Religion In The Comics - 043
From the above comic.
Here's an aspect of Catholic upbringing I missed out on. I never heard of confraternities. If I had, they would have been something for me to avoid or opt out of.
= new reply since forum marked as read
...Truly Christian™ world are completely democratic."
Where?...just where... do you insert the 
smiley?
The guy in the blue suit and red bow tie (bottom panel, second last page) even seems to be able to keep a straight face while he utters this tripe.
What do they think "completely democratic" means?
What are we supposed to understand what it means, as it is used above?
I'm not going to ask what they might mean by Truly Christian™. I have heard enough stories about sad choirboys and blind bishops.
And WTF, talk about a brobdingnagian bureaucracy...
Congregation of Indulgences...
National Catholic Rural Life Conference...
National Center of Confraternity...
Parish Parent-Educator Club...
'The Fishers'...
'Discussion Club'...
National Catholic Welfare Conference...
Not to mention where it all this started...
The Confraternity of Christine Doctrine...
And this is just a list from a few pages of a cartoon!
Why do I get the feeling that Confraternity = Conformity, in the way it is presented above?
A Catholic shorthand to get all the Baptists out of the water and on their knees?
Or something more sinister? Maybe to create a "Truly Christian™ world"? Whatever that might mean.
Oh, and note to Jury, insert standard Safe Haven Disclaimer.... <here>
"It's certainly working to put Catholic social principles into practice."
Yeah it's working GREAT as long as you're straight, cis, and opposed to all forms of contraception!
As Mark Twain wrote long ago, in the context of slavery: the Church has bitterly fought, or kept quiet, on just about every attempt to advance human social progress. Then, when society finally decides in favor of progress, the Church tries to hog the credit for it. And pretends it was in favor of that progress all along.
A hundred years from now, I'd guess the RCC will be trying to take credit for the women's rights movements, the gay rights movement, etc.
But probably not the New/Old Atheist Movement. Because we're just a bunch of abrasive assholes. 
