Admitting You're a Sinner

[Whateverist]

My impression is that there is an institutional tolerance bordering on commitment to encouraging a wide range of belief levels, ranging between the literal with an emphasis on rule following on up to someone like Mother Teresa who recognized she no longer believed in God at all.

Not on the issue of original sin.  Its fundamental, as they state in catechism, nothing of scripture can be made sense of..in their intepretation of it, without that literal and very specific insistence.  The central mystery of their faith depends on it.   Catholics -can- believe in a range of things..especially on peripheral issues..this isn't one of them.  It's central not only to their theology..but it;s the whole purpose of their rites..of mass - of recieving communion, hell, even the confessional is not necessarrily meant for ones current sins, but an expression of your openess to god and your relationship with the divine by being willing to divulge them honestly, in humility and a true spirit of repentence.  This is thought to effect the deeper issue of sin.  It's thought to help us bare the sin of adam, our real first parent, whose trangression we inherit as a mark upon our souls and whose sin was so great that it condemded all mankind in that very instant.

Now ofc our protestant friends are going to tell us that's wrong or unbiblical and double plus ungood..even catholics are..apparently, willing to object - but that -is- catholicism.  It's more rigid than some faiths.  A necessity of creating that unity, that ring of the church of christ they perceive themselves (and seek, I;m sure) to be.

Anyway, I wouldn't bother trying to explain to Khem about any of this. I know his AF persona well enough by now to know that he's not interested in what's actually true. He's going to keep accusing me of heresy for what I said about Original Sin, despite the fact that what I said is exactly what was taught to us in Catholic school. Moron.

And according to both the catechism and my RCC school,  both you and your school are not only wrong but also heretical.

Ahh the trials and tribulations of trying to institutionalize anything so sublime as religious experience.  (James' variety, of course).  Institutionalized religious experience isn't my cup of tea but I generally am not offended if other people honor their own tastes in tea.

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My impression is that there is an institutional tolerance bordering on commitment to encouraging a wide range of belief levels, ranging between the literal with an emphasis on rule following on up to someone like Mother Teresa who recognized she no longer believed in God at all.  The pope she corresponded with about it touted her struggle to continue in her convictions even without belief laudable.  

Then there was that person at the Vatican interviewed by Bill Mayer for Religulous who was very openly accepting of this even as he conceded the difficulties for the literally minded.

Hm, didn't realize Maher had ever interviewed Father Foster.

Anyway, I wouldn't bother trying to explain to Khem about any of this. I know his AF persona well enough by now to know that he's not interested in what's actually true. He's going to keep accusing me of heresy for what I said about Original Sin, despite the fact that what I said is exactly what was taught to us in Catholic school. Moron.

I'd be interested in how you hold the seeming contradictions between the way various people who call themselves catholics understand your church's teachings.  Here you say it happens to have been the way you were taught it.  But of course it is a bit of an accident which school you may have attended, so then the question becomes why do you think the way you were taught it is the right one.  At that point the fact that it was the way you were taught it is no longer sufficient as an answer.

I think you know I don't ask in order to belittle your position.  Far from it.  It is more like wondering whether I can reasonably get my hopes up that there are more where you came from.  If you want to answer publicly, good for you.  If it doesn't feel safe to do so here and now I understand.

Oh and is there more you can tell me about this Father Foster?  I only know him from the Religulous movie.  Quite the character.