Would you let Ben hear your confession?

[kentonio]

We high-church Christians are most fortunate to have you atheists around to remind us of the prerequisites for the priesthood.

Well perhaps someone should. It seems not a single one of you ****ers actually understood a word Jesus actually said to you.

[Berzerker]

You mean until you tell him something that he considers unforgivable at a time when you're in a traumatized state, and he tells you you're basically just going to hell. Catholic women have abortions too for instance, can you imagine the compassion and forgiveness captain fucknuts would extend to those women? Suicide figures in the parish would skyrocket.

I imagine he'd feel bad for both of them, but an abortion doesn't equal hell and the fact they're confessing also means they're repenting and..... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us should just about cover anything we do to each other

[Kidlicious]

I imagine he'd feel bad for both of them, but an abortion doesn't equal hell and the fact they're confessing also means they're repenting and..... forgive us our trespasses as we forgive those who trespass against us should just about cover anything we do to each other

I think they have to do some kind of thingy with their thingy 100 times or something.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Wasn't this an april fools joke?

Yes, and AH has been told this at least 3 or 4 times, but for some reason never seems to take it in and seriously believes that Ben is going to seminary.

[Hauldren Collider]

Well perhaps someone should. It seems not a single one of you ****ers actually understood a word Jesus actually said to you.

You know Kentonio, I'm an atheist too but I generally manage to not be condescending to Christians about it.

[Egbert]

There are some rather nasty posts in this thread.

Reminder: There is a human being behind every online persona.

[pchang]

It's my understanding that Ben can hardly hear anything at all.

[loinburger]

There are some rather nasty posts in this thread.

Reminder: There is a human being behind every online persona.

I'm actually an Eliza bot

[Ben Kenobi]

I'm not Catholic, so no. But, fun as it is to snark about BK, there's no reason to believe he'd be a particularly bad priest. He knows Catholic doctrine backward and forward, and is intensely loyal to it. He obviously enjoys thinking about theology. He's not too uptight to deal with seculars, and jokes aside we've no evidence that he's a predator. His dishonest debating tactics are unlikely to be relevant, as he only uses them when he's arguing politics, etc.; his own beliefs mirror the RCC's almost exactly, so he would have no reason to lie and cheat. I have no idea how good he'd be at sermons or confessions, but better this than telling endless waves of students how Elizabeth I was the forerunner to Hitler. Good on him.

Thanks for the kind words.

I am not called for the Seminary though I did attend retreats both before and after I became Catholic. Probably for reasons that you'd not suspect, nothing to do with counseling, etc. I have had people come up to me and people in general seem pretty comfortable in talking to me and really, that's what makes a good confessor, someone who can listen. Very little of it is about judging, it's a sacrament after all. In confessing you're already acknowledging that you have sinned, and the priest will help you work through all that, at least the good ones.

Ironically for many, my deafness would be an advantage.

I have a very good confessor. He has been an enormous help to me.

[Ben Kenobi]

It's my understanding that Ben can hardly hear anything at all.

My hearing is classed as Profoundly hard of hearing and will continue to deteriorate. I do fine if I'm facing the person as I've worked on my speechreading over the years. But I struggle to hear at mass these days.

[Ben Kenobi]

You mean until you tell him something that he considers unforgivable at a time when you're in a traumatized state, and he tells you you're basically just going to hell. Catholic women have abortions too for instance, can you imagine the compassion and forgiveness captain ****nuts would extend to those women? Suicide figures in the parish would skyrocket.

That's just it. Nothing is unforgivable. That's why it's a sacrament.

Also, I am qualified to work as a prolife counselor. I have worked with post-abortive women over the years. I have done the same training as any other prolife counselor, done the classes, etc. While it doesn't come up often in my recent work, it has come up on occasion.

[Ben Kenobi]

That's what you would have to do with BK so that he wouldn't constantly offend people.

The parish I work at is quite happy with dragging me out of my cage to teach children... I've had one parent who has complained and that parent's issue wasn't with me, but with the Catholic church.

[giblets]

The parish I work at is quite happy with dragging me out of my cage to teach children... I've had one parent who has complained and that parent's issue wasn't with me, but with the Catholic church.

good job Ben on convincing someone the Catholic church sucks.

[Alexander's Horse]

Reminder: There is a human being behind every online persona.

I think perhaps the only thing we have conclusively proved here over the past twenty or so years is that simply isn't so

[kentonio]

You know Kentonio, I'm an atheist too but I generally manage to not be condescending to Christians about it.

a) It wasn't being condescending. Elok misread a dig at Ben as a dig at Christians (because Christians are apparantly a bunch of pussies who take things far too personally). I then responded by being nasty because I was drunk and was unable to just shout "Stop being a ****ing moron!" at him across a room.

b) You're American, being condescending is something you lot major in.

c) Both being athiests doesn't mean we're part of a club. I don't care how you treat religion.