Hmm, you do make some valid points.
I will have to reconsider my position. I do not have time to thoughtfully look into these points. I have found a
webpage addressing your points, I am not sure if it is yours but I will read it and check back in.
Thank you guys for the discussion, I have some things to evaluate.
God Bless
Scylla
I think the blog you linked to makes some great points. He explains how most people are ruled by a predominant passion: love, hate, greed, etc. We all have passions, and each of us have certain passions that are stronger than others. Some of us love more, some become angry easier, some are greedy, etc. He concludes that John Paul II was ruled by the passion of human love, and that this human love - love for the poor, desire to unity with others, etc. - led to him doing things that he shouldn’t have. The passions are part of our nature, but all of them - even the ones the seem good - can become bad when they are disordered.
Through the human passions love and emotions such as pitty, etc, John Paul II desired for all men to be united as “one”. The problem is that he did not seek this unity within the one true faith (which is what God requires); but rather a unity encompassing all men and all religions, which was expressed at Assisi.
It is interesting that disordered human love caused the great Solomon to fall into the same error as John Paul II. His love for “strange women” caused him to fall into religious indifference.
“And king Solomon loved many strange women… of the nations concerning which the Lord said to the children of Israel: You shall not go in unto them, neither shall any of them come in to yours, for they will most certainly turn your heart away to follow their gods. And to these Solomon joined with a most ardent love. And he had seven hundred wives as queens, and thee hundred concubines: and the women turned away his heart. And when he was now old, his heart was turned away by women to follow strange gods: and his heart was not perfect with the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father… And Solomon did that which was not pleasing before the Lord, and did not fully follow the Lord, as David his father. Then Solomon built a temple for Chamos the idol of Moab, on the hill that is over against Jerusalem, and for Moloch the idol of the children of Ammon. And he did in this manner for all his wives… and burnt incense, and offered sacrifices to their gods. And the Lord was angry with Solomon… And the Lord therefore said to Solomon: Because thou hast done this, and hast not kept my covenant, and my precept which I have commanded thee, I will divide thy kingdom.” (3 Kings 11:1-11)
All of our passions and emotions must be subordinate to the faith. We must believe what the Church teaches and act accordingly, even if our emotions impel us in another direction.
This reminds me of a quote from the book
Liberalism is a Sin: *“It is not only through the avenues of disordered passions that this spiritual disease [Liberalism] may gain an entrance; it may make its inroad through the intellect, and this under a guise often calculated to decieve the unwary and incautious… Intellectual torpidity, inexperience, ignorance, indifference, and complaisance, or even virtues, such as, benevolence, generosity, and pity may be the unsuspected way open to the foe”… (pg 2.) *
continue…