Chapters 8 to 9 - Christ’s Teachings and Today’s Christianity

- 59 - • They have no value for the Salvation of mankind, and, consequently, no church has the right to force such ordinances upon its followers and to brand any infraction thereof as a ‘grave sin’. It is true that your church [Catholic] maintains, as regards its ordinance of celibacy, that there is no compulsion in the matter, since no one is obliged to enter the priesthood or any of the orders. True enough, nobody is forced to become a priest, a monk, or a nun, but if anyone believes that he has been called to proclaim the truths pertaining to Salvation as a priest, that Church does compel him to a vow of celibacy, giving him the choice only between abandoning his chosen calling, or taking the vow to live a life of celibacy ordained not by God but by church ordinance. He is, therefore, subjected to the greatest spiritual stress that can be exerted upon a human. For although the church openly compels no one to join a religious order and, in consequence, to remain unmarried, it nevertheless exercises soul-wrenching pressure of the most powerful kind by picturing a monastic existence as the acme of perfection. Now it so happens that it is precisely the best individuals who regard it as their duty to attain to the ideal of perfection; and since a celibate life as the member of a religious order has falsely been held up as the ideal, their striving to become perfect inevitably compels them to remain unmarried. Let it not be said that God gives those who feel called to join the priesthood or a religious order the strength to lead a life of unblemished chastity. That is utter self-delusion! God gives strength only for the fulfillment of that which is God’s will, but not for the accomplishment of what men impose upon themselves or on their fellows in an outward display of so-called piety in violation of God’s will. • Goodness and perfection lie only in doing what is in keeping with the will of God, and this is at all times wholly voluntary. Never, however, can something be good or perfect if it is done under compulsion, not even if the first step was voluntarily taken but subsequently involves lifelong compulsion. Not even God exercises compulsion upon anyone to do His will. How then can a church deprive people of their right to self-determination, a right upon which God Himself never encroaches? Compulsion and enslavement are the measures by which evil governs; the rule of goodness is based on liberty. Evil, and nothing else, has introduced oppression into religion. The mania for unrestricted power over others is responsible for the introduction into the Catholic Church of the suppression of personal liberty in the guise of achieving greater perfection. The celibacy of the clergy, as well as a monastic life with vows of poverty, chastity in the form of celibacy, and blind obedience to ecclesiastical authority are the most powerful weapons of the Catholic religion for strengthening its internal organization. Neither Christ nor the Apostles know a priesthood such as the Catholic Church's; they do not recognize any religious orders. • They never taught nor founded anything of that nature.

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