God may be perfect, but human bodies very frequently are not, even from birth. If God can put a new soul into a body with a harelip, he could also put a new soul into a body that has the “wrong” genitals.
Which is just the problem of evil, but with slightly lower stakes. God gives infants leukemia*, and we’re told it’s because of “mysterious ways,” but nobody tries to ban pediatric cancer treatment because they’re “going against God’s plan.”
*Allegedly, of course. I don’t believe in this stuff any more than you do.
To listen to my fundamentalist friends, that is God testing you. And for them being a woman in a man’s body is a test for you to learn to become a man.
Don’t Jehovah Witnesses and Church of Christ, Scientists ban medical treatment for their members?
Showing a bunch of students the political processes of the country in which they live doesn’t raise questions about the separation of church and state, so that’s not really a relevant comparison.
Exactly. And babies are born with health problems all the time. So either God isn’t perfect, or he doesn’t oversee the properties of individuals. Either way, the proposed argument doesn’t work.
OK technically the Prime Minister of Israel is head of government, but I’d argue that is more important for citizenship (the head of state is mostly ceremonial)
Dumb question, but is nationality even a factor to be considered when electing a pope? Do they specifically think, “Hmmm…let’s make it an American, or Venezuelan, or Swede, or Ethiopian?” What are the usual criteria?
Any such argument would have to contend with the fact that sometimes bodies don’t even match bodies. The fact of gender-non-conforming bodies is incontrovertible. Evidence concerning souls is less clear. Given that bodies can demonstrably be nonconforming, and souls are defined to be right, it’s natural to conclude that some bodies would be mismatched to souls.
My position stems naturally from logic and the Church’s stated position. The Church is made up of humans. So all that’s necessary is for humans to be logical.
No, I’m not optimistic, either.
Definitive knowledge is only had by the Cardinals themselves. But they are, after all, human, and you’d have to imagine it’d play at least some role in their decision-making process.
One of the reasons Prevost was a bit of a long shot was because he was American. There’s concern that America having outsized political influence could be a complicating factor for an American Pope.
Apparently his other qualities were sufficiently impressive.
In fact, by modern reckoning, it is. Traditionally, Leo would run from mid July to mid August, but when the signs were recently “adjusted” to reflect orbital precession, it was “revised” to run from early August to mid September, putting Prevost just a couple days from its end cusp.
The signs were never adjusted. The Sun is where it is, and we humans can’t change that. Some folks just recognize that and acknowledge where the Sun really is. It hasn’t caught on yet, though.
Until the last few popes, every one for several hundred years was Italian. That was the overwhelming consideration until the naming of John Paul II. In fact, I saw commentary predicting that giving it back to an Italian would be the consensus.
So it’s not about a “wasted” 5 minutes in class showing something that doesn’t have to do with the curriculum? It’s only about him being a religious figure?
Believe it or not, I’d agree with you. I still call it Winter Break not Christmas Break and play secular holiday music in my class. But I feel the Pope is an influential political figure and if they had something remotely comparable for electing the President, British PM, Russian President, &c. I would show that as well. About the only thing close would be selecting the new Dalai Lama but that isn’t televised.
And again, it was “It’s on if you’re interested.” If a teacher wanted to show the Presidential oath of office with no commentary just if you care - it’s there, I wouldn’t leap to, “Oh my goodness. The teacher is trying to make my kid a MAGA.”
Yeah, it’s entirely a church and state thing, sorry if that wasn’t clear. I’m very hardline on the subject, especially in schools. But this is really getting off topic for this thread. Happy to continue it somewhere else if you like.
