gilham@csl.sri.com (Fred Gilham) (06/09/90)
[please post this] In regard to the celebate priesthood, some have distinguished between discipline and doctrine. My comment is that this distinction is not significant when the discipline is mandatory. The question is, are priests allowed to be married at all? The point, in my mind, is that there is a certain view of what a holy life is, and that this involves non-biblical assumptions. Because this view has been captured in the tradition of the Roman Church, and because this tradition is taken as authoritative, there is no easy way to critique it. It is interesting that one poster uses apocryphal Christian writings to give evidence for the holiness of celibacy in early Christian thought. To my mind, the fact that these writings did not make it into the canon gives an indication that they do not faithfully reflect what God wanted to reveal in Christ. In Collosians, we read ---------------------------------------- If with Christ you died to the elemental spirits of the universe, why do you live as if you still belonged to the world? Why do you submit to regulations, ``Do not handle, Do not taste, Do not touch'' (referring to things which all perish as they are used), according to human precepts and doctrines? These have indeed an appearance of wisdom in promoting rigor of devotion and self-abasement and severity to the body, but they are of no value in checking the indulgence of the flesh. ---------------------------------------- I think much of the difficulty I have with the Roman view of spirituality can be understood from this passage, especially the last sentence. -- Fred Gilham gilham@csl.sri.com Are Saturday morning cartoons proof that adults hate kids? Answer: Yes. (From "Life in Hell")