\u201cplenary indulgences\u201d<\/em>, which reduces one\u2019s time in purgatory, to his Twitter followers. These indulgences have always been given in person but now they are being distributed virtually as well.<\/p>\nWouldn\u2019t Luther have a ball with this one? In his day indulgences were sold for large sums of money. Now all you need is a cellphone.<\/p>\n
I tweeted this news last night and some of the reactions I got, including privately, was, \u201cWhat\u2019s wrong with this? The Pope\u2019s is just conveying comfort and forgiveness to his followers. What matters is that people take this to heart and that it produce true repentance.\u201d<\/em> Devout followers are very defensive of their religion. I know. Been there.<\/p>\nWhat gets me isn\u2019t the Twitter deal. The church using social media is no big deal. Good on ya! What gets me is that all the effort, rather than going into changing theology that invokes fear, insecurity, guilt, shame and superstition, is going into embedding these superstitious beliefs even further. The church, not just the Roman Catholic church but all of the church, just finds ways of making its beliefs more entrenched by playing on the fears of its people. Religion is one of the most powerful means of trapping the mind in terror. What Luther challenged was the superstition that bound the people. Things have not changed. It\u2019s not the indulgences, it\u2019s the fear of Hell as an effective means of control.<\/p>\n
It is magical theology invented by magical theologians who concoct magical methods for its people to cope with it.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Can Roman Catholics now Twitter themselves out of Hell? I personally enjoyed doing this cartoon because it reminds me of Gandalf flying on the back of the eagles in Lord of the Rings. But here we have the Pope flying on the back of the twitter bird. Here\u2019s why: In an effort to greater use […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":349,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[603,722,3344,3613,3615,3614],"class_list":["post-14287","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cartoons","tag-david_hayward","tag-nakedpastor","tag-pope_cartoon","tag-pope_twitter_indulgences","tag-roman_catholics_purgatory_cartoon","tag-tweets_purgatory"],"yoast_head":"\n
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![\"catholics](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/328\/2013\/07\/twitter-out-of-hell-550x550.jpg\" "\\"twitter")
<\/a>