What happened to the rest of this response, where you (a) responded to my question about what equality amongst the sexes look like by referring me to your previous posts, and (b) responded to my question about why you went to a Jesuit college and studied theology even though you are not religious? Did you delete it, or am I just imagining that when I checked in on this forum about an hour ago there were like two paragraphs of explanation/parting words before you said you were bowing out of this discussion?
Given your bow out, was all of this just you trolling my journal? You made some pretty incendiary (or at least provocative) statements on my journal, assuming you have at least some some sort of familiarity with my journal (this journal is, in fact, already one "big religious discussion"). Those statements are, inter alia:
1. Catholicism shouldn't/can't be taken seriously (by which I do not mean simply academically/historically)--or at least it doesn't have a platform by which to "preach morality"--until it changes, evolves, and/or progresses (a dirty word on this journal);
2. Catholicism's fundamental beliefs are immoral;
3. Catholicism views women as less than/inferior/not equal to men;
4. One example of Catholicism viewing women as inferior/unequal/less than is that only men can serve as priests;
5. This belief, that only men can serve as priests, is one of Catholicism's immoral fundamental beliefs, but there are many more ("Too much to describe").
I'm asking you to elaborate on those statements; to support them. You've responded by (a) walking back your initial claim that your views on Catholicism are not mere "random statements" because you studied theology and history at a Jesuit university, and (b) by "bowing out." I would not ask you to elaborate upon/support those statements if you'd made them on your journal, or even on some other thread; I'm asking because you made them on my journal. I was not educated by Jesuits, and so perhaps as a result I'm more than happy to engage in some Catholic apologetics; to defend my faith against surface-level and baseless attacks. I think both of us ultimately would be the better for having engaged in that exercise of good faith apologetics, even if at the end neither one of us ultimately convinces the other of our principle position: that Catholicism is the one true faith vs. Catholicism is a tool with immoral beliefs used to control people that is interesting to study from a historical/academic context.
If you're not willing to engage in that discussion, I ask that you take your bomb throwing elsewhere in the future. My journal is not Twitter.
Perhaps to bring this full circle: felt banner-y Catholicism = the CINO Jesuit training/education @macg received at his Jesuit university. Sounds like it is the same felt banner-y Catholic education my kids are getting at their current Jesuit primary school. Unfortunately it took us 5 years to realize that not only is that education a massive waste of money, it is in fact a dereliction of our duties (as parents) to be our kids' first and most important catechists. Hopefully we've realized our mistake soon enough that the heretical and sinful rot of that education will have not set in far enough that our children grow up to be "men without chests."