Christianity is fundamentally immoral.

As a menu of what's to come, I will discuss sin, sex, homosex, and aid, among other things. == Disclaimer== Honestly, I'm uneasy about having such an overt religious debate. To all who are reading this and feeling like this Christian doctrine is being shoved in their faces and belongs somewhere else, I almost agree. I follow the belief "when you pray. .. pray to your Father in secret. " (1) I detest Christians who feel the need to ostentatiously and publicly pray and preach. I believe Christians should be polite in public and pious in private. I am all for no establishment and free exercise. If you do not want to read this debate, by all means, do not. Now, it's time for debate. == One by one== I will be following my opponent's order, though I may group similar arguments. Please refer to his original arguments. 1 and 2. ] Though Jesus Christ allows for the forgiveness of sins, he is in no way a get out of Hell free card. The Sacrament of Reconciliation (commonly known as confession or justification) does not provide complete absolution from sin. First, the priest asks the penitent to perform required certain tasks for penance. In the case of a person confessing a murder, the priest may go so far as to order the penitent to confess to police before receiving any forgiveness (2). As such, forgiveness is tied to real action. Second, sin still has effects in the afterlife. Besides Heaven and Hell, Christians believe in Purgatory, a place where souls are cleansed before entering Heaven. When standing before the entrance of a really nice house, a person must wipe his or her muddy shoes on a doormat before entering. Likewise, a Christian cleans the soul in Purgatory. Sins accumulated on Earth can be forgiven to allow entrance into Heaven, but they must still be paid off in Purgatory. The Council of Trent (an important meeting of the Catholic Church in the 16 century) said "If anyone shall say that after the reception of the grace of justification, to every penitent sinner the guilt is so remitted and the penalty of eternal punishment so blotted out that no penalty of temporal punishment remains to be discharged either in this world or in the world to come in purgatory before the entrance to the kingdom of heaven can be opened: let him be anathema. " (3) And anathema roughly means "cursed to hell. " So, though it is quite bleak of me to say, don't say that confession doesn't absolve one of Purgatory, or you'll be cursed to hell. Third, one who confesses only half-heartedly is not forgiven. "Harbor no illusions; God is not deceived. " (4) 3. ] This touches on an important Church doctrine, called Anonymous Christian. The belief is that someone who is either geographically or culturally insulated from the Christian message (think the Amazon or the center of North Korea) but who lives a virtuous life synonymous with a Christian life is also brought to Heaven. Pope John Paul II (the previous pope) said the Church gives "respect to the way in which the salvific grace of God. .. comes to individual non-Christians. " (5) This next part is more contentious. John Paul II also argued that even people of *other* religions might be brought to Heaven because of their good-natured lives. He also said "God, who desires to call all peoples to himself in Christ and to communicate to them the fullness of his revelation and love, does not fail to make himself present in many ways, not only to individuals, but also to entire peoples through their spiritual riches, of which their religions are the main and essential expression. " (5) Therefore, Christians hardly damn other religions but may even believe in their salvation. 4. ] This one is going to be the weakest part of my argument, I confess. Christians have never looked too favorably on homosexuality. That makes me a rare Catholic then; I support same-sex marriage. After studying (I use that term generously, I'm no expert) the Theology of the Body (a fascinating subject, also heavily written on by John Paul II), I find few reasons why homosexual love and Christian love are mutually exclusive. Homosexual love, by its very nature, is anti-heteronormative. Yet, Christian love is no less so. Under the Theology of the Body, a person's "capacity for love as self-giving. .. bears the imprint of the person's masculinity and femininity. " (6) Also, "every form of love will always bear this masculine and feminine character. " (6) As Christian love already refuses the man-woman structure but rather adopts a structure of both persons having both masculine and feminine qualities, I'd be hard-pressed to believe that the same structure would not accept other forms of non-heteronormative love such as homosexual love. 5. ] Hardly. Think Pro-Life and Anti-Death Penalty (two positions I am neither advocating nor criticizing right now). Christians have at their roots a commitment to the Preservation of Life, "the sincere desire to remain alive, or to keep another person alive. " (7) 6 and 7. ] Here, we'll have a commercial break to discuss another theory, that of Theistic Evolution. Although it is rooted in Creationism that God created the Earth in 6 days and rested on the 7th, we must take that in context with other passages. "With the Lord one day is like a thousand years and a thousand years like one day. " (8) "A thousand years in your eyes are merely a yesterday. " (9) So, the "6 days" could have been the billions of years it took for Earth, its ecosystems, and the marvelous organs of humans to form. The 7th day is now, and it is in our hands. The first 6 days should be taken as a token of His power. If there has been genocide, slavery, and resource squandering, it is simply a fault in humanity and not necessarily God. 8 and his footnote. ] Ah yes, it is true that the Old Testament (now designated OT) God is very vengeful compared to the NT God. However, there is a reason for that. The OT God was written about long before the birth of Christ, which radically changed our perception of Him. Though you're right that OT God is "the core and basis of" Him, it is not necessarily a true picture. Similarly, the math behind our oldest models of an Earth-centered solar system are the core and basis of astronomy, but they are not true; we have since proven a sun-centered model with new developments. Just like that, our image of God was incomplete before and is updated. "The past is incomplete, and thus can be 'filled' by new revelation. What such a view of history requires is that we take a 'big picture' view of the Bible and its interpretation of itself. " (10) OT stories relate historical events and further possible God theories and motivations; the NT approves the history but updates those theories. 9. ] In the directly quoted words of Dean Owen, a spokesman for World Vision, a U. S. based Christian aid group, " 'I can assure you that's not the case, because most of our staff in Somalia are Muslim. ' " (11) == Sources== (1) Matthew 6:6 (2) Statement from my Deacon (I'll give you the name if you ask) (3) . http://www.mycatholicsource.com... (4) Galatians 6:7 (5) . http://www.vatican.va... (6) . http://www.theologyofthebody.net... (7) bottom of page 328, . http://books.google.com... (8) 2 Peter 3:8 (9) Psalm 90:4 (10) . http://www.xenos.org... (11) . http://www.scpr.org...