Once again the most interesting topic from this section had to do with religion. I have always believed that religion is something very personal and nobody should be allowed to tell you how to experience it and live it. In the Middle Ages religion was imposed in a horrible way. It was the perfect tool to keep people under control and benefited political interests. You weren’t allowed to question it, so people would simply believe what they were told for fear of being hurt. When people began to show more interest in education, the church wasn’t happy because the more intellectual people became, the more they started questioning their beliefs. The rise of popular Heresies was the reading I was waiting for. After reading all those documents about how religion was developing in the ancient and middle ages, I was thinking: “when will people start questioning “the revealed truth”!!!!”
The rise of anti-clericalism is totally understandable. People started to get more educated what led to more research and examination of the “revealed truth”. From all that research there were some documents written by scholars that made people curious about questioning their beliefs. Also, in those times the Church was deeply involved with politics, Church was way stronger than any other form of government. The Church’s political interests led to inciting civil wars in countries like Germany, what caused a lot of suffering to their people. People also realized that churches were spending a lot of money in their buildings instead of helping the poor, and their main focus was on the wealthy people instead of on those that needed more economic help.
Church didn’t focus in the spiritual side, for me Church seemed to be just another political party that took possession of the government. When people realized all of that they began to think for themselves and changed their beliefs. Could it be possible that nowadays Church’s interests are similar but they are approaching people in different way?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
I wasn't sure of your question at the end of your blog..."could it be possible that nowadays church's interests are similar but they are approaching people in different way?" If you are asking if the church is still uninterested in the poor and focuses on the wealthy, I would agree that is true of many churches, as they need the tithes to stay alive. And, as such, power follows the path of money. However, I believe that one thing has not changed at all, those who follow and love the Lord then and now do so regardless of power or money. I also believe that there were those interested in helping the poor then just as there are now. Times may change, but the Lord never does, and His teaching never has and never will. He has had true followers from before He even stepped on this earth and will until he returns again.
I agree, the history of "the church" is some of the most interesting of all. It may be the most distorted and most misunderstood as it is today.
I also felt your last question was a bit vague. I definitely see your point that in various points in history the church exploited its role to the detriment of various populations. I think this was also because many Kings and leaders at this time had their hand in the church. Separation of Church and State works the other way as well. I do agree that there is a lot of people and church's who are fraudulent and take advantage of people. However, we can't dismiss the fact that if you go to the poorest of the poor there are various people from a variety of religions helping out. We all know the limits of he United Nations. Private church donations cut through the govt bureaucracy. Even in our own country, you would be probably surprised by the impact of Church's abandoning their missions. If our country's poor depended solely on the federal government our country would be bankrupt. The only other thing I believe is that the level of education and faith have absolutely nothing to do with each other. Enjoyed your post.
I feel like the church was based on helping people both physically and mentally and i have always tried to keep up the belief that that is their main agenda. I think we all know that power and money have played a much bigger part these days. The church has many a time strayed from its original mission, and really the only thing that can sway it, is money and power.
I like your comment about the Church being just another political party. I think that has a lot of merit to it. They are run by the same movtive as you mentioned. And they always get tied together somehow which I think is interesting. For instance you mentioned that you think religion is personal and you should be able to keep it private if you want to, I happen to think the same way. I think it is interesting that the US was founded as a place to escape from religious persicution, but we still are not exactly accepting of all religions. For example whenever a new religion comes to the country that could be perceived as something to fear for this reason or that we discriminate. We have only had one Catholic president, and now people are scared of Barack Obamas religious beliefs. It is interesting to look at.
Post a Comment