the front page: SEX IN THE RECTORY. Being this is a Saturday morning, I wondered what the flock would be thinking the next morning for their weekly get together. This rectory was nowhere near where I live, but you can’t help but imagine with what is familiar.

There are interesting people that go every Sunday, devoted true believers, and this has to assault their sense of piety when they read things like that headline. For me, someone who has questioned everything about the Church, how it got its authority over people’s lives and minds in the quest for their souls, it is disturbing because I need an opened mind, not one jaded by uncontrollable events in the news.

I recently had a long discussion with someone about Jesus, and all the prophets and I must say the other end of my argument had little to defend himself with but scriptures from the bible and beliefs. I play devil’s advocate a lot and it is fun. I enjoy the give and take of fact and figures, the spirit to either foster a belief or fine-tune it. I don’t believe the bible to be authentic and this particularly holds true for the New Testament, but that is my problem. Questions come to mind that I can’t find answers to and no one has answered in a convincing way.

It saddens me when I read stories that come out about things like sex in a rectory or a priest with a gambling problem and a sexual perversion, because at some point that person entered the religious life with a pure spirit. It seems to me we all do, them we are swallowed up by many things, including Hollywood and the mass media. Whether you believe in God or not, whether you think Jesus lived or not, the things being taught in the temples and churches are good things. Love of God and country, of mankind and the giving spirit.  As much as I question the content, I do love the spirit and hope it prospers, because it only teaches good… sometimes.

But that headline, it used something sacred, a person’s belief to sell papers, in a rather boisterous way, a laughingly mocking way, and I don’t like it.

If you wish to question me about what I think, I would be happy to discuss it with you privately, either in e-mail or in person or even on the phone. My belief in God is strong, and I yet have big questions for the bible, and the different sects.