Pope says pedophilia kind of normal

In his Christmas message yesterday, Pope Benedict shook off complete responsibility for the child abuse scandal among priests in the Catholic Church, saying that the culture is partly to blame.

Pope Blames 1970s Society for Pedophile Priests
"Pope Benedict used his annual speech to Rome's cardinals and bishops on Monday (Dec. 20) to ask them to reflect on the church's responsibility in the child sex abuse scandals. Benedict qualified his mea culpa by stating that the scandal (in which priests who sexually abused children were often ignored or protected by the Catholic Church) was partly justified by the broader social context. Benedict said that while the church accepted some responsibility, he could not be silent about ''the context of these times.... There is a market in child pornography that seems in some way to be considered more and more normal by society." Benedict claimed that as recently as the 1970s, "pedophilia was theorized as something fully in conformity with man and even with children." In this climate, the Catholic Church's actions were merely reflecting the moral relativism of the times: "It was maintained — even within the realm of Catholic theology — that there is no such thing as evil in itself or good in itself," Benedict said."

Source

If there is anything that should wake up the people that Catholicism is a false religion this should be it. First, that there existed a climate of oppression and evil that allowed pedophilia to run rampant to such extent is a healthy indicator that the Holy Spirit Restrainer to a large degree wasn't and isn't present within the Catholic church. Man is sinful and we fail by falling into the flesh so often, so we cannot point fingers against individuals who sin unless we remove the log from our own eye first. We all sin. We all stumble. However, and this is a big however, the quantity and extent of the pedophilia is more than a brief stumble, is more than a momentary straying away from the Restrainer, is more than individuals who neglected to die daily and briefly fell prey to sin. It is systematized, organized, and widespread evil.

Secondly, Christians familiar with the bible know that we are told that the world is evil. I do not know why the Pope is surprised by the immoral conditions of the 1970s because we are told the moral conditions of the world are bad and were going to get a lot worse. (2 Timothy 3:1-5; 2 Peter 2:1-3; Jude 1:7 for starters).

I do not know why the Pope is surprised by the cravenness of man and the depth of God's hatred of sin, particularly homosexuality and child abuse. We are told these things repeatedly. (Lev 18:22-23; 1 Tim 1:9-10; Rom 1:26-27) "But if anyone causes one of these little ones who believe in me to sin, it would be better for him to have a large millstone hung around his neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea." (Mt 18:6)

We are told that the world is given to the evil one, and he rules it. (2 Cor 4:4; John 12:31). We are told that we should not love the world and not to try to blend in with it, we Christians must be apart from it. (1 John 2:15-16)

Jerry Solomon wrote on "Culture and the Bible", and said,
"[T]he world is hostile toward God; this includes the rebellion of mankind. Second, this hostility was not part of the original created order; the world was created good. Third, this world is also the object of God's redemptive love and Christ's sacrifice. Fourth, the world is not to be seen as an end in itself. We are always to view culture in the light of eternity. Fifth, we are to be about the business of transforming the world. "We are not to follow the world's lead but to cut across it and rise above it to a higher calling and style."

Corinth was one of the most immoral cities on the planet, and yet Paul's messages to the Church at Corinth and the believers there are encouraging to them on how to live in a craven culture, and contain proper admonitions on how to remove one's self from the fallen society yet make a difference for the Lord in the world. For the Pope to blame the culture of forty years ago as 'partly to blame' for Priests using children as sex toys is unconscionable.

Th Pope's normalization of pedophilia is a good example of what happens when we remove our eyes from the standards of God. His Word is all we need to know for the moral barometer of Christian conduct, based on His absolutes. Though those standards are unattainable in our fallen state, He gracefully gives us the Holy Spirit as restrainer of sins. However, if we take our eyes off His attributes, His absolutes and His word, immediately we begin to normalize evil. For those of you who are shocked, saying, 'surely pedophilia is evil! Anyone should be able to see that!' I say to you that just as God's love knows no bounds, sin knows no depths. There is always a worse. There is always another depth to descend to.

Paul warned about the influence of ungodliness in 1 Corinthians 15:33. "[T]his was the second time Paul warned the Corinthians not to be deceived (1 Corinthians 6:9). He cautioned them not to take up the lifestyles of corrupt people—those who will not inherit the kingdom of God. Paul knew how easy it is for people to be influenced by such adverse teachings. If not checked at the very beginning, they could begin to adopt such perverted ideas and behaviors as normal. For this reason, Paul quotes a proverb by the Greek poet Menander: “Bad company corrupts good character.” No doubt this proverb was well known among Greeks of this time. The point Paul makes here is pertinent to all people in all ages. When we associate with or take delight in the company of people with worldly morals, we run the risk of mimicking their behaviors, their language, and their habits. Before long we are no longer of Christ, but of the world with its denial of absolute authority, its rejection of the Bible as the Word of God, and its ideology of relative morality." (source)

That the Pope knows all this, was biblically warned not to be misled, understands that the world will corrupt absolutely, and still blames the culture for his priests' child abuse, is the true evil.
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