Hooray! Always nice to meet someone who walks the walk. (There are so few.) Apologies if I bugged you. Shutting up now.

Do you give money to the Church, because you are part of that Church, for its upkeep, (and not as a contribution meant for others, with the Church as middleman). Then it’s a tithe. Literal meaning notwithstanding - since others have pointed out that OT laws do not literally apply.

Who’s making shit up? Do you pay money to the Church or don’t you?

So none of that offering goes to the Church, it all goes to orphans and widows, etc? And you’ve never been influenced, (overt or otherwise) to give to that offering? (The very act of having the plate go around in front of everyone is coercive, btw.) Every single dollar a gift inspired by Christ?

Update - Pell has released a statement, saying he denies all allegations, and will come to Australia to face the charges. The Vatican backs him up, on both statements, he won’t be able to hide behind the Vatican, or say he can’t leave his duties there. He mentioned getting advice from his doctors, though, so he still…

Exactly. Pay what you owe, to God/religious authorities and to secular authorities. Taxes, tithes, same diff.

If you give money directly to a person, or a organisation on behalf of that person, that’s a voluntary offering. If you are giving money to a church, for the upkeep of the church itself, because you are part of that church’s congregation, that’s a tithe. You can quibble about percentages, cash vs goods, ‘required’ vs…

“Give to Caesar what is Caesar’s, and to God what is God’s.”

The very fact that you still have an offertory means that giving (whether monetary or otherwise) is part of your doctrine. It doesn’t have to be required, in the sense of cash on the barrel head or you’re out, but in the sense that you are required to love your neighbour as yourself, it’s still part of your doctrine.

So who pays the bills? God? Does he use Visa or MasterCard?

And since when is the Old Testament not part of the Catholic faith? It’s reinterpreted by the New Testament and the Crucifixion, but it’s still part of the Bible.

It’s not Catholic doctrine to give a portion of income to the Church? (We’ll skip the nitpicking of how much and of what, and the difference between ‘giving’ and ‘required’, and even OT v NT - Jesus said give to God what is God’s.) And I’m not talking about tithing Mormon-style, where everyone knows everyone else’s…

List them. Every Judeo-Christian sect that does not have a doctrinal requirement of tithe. Not ones that are loose about actually making people pony up the dough every Sunday, most are pretty forgiving about that (except the pushy prosperity gospel types).

This is good news, people! Very few cases referred from the Royal Commission have resulted in charges being laid, because of the usual problems with this kind of abuse - coverups, lack of evidence, the length of time passed (fifty plus years) etc. They wouldn’t charge him if they didn’t think they had a decent shot of…

All Judeo-Christian faiths require it. Leviticus and Deuteronomy, from memory. One tenth belongs to God and is to be given to the Church for its upkeep.

Celibacy is a red herring. Any of these ‘priests’ could have left their vocation, if sex was that important. These charges are being brought because of the work of the Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Abuse - which has scope over all institutions that had control or contact over children: religious and…

As long as the Church requires a tithe (which is the minimum every Christian is to give, one tenth of income, off the top, and doesn’t count other monetary contributions, time spent on church business, food and goods donations, the new roof fund, foreign missionary fund, etc) - then BrightEyes’ point about money is …

The term is ‘rock spider’. There was (is?) a police unit dedicated to catching paedophiles and kiddy porn peddlers, called Operation Scorpion. Cause scorpions hunt rock spiders.

I’m sorry, I don’t understand how single payer means increased prices. The gov sets the prices, so shouldn’t that mean decreased costs overall?

I know several six year olds and that’s an insult to their intelligence, diction and poise.