Arrested development, lolol!
I learned it in the cub scouts!

Hey Len– I know that “Oo wa ta Foo lie wuz!” as “oh wah ta goo Siam”!

I LOVED that joke in 6th grade! It killed!

Gotcha. I had read it briefly and didn’t catch that he was implying that it was pure combustion, which as we both know, wouldn’t be able to fuel anything that long. Just goes to show he likely slept through those “nuclear”: classes if he ever attended.

Thanks for your explanation of the complexity of issues that affect Catholics. I suppose I heard a lot about these things but they were supper table conversation as opposed to debate. I am a non practicing Jew and an agnostic who leans towards atheism. My wife was not only an ex-nun but a school teacher in the Catholic system (which should be a strange notion to Americans and the rest of the world). At the time of confederation the Catholics got a government funded school system which is about the same size as the public system. To this day there is nothing similar for any other religion. As a teacher she had to be a Catholic in good standing which meant having our two children taught in the Catholic system. They had all kinds of ideas about morality, taken from their education, which shifted as they grew up. My elder son said to me once, “So you believe in killing unborn babies”. I dissected the statement and responded, “I believe in removing foetuses that are less than three months old from the mother’s body if she so wishes, after a consultation with her doctor”. I wasn’t pleased about that one. But, times change and there have been forces for morality in both of their lives.

Most of the things you say are perfectly in line with the discussions I had with my deceased wife over our 29 year relationship. Her views never aligned perfectly with Catholic dogma. As she put it, “It is the religion that is closest to what I believe”. She also said, “God made man, man made the church,” not expecting perfection from it. However, she really disliked the smugness of some Catholics, some of whom had a fair bit of power within the educational system. She would sometimes say that they weren’t fit to be working with kids.

And I know about Catholic guilt, though we Jews think we have it beat.

My wife had all kinds of friends who were former nuns. One time about 15 of them came over. I joked that I was going to put up a banner which the neighbours could see, “Welcome Nuns”. She tried to keep her former life as a nun secret from the neighbours and from the teachers. She thought that people would prejudge her because of that and was probably right. A lot of people only found out at the time of her funeral.

At the time of Kennedy’s death I believe about 10% of Americans were Catholic and I understand that has risen dramatically largely because of the increasing Spanish population. In Canada, at that time, it was at least a third. Most of Quebec was Catholic and in Toronto, the Italians were the largest minority. To me, the Protestants and Catholics were just a big bunch of gentiles and I really couldn’t tell the difference.

Thanks for your explanation of the complexity of issues that affect Catholics. I suppose I heard a lot about these things but they were supper table conversation as opposed to debate. I am a non practicing Jew and an agnostic who leans towards atheism. My wife was not only an ex-nun but a school teacher in the Catholic system (which would be strange to Americans and the rest of the world). At the time of confederation the Catholics got a government funded school system which is about the same size as the public system. To this day there is nothing similar for any other religion. As a teacher she had to be a Catholic in good standing which meant having our two children taught in the Catholic system. They had all kinds of ideas about morality, taken from their education and which shifted as they grew up. My elder said to me once, “So you believe in killing unborn babies”. I dissected the statement and responded, “I believe in removing foetuses that are less than three months old from the mother’s body if she so wishes, after a consultation with her doctor”. I wasn’t pleased about that one. But, times change and there have been many forces in both of their lives.
More later. Things are about to get busy.

Hi Korgo, We appear to be in the same age group. I’m just shy of 64. I have two children- a son who just turned 23 and a daughter who just turned 16. Best wishes for your family. I look forward to continued correspondence.

Hi, Gerald. Again, thanks for your thoughtful note. I will give a more thorough reply later on. For now, I have remarried. My daughter is from this second marriage. I have children aged 42, 32 and 2. The two boys are grown and doing well. Statistically I have about a 50/50 chance of passing away before my daughter finishes high school. I type that with a smile on my face, not a feeling of impending doom for either of us. Sometimes that is just how things go.

Love Ren & Stimpy 🙂

Hi Korgo,

Glad we can resume the conversation.

First, I have to say that it’s great to hear that you’re sticking with your friend despite the views he holds. Sadly, Xenophobia can show up anywhere and in people who otherwise are quite pleasant and rational. I’m familiar with Canada’s efforts to characterize its diversity as a “mosaic” versus the American “melting pot” and its far less hostile treatment of the Fist Nations peoples, so it is surprising that he could have views that would fit in with our far right wing.

You probably know from other comments I’ve posted here at The Bunker that I am a practicing Catholic. Please take the following as explanation and not in any way as an attempt at conversion.

It’s not surprising that he would find people in the Catholic Church who would agree with his anti-abortion views but would ultimately find Catholicism unsatisfying . The abortion issue is actually very complex for Catholics. You do have the very simplistic members who don’t consider the long-term consequences that ensue from carrying a preganancy to term and assume that every woman choosing abortion is doing it for purely selfish reasons. Conversely, there is a large group who, while personally opposed, do not presume to have knowledge of the situation and mental state of the woman faced with the decision and therefore refrain from making a judgment of her.

Also, the belief in the existence of objective rights and wrongs is not as comforting or constraining as it appears on the surface. I don’t know if your wife ever joked about “Catholic Guilt”. It’s a byproduct of the complex calculation that conscientious Cathollics go through when confronted with a situation where the rightness or wrongness of an act is unclear or dubious, i.e. the majority of moral choices in this imperfect world. Far from having a prescribed rule book, Catholicism sets up a framework that gets applied. Intent is integral and a good result is not dispositive if achieved by a bad means. Stealing from the rich to give to the poor would not pass moral muster (operant word “stealing”). That said, amassing personal wealth for its own sake wouldn’t either.

The Catholic view on science and evolution isn’t cut and dried either. While Catholics view the Bible to be the inerrant word of God, they also are firm in the belief that it isn’t a science textbook. Catholics are fine with evolution so long as it’s recognized that God initiated the process. The fundamentalist’s infatuation with “Intelligent Design” is met with skepticism in so far as it seems to make God so controlling that it potentially negates the central Catholic doctrine of Free Will. Catholics value reason highly and thus are predisposed to give credence to scientific method. (It was the potential theological implication of man’s reduced place in the universe that made heliocentrism problematic more than anything else.)

The sexual abuse crisis undeniably caused a major challenge to the faith of Cathollics. The church is very clear that priests and bishops are as fallible and likely to do wrong as the rest of us. Even the Pope is believed only to be infallible in teaching about matters of faith and morals (and even then only under prescribed conditions), not in his actions, as evidenced by a number of Renaissance era popes. That said, the idea that people who have dedicated their lives to service and are given (not always deserved) deference on that account could so completely betray that trust was a shock (although here in the states there are now daily revelations of teachers doing the same thing).

I’m very happy that you experienced suppport from the church community that your wife had been part of. I’m also glad that they understood her position vis a vis the church’s shortcomings as a human institution and did not try to force her into any kind of reconciliation. I think that they understood that her love of truth and justice would keep her on the path to God and that His love for her was undiminished by the obstacle that the church posed for her.

Finally, I note your mention of your daughter. As a parent myself, I can imagine the difficulties you have as a single parent. I hope you’ll accept my thoughts and prayers in support of you and your family.

Just saw this! Ren. Stimpy. Happy joy joy. Perfect morning coffee gif. Foster in the house!! ;o)