A call for civility and understanding...

[VelmaD]

Since it worked so well a couple of weeks back when the late pope was dying, I thought I'd try one more time to get people to try to understand one another now.

There have been some very ugly things said over the last couple of days. I would like to remind everyone that there are some things about this situation that we can all pretty much agree on.

1. This was not a good PR move by the Church.

2. There are plenty of things the new pope has done AS AN ADULT that we think are just plain wrong.

3. There are many positions officially held by "the Church" that the majority of us disagree with.

4. There are some official Church policies most of us agree with as well.

5. Whether a position falls under number 3 or 4 above depends on who you talk to.

6. People of good will can disagree about whether the areas where they agree with the Church are significant enough to remain Catholic. That's each person's individual choice and we can disagree without being disagreeable.

7. Comparing someone to Hitler is about the most harsh criticism you can level and you better have LOTS of facts to back up the comparison.

8. This is a very hard time for many people on this board - Catholics, ex-Catholics and those who have been hurt by the Church or by organized religion generally. I think we can all agree that many of us are on edge and reacting out of emotion.

My point is this, we're all yelling at people that we agree with on 90%+ of the issues. It's a little bit silly and a whole lot sad. We need to come together to work against the right-wing agenda represented by the current powers within the Church and within the world. We look like maniacs and it isn't the way to convince the rest of the world of the rightness of our position.

I think we need to get back to the idea so simple that it appears in pretty much every religion human beings have ever created...treat others the way you would like to be treated.