Certainly. In this part of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus was obviously contrasting the letter of the (Judaic) law to the spirit of it, which He contended had been lost and which goes beyond the mere words: Do not commit adultery? Do not even THINK about committing adutlery. Do not murder? Do not even hold on the anger. Do not swear by Heaven or earth? Do not swear AT ALL. Jesus also said, in this same sermon, “if thine eye offends thee, pluck it out” and “if thine hand offends thee, strike it off,” but I don’t think he truly intended people to cut off their hands and poke out their eyes. If you believe these strictures are to be taken strictly literally, and assuming you have every looked at a woman (or man, depending on your orientation) with lust, why didn’t you poke your eye out? In any event, Jesus also said “Be ye therefore perfect, as thy Father in Heaven in perfect.” But He must have known no one is truly perfect; all we can do is try. This would indicate that even HE did not intend His words to be taken with perfect literalness.
In any event, I do not consider the strictures against swearing (“I swear by God I did not do it”) to be inconsistent with the taking of holy orders (“I hereby dedicate my life to God”) and, obviously, neither does the RCC. I recognize that you do, but that’s just you – which is my point.
Do. Do not. Do not call. Do not call anyone Father but your Father in Heaven. Where is the justification for your “interpretation” of this? Mind you, I have nothing against interpreting the Bible; I am no literalist. But you apparently are, and as such I fail to see why you feel priviledged to interpret it literally when it suits you and metaphorically when it suits you.
Sigh. You are so surpassingly arrogant. You do not know anything more about the path to salvation than any of the rest of us. And you should be listened to skeptically in what you profess to know, because you do not even believe it yourself. You do not know whether the water is shallow or deep, yet you insist on presenting yourself as if you do. In any event, the question did not ask if the water was shallow or deep; it asked what it’s like to stand on the bridge. I asked: “Are you aware of such a church?” (Where monks serve or belong without taking holy orders), to which you replied “Theoretically, if . . .blah blah blah,” which of course means “no.” I said, “I am not,” meaning “I am not aware of such a church,” as, apparently neither are you," to which you replied “Jesus did say it is not easy to enter the kingdom. The people who have purchased this rare pearl are rare indeed,” which is very true, but a total non sequitir in this context.
Which, of course, is precisely what you will have to do, since you are unlikely to convince any reasonable non-fundie person that a monk who dedicates his life to God is doing the work of Satan.
(a) That was manifestly not what he was asking. He asked what the lifestyle was like, not whether he should embrace it. At most, he mentioned in passing he was considering a monastic retreat, not the embrasure of vows.
(b) The conclusion that dedicating your life to God through the taking of holy orders is “Satanic” is nothing more than your bizarre fundie opinion, backed up with a literal interpretation of a passage from a book that you yourself do not even interpret literally consistently.
© You have characterized yourself repeatedly as a person who has lost his faith, who is in a horrible spiritual state, who is “a dog who has returned to his own vomit.” Why you think you are qualified to tell anyone else how they should conduct their own journey of spiritual discovery, I cannot imagine.
And I’m rapidly growing tired of arguing about this. I am not required to interpret the Bible as you do. I am not required to reach the ridiculous conclusion that the taking of holy orders is Satanic. I am not required to attempt any further to explain why you come across as arrogant and hypocritical (explaining a faith you do not even hold indeed!). EGKELLY has not even come back to this thread. I hope if he does, he will talk to Maeglin and Tom about the monastic experience. It’s perfectly clear he would not get any help from you.
He may consider himself duly warned.
I would have been more than happy to agree to disagree on whether or not vows come from Satan. I tried to keep my initial response to egkelly short and to the point without ruffling any feathers with this warning being no more than a footnote. But if what egkelly was basically asking comes down to “should I do something Satanic and will that make me feel closer to God?” then the answer is a resounding no.