Penticton Indian Band Chief Greg Gabriel says his community's reaction to the suspicious fire that burned down Sacred Heart Catholic Church on their land early Monday morning is complicated, but he does not condone arson.
"Although there's a lot of ang
Two things came to mind when I first heard about these fires.
First of all, though I'm sure that the person(s) responsible for setting the fires may have have experienced a sense of triumph for destroying the churches it changes nothing about what the Catholic church did to thousands of children.
Second, the arsonists are damn fortunate that neither fire got out of control in an area that is very dry and prone to very destructive wildfires that could have threatened lives and livelihoods.
When a social autopsy on the supremacist mindset gets done it will reveal that almost all of the "we are so good that everything we do is good, no matter how much harm it causes or how many die or are destroyed from our behaviour & actions" belief system originates with the monotheist religions. God is always on their side, remember.
No, not really.
Two things came to mind when I first heard about these fires.
First of all, though I'm sure that the person(s) responsible for setting the fires may have have experienced a sense of triumph for destroying the churches it changes nothing about what the Catholic church did to thousands of children.
Second, the arsonists are damn fortunate that neither fire got out of control in an area that is very dry and prone to very destructive wildfires that could have threatened lives and livelihoods.
You're damn right about the second point.
As for the first one, the linked article talks about the grief and sorrow a lot of the Native parishoners are feeling at seeing the churches being destroyed. The TRC summary report talked about the different opinions various Indigenous people have about Christianity and their relations to it.
The arsonists may feel a sense of triumph like you say, but they just caused additional pain for so many other people through their actions. Christianity still plays an important role for a lot of Indigenous people. When I was a little kid in the late '80s, I used to see the Tribal Trails show on local networks early in the mornings and they're still going strong today.
The churches, both in the Similkameen region, went up in flames early Saturday morning and both were destroyed completely, say Penticton RCMP.
RCMP say that just before 4 a.m. they received a call about a fire at St. Ann's Church, which is located just east of Hedley on Upper Similkameen Indian Band land. Then at 4:45 a.m. they got a call about a fire at Chopaka Church on Lower Similkameen Indian Band land, just east of Keremeos.
https://bc.ctvnews.ca/2-more-catholic-c ... -1.5487033
Again, these 2 fires could have easily gotten out of control and caused major devastation.
An irresponsible act that changes nothing.
-J.
Law sure didn't seem to apply to the priests, nuns, and other residential school staff for the better part of a 120 years.
One of the reasons I stopped being a Catholic after I finished high school was because that the church in general seems to consider themselves either above the law, or helping to make it according to their own views and beliefs.
That rubbed me the wrong way, so I decided that I wad finished with religion. I do however, am partial towards Taoism in some ways.
-J.
I actually do respect the Catholic church for a number of things, like basically saving western civilization in it's monasterial archives when the Roman empire finally collapsed and also throughout the Dark Ages. That being said it's obvious they abandoned the very spirit of the Sermon on the Mount centuries ago and have wrapped themselves up in utterly ridiculous ritual & dogma for far too long. And they have no one to blame but themselves, thanks to their very own behaviour, for nearly everyone assuming a priest is responsible for when any story breaks about horrible abuse and sexual deviancy happening to children.
How long before a female priest is able to marry her girlfriend, do you think?