Maher and the Real Time Panel discuss the Catholic Church, April 18

[jefferson_dem]

Run time: 07:46 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W5LWn_F-LOQ   Posted on YouTube: April 19, 2008 By YouTube Member: Views on YouTube: 0   Posted on DU: April 20, 2008 By DU Member: jefferson_dem Views on DU: 803

 

[DutchLiberal]

1. All in all, safe for 'New Rules', this was a very average, if not boring show.

Can someone please explain to me why Ayaan Hirsi Ali was in this show? She had... what?... two lines?... in the entire episode and both of them were worn out clichés every idiot could have thought of themselves. I guess a really interesting guest cancelled at the last minute and they needed someone to fill in. By the way, Ali was a member of the Dutch right-wing party VVD which supported the American invasion and occupation of Iraq.

[JDPriestly]

2. I would like to point out that a number of religious groups

are just as active as the Catholic Church in terms of social service. The Catholic Church seems more active because it is such a large, wealthy organization. Some other religious groups that I know of that are just as active if not more active are the Salvation Army (really obvious and you cannot imagine the amount of good works they do), the Unitarians (extremely active and do a lot of work that helps people who are not affiliated in any way with their religion and who do not press their beliefs on the recipients of their generosity), the Friends (Quakers who also do a lot of wonderful things for people not affiliated with their religion), the Methodists (Good work are an essential tenet of the Methodist religion, and the founder, John Wesley, was a leader in doing social work), Seventh Day Adventists (lots of hospitals). Those are just the ones I happen to be most familiar with. So, the Catholic Church is a huge organization and does a lot. The Catholic Church also spends a lot more on pomp and circumstances, expensive buildings, etc. than other Christian faiths, so I do not know whether, in terms of a percentage of its revenue, the Catholic Church actually does more social work than the other groups I have mentioned.

A lot of the institutions that play a big role in our society were begun by churches. I was born in a Lutheran hospital, for example. The Methodists founded not only hospitals, but schools -- Southern Methodist University, University of Southern California, Duke University, just to name a few well known ones. A lot of these institutions are no longer strongly linked to the religious faith that founded them. Of course, the Ivy League schools were founded by various religions. Religious faith can be a wonderful force in a person's life.