The Closest You Can Get to Thumbing Your Nose at God

I very rarely say something like "you're missing the point," or "the one thing we really ought to do is...," because, of course, I am but one person with one perspective and have but one of many possible solutions.

But I'm going to say it now: You're missing the point.

Who is?

Most of the commenters on this article at MSNBC >
(Scroll down and click the comments)

Andrew Brown over here >
(whom I like and read almost daily)[1]

And lots of Baptists over here...
Baptist Bulletin >
Baptist World Alliance >
Moore to the Point: An Evangelical Looks at Pope Benedict XVI >
(Read the comments too.)


Good 1) business managers, 2) people managers, and 3) experts rarely come wrapped in the same package.

We tend to lionize #1's - steely corporate types that damn the torpedoes and leave careers in their wakes while bringing the latest widget to market.

Being a #3 is almost always helpful, but not required. That's why a bank will hire a CEO that used to run an auto manufacturer, or a retail chain, or a city. The what and who and why are unimportant. All that matters is the how (much).

#2's - people managers - when combined with expertise, represent the single best hope for sustainable progress. But when they fail, they fail spectacularly. It is those of which it is often said they had "an otherwise promising career." They are usually appreciated in hindsight.

Pope Benedict was not a #1.


2 More Cents

• No one knows what the Pope knows and if he knows something that would make him culpable in a scandal.
• He's the former head of a sovereign state living in a sovereign state. He's entitled to immunity by virtue of his situation. He didn't seek it or invent it (it dates back to 1929)
• People driven by hate do not listen to reason. They do not extend the same courtesy to people they hate that they might extend even to a murder suspect, for example, or a sullied politician. They will not suspend their campaign until they or the person they hate are destroyed beyond redemption.
• Innocent people need legal protection just like guilty ones. Once upon a time we protected ourselves with walled cities and armies. Now we use lawyers.

When I talk of "hate" I'm not thinking specifically of anyone mentioned in this post, but rather the collective vitriol from some media and social quarters.

The Pope is a safe target, the closest folks will ever get in this lifetime to thumbing their noses at God.[2]

c0

[1]
Brown seems to be so disaffected with his own faith he can no longer use it to inform his opinion on those that still have faith. This article is really very good, but wide of the meaningful center of spiritual leadership. Which, unfortunately, no one really wants.

[2]
Please don't misunderstand me. I'm not referring to victims and families impacted by sexual abuse. I'm not Catholic but I am just as appalled as everyone else at the pain inflicted on children and the violation of trust. I'm thinking here of those that simply have an axe to grind and are using sexual abuse as a whetstone.

Those that would leverage the pain and suffering of others to satisfy their own preoccupations deserve a special sort of contempt.

c0

Started: 2013-02-28