"Where was God?" Asks the Pope.

[Jenisi]

This kinda goes along the lines of those who celebrate "It must have been god that saved us!" When they survive a natural disaster and other's lose their lives, loved ones, and homes. I can't say I don't believe in a god, nor can I say I believe in one. I've always played the agnostic role. And always will.. but if there is a god, why would he allow such evil to triumph?

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/12964054/

[Sean of the Thread]

>>why would he allow such evil to triumph?<<

Balance?

If you take a scientific view everything will eventually equal out?

[Drew]

I, as a Christian don't believe that God often intervenes in our world. If you add up all the times God directly intervened with man in the Bible and average it out over the number of years the Bible covers it's something like one miracle every 75 years.


However there is a flip side to your argument, where was God when anything good happened in your life? I note that people are most likely to pray when they are in the most crap and least likely to thank God when they are living large, so it may just be perception.

[Stanley Burrell]

Something about a member of the Hitler Youth expressing his condolences there does not bode well with me.

Maybe he should have picked a place with a few more palm trees.

[Ilvane]

He was forced to join, and drafted in the Army like many German youth were.

Look where he stands today..I mean, I think it's great he went there;as a German, as a Pope.

Oddly enough from that story:
Scattered rain fell over Auschwitz until the main ceremony, when the skies cleared and a rainbow appeared.

You think God was pleased?

[Bobmuhthol]

I think it was raining, and then it stopped raining. Rainbows aren't uncommon after rain.

[Ilvane]

Well, yeah, but they are also considered to be a sign of God's covenant with the Earth..

"God said, 'Here is the sign of the Covenant I make between myself and you and every living creature with you for all generations: I set my rainbow in the clouds and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and the earth." (Genesis 9:12-13)

Strange coincidence, if you ask me. And I'm not even uber-religious. It just was interesting.

[Bobmuhthol]

God also destroyed Sodom, but sodomy is still alive and well. Some things just work out better than others.

[Ilvane]

heh, I just thought it was cool..no harm, no foul.

Angela

[Stanley Burrell]

ACCORDING TO THE ANCIENTS...

A rainbow either means that the Messiah will come or Armageddon will ensue.

Also, according to me, that was a phenomenal act of salesmanship on "the P."

[Nieninque]

Something about a member of the Hitler Youth expressing his condolences there does not bode well with me.

Maybe he should have picked a place with a few more palm trees.


If we were all held forever accountable for stupid things we did when we didnt really know better, there would be no hope for some, right?

[Drew]

If we were all held forever accountable for stupid things we did when we didnt really know better, there would be no hope for some, right?

It's not even that really, you were required to join the Hitler youth. What should a 9 year old have done, died?

[Stanley Burrell]

It's not even that really, you were required to join the Hitler youth. What should a 9 year old have done, died?

Not become Pope, maybe.

[Artha]

Something about a member of the Hitler Youth expressing his condolences there does not bode well with me.

Maybe he should have picked a place with a few more palm trees.
If we were all held forever accountable for stupid things we did when we didnt really know better, there would be no hope for some, right?

QFT.

[Stanley Burrell]

If we were all held forever accountable for stupid things we did when we didnt really know better, there would be no hope for some, right?

QFT.

Yeah. Except not really.

One ex-Nazi pope was not brought into "power" by said ex-Nazi pope's power of persuasion alone.

Henceforth, I blame the whole lot of them. Benedict could have at least made a couple condolences by re-donating some of the Vatican's stolen artifacts alongside ceremonial stone-placing in k'vura.

Once again; salesmanship, showmanship, Pat Robersonism, etc…

Stanley Burrell.

EDIT - I'd feel a hundred times more comfortable with less than atypical altar boy touching from this guy than his being associated with such an unfathomably despicable event in order to be remembered in the annuls of forgivingness…

…Or I could be over-analyzing things, which to some extent I believe I am, but nowhere near through-and-through :shrug:

[Hulkein]

Not become Pope, maybe.

HE WAS 9 YEARS OLD AND IT WAS MANDATORY.............

[Latrinsorm]

I *think* what Stanley is saying is that having been in the Hitler Youth is an unforgiveable offense, therefore Cardinal Ratzinger should have turned down the Papacy. I don't even know if turning down the Papacy is allowed, but in any event the concept of unforgiveable offenses aren't compatible with Christianity, so it's a moot point.

As to the Pope's question, the real question is where were the rest of the Germans? It's not why God allows these things, it's why WE do that should piss people off.

[Stanley Burrell]

HE WAS 9 YEARS OLD AND IT WAS MANDATORY.............

Dur.

Also, Latrinsorm is spot on.

[Hulkein]

I don't understand how you have that point of view, then.

He had no control over the situation, not only it being mandatory, but him being 9 years old.

What is that, 2nd grade?

[Skeeter]

That's like saying you can't be pope because you were circumcised as a baby, and all circumcised people are clearly evil. If you have no control over a situation it can't be held against you.

Unlike in your case Stan, where you were just a douchebag for kicks.

The levels of your stupidity never cease to amaze me.

[CrystalTears]

EDIT - I'd feel a hundred times more comfortable with less than atypical altar boy touching from this guy than his being associated with such an unfathomably despicable event in order to be remembered in the annuls of forgivingness…

What. The. Fuck.

[Stanley Burrell]

The levels of your stupidity never cease to amaze me.

Replying to this post gives me little space for arguement in regards to such a statement.

Cuntbag.

.

Anyway, sorry, was late to read:

Once again, the offended parties are somewhat missing the point.

Since both Hulkein and Skeeter are tools (Skeeter more, but whatever) and CT is cool people, lemme just quickly re-reiterate upon the issue that regardless of how mandatory it was for our current Pope to join the Nazis X amount of years ago, IT IS MY VERY HUMBLE/JEWISH OPINION that it would have been a kinder/more sincere gesture on the part of Benedict to have ventured elsewhere instead of having his predictable "ZOMG!!one, I R HAVING EPIPHANY OF HOW THIS COULD HAVE HAPPENED/LOOK @ HOW CONCERNED I AM: THIS IS MY CONCERNED FACE, JAH!?!?" media picnic in the ghetto of Auschwitz.

[CrystalTears]

My astonishment was your comment that you would prefer child sex offenses than a man who was forced into something at the age of 9 and decided to follow his faith and be a pope.

I guess I just don't see it the same. I understand your concern, but it's not like he was a Nazi throughout his entire life and then last year decided to be a pope. It doesn't work that way.

[Hulkein]

Replying to this post gives me little space for arguement in regards to such a statement.

Cuntbag.

.

Anyway, sorry, was late to read:

Once again, the offended parties are somewhat missing the point.

Since both Hulkein and Skeeter are tools (Skeeter more, but whatever) and CT is cool people, lemme just quickly re-reiterate upon the issue that regardless of how mandatory it was for our current Pope to join the Nazis X amount of years ago, IT IS MY VERY HUMBLE/JEWISH OPINION that it would have been a kinder/more sincere gesture on the part of Benedict to have ventured elsewhere instead of having his predictable "ZOMG!!one, I R HAVING EPIPHANY OF HOW THIS COULD HAVE HAPPENED/LOOK @ HOW CONCERNED I AM: THIS IS MY CONCERNED FACE, JAH!?!?" media picnic in the ghetto of Auschwitz.


I'm sure the Pope actually does care, and it's not just a media picnic.

I guess you'd just be better with him ignoring the subject like it never happened because he happened to be born in Germany, something he had a lot of control over.

[Skirmisher]

I would hope I am understanding this correctly in saying that Stan is not saying that while being forced to join some group as a child does not in any way make someone inelligible for the position of pope, he perhaps does have to exercise more care than others in how his actions can be perceived.

I don't know if this Pope can truly escape the taint(undeserved though it may be) of being in such a group as a child. Some things are not rational but emotional. I think anyone still alive in Europe from those times or their children may not be quite as able to get beyond thoe emotions and I think that is also understandable.

[Hulkein]

Maybe you missed his third post in the thread?

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It's not even that really, you were required to join the Hitler youth. What should a 9 year old have done, died?


Not become Pope, maybe.

[Skirmisher]

Maybe you missed his third post in the thread?

----------
I was replying to his more recent post where he focussed instead on his visiting of Auschwitz.

If he still feels that the Pope should have avoided the controversy by passing on the nomination then please disregard my previous post.

[HarmNone]

At the ripe age of nine, the kid had no choice; nor, did he have knowledge of what he was joining, really. He did as he was told. It's not improbable that he now looks back with horror on the events of WWII, just as do most people. Yet, as a child, he was not guilty of those events. He was guilty only of doing what he was told. In a child, that's no guilt at all.

I can see returning to the site of atrocities committed at the time almost as a penance on his part. He doesn't, in my opinion, need to pay penance. However, in his heart he may well feel that he does...if not for himself, than for the history of his homeland.

[Stanley Burrell]

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