Meh. I was never much of an iconclast. I have always been more of an iconodule.
There will always be those who scream that we need to melt down the gold from the chalices and sell off the icons, break the silver chains from the priests necks, all in the name of saving and helping the poor. Amusing that the Catholic faith has more hospitals globally than all the nations combined, and most take everyone in emergency care regardless of insurance. Sure we hear the horror stories, but most are made up on the spot to prove a point.
I used to scream foul too until I found out most of the treasures were made or donated out of their faith, not out of making their priests or the Vatican rich. In the Orthodox Churches, we find most of their treasures were crafted and given- donated by the families. Mostly icons, months to years spent in fasting and mystic meditative trances focusing through Hesychasm as each stroke of the brush invokes an image of the Heavens, a window to the Other world.
So I do have a hard time demanding these things be torn down, as it is the poor themselves who placed their devotions, time, money and labor into their faith. It would be comparable to complaining that you should not spend your money on books and altar pieces because that could go to the poor or for a surgery. There is no difference.
It’s build on top of a pagan temple. I guess you could call it karma, divine retribution. If you believe in that sort a thing. I don’t, but still find it an amusing thought. *smirk
The followers of the ancient Hellenic religion express their condolences for the loss of a monument of the human history and they want to remind and encourage all the civilized and sensitive for those disasters humans that other, older and thus more importand monuments of our history got destroyed and funds must be raised to be restored, in countries that are not so rich as France, such as the ancient Temple of Baal in Palmyra.
They always do that. “The witches, warlocks and demon worshiper’s caused the fire!” Dont you know we have time in our busy lives to commit arson and first degree murder.
I read about how the roof was made of these huge old trees and the lumber had to be specially treated over many many years. I guess I feel bad for the tree that had to be chopped down to make this church. Those big trees took so much longer to grow than human lives, and I just feel awful that people cut them down even though it was hundreds of years ago.
You tellin me they needed gold statues to pray? No matter how you look at it. The church wasted money during a time they should have followed their own doctrine and fed their people
Again. You dont think the notre dam was excessively decorated for being built during war times?
The size of the building is irrelevant. They adorned it is the problem. Ill bet thats why it got burned down. Citizens remember when their governemt ignores their needs
No. It was an artistic feat and national monument–damn near a public service in itself. You’re all just thinking about food and not the cultural or historical significance of Notre Dame.
That church did feed the poor, aka the large numbers of skilled craftsmen and unskilled labourers who built it, and their families, and all the goods and services associated with a massive building project who benefitted as well.
It’s the old “teach a man to fish” thing - would you rather that money went to those who had skills and passed them along, and those who were willing to work, whilst creating a lasting monument of great beauty, or just dish it out to any old beggar who’d piss it away in a tavern and be left with nothing?
Besides feeding the poor, unless accompanied by some radical birth control, just creates more poor people who can’t support themselves either, because they breed.
Edit to add, also a reminder that for many centuries, the Church was the only game in town providing not just food, housing, and cash alms for the poor but also medical treatments, back when that was a risky thing to do. By all means hate the church as an institution, but be sure to do it for accurate reasons. Many monks, nuns, and clerics died of infectious diseases treating the poor, and their names are forever lost to history.
The very notion that people have some abstract worth in themselves, which is not dependent on their wealth and social status is, itself, an innately Christian idea.
You do have a point, but see… Why did the poor give the Church so much money? Because they were told that doing so was a form of penance, and that it’d allow them to leave Purgatory and go to Heaven faster.
From the old Joy of Satan website:
“There are very few millionaires without a strong solar plexus chakra. To attract money and wealth, you must be open. You must be 100% that you deserve wealth and riches. Any past hang-ups concerning wealth [these can go back into past lives] must be completely destroyed and you must reprogram your mind and soul to attract money and that you are deserving of money. False religions teach that poverty is a virtue. This is so wealth and power can be in the hands of a few, while the masses are slaves.”
It is a testimony to power of Catholicism and tallest buildings, castles on the hills are the same. No one would wield power from an agora, or a forum. You need to sit at the top. All great buildings throughout the history were built using force preying on poor slaves.
Pyramids, Notre Dame, Palace of Versailles, Great Wall of China, Taj Mahal, temples of Rome…
Jesus actually said to pray on your own … church doesn’t even fit into that.
Matthew 6:5-6: " And when thou prayest, thou shalt not be as the hypocrites are: for they love to pray standing in the synagogues and in the corners of the streets, that they may be seen of men…when thou prayest, enter into thy closet and when thou has shut thy door, pray to thy Father which is in secret…"
I wonder who they’ll call on?
