Originally Posted By: artie505
Ha! So codification negates hypocrisy?

No, but when any religious group takes the position their particular ethos is the ONLY correct understanding of God, they become a sect and the lifespan of sects are notoriously short. They either disagree among themselves on the exact meaning/interpretation of scripture and splinter into ever smaller groups until they become inconsequential or in extreme cases drink Koolaid.

All of the great teachers and prophets such as Isaiah, Jesus, Mohamed, Buddha, Guru Nanek, etc. have been tolerant of a wide range of interpretation. In fact in the Gospel of Luke, Jesus was crucified because he, "sat and ate with sinners". In my faith tradition, Presbyterian, one of our fundamental principals is mutual forbearance for differing opinions. There have been divisions (and reunions) in our denomination over the centuries, but the divisions always arose from the failure/inability of a group to follow that one basic principal and I would venture that is true of all human organizations.

Back to Mike Pence. As a good Roman Catholic he has confessed the Pope as his spiritual leader, but he has expressed strong opposition to the Pope's leadership on many "hot button" issues (typically sex or gender related such as the status of LGBTQ persons in the church, and the possibility of ordaining women) where the Pope has expressed a far more open position than his predecessor. Pence is bordering on becoming a member of an ultra- conservative sect.


If we knew what it was we were doing, it wouldn't be called research, would it?

— Albert Einstein