General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Leftist priests: Francis can fix church 'in ruins' [View all]backscatter712
(26,355 posts)Bill Maher's point in his rant about the Catholic Church, the conclave of Cardinals and the Pope being identical to his show where it's a bunch of guys sitting around making up new rules is that the Roman Catholic Church, like every other religion, has pulled all of its rules out of its ass.
The "no meat on Friday" rule was pulled out of some Pope's rear about a century ago, then it was rescinded. They also declared that the Sun revolved around the Earth, declared that to be the word of God, and that contradicting said word with blasphemous ideas of science is punishable by death. More recently, they had a Revelation (TM) and changed their views on cosmology and astronomy to reflect reality. They also claim homosexuality is icky based on verses in the Bible, but don't bat an eye when people are eating shellfish or wearing blended fabrics.
Is the rules against homosexuality "dogma"? I don't see much of a difference between "dogma" and "rules" - they're both mutable if Francis and his fellow old men in dresses decide that they are. Like I said, they're historically very flexible on that "Thou shalt not kill" thing when it's politic to rub someone out. They easily can change their rules, and "dogma." In the case of homosexuality, they just don't want to.