The Church's half-hearted attempt at reconciliation with those it dispossesses

The modern Church's emphasis on "Jesus, your personal saviour" (Kevin Smith's "buddy Jesus"), on "loving the sinner while hating the sin," on "interfaith dialogue" all come down to the same thing:  it is the closest that the Church can come, as an institution, to saying "we screwed up."

It is the closest that the Church can come, as an institution, to admitting that the theology on which it bases its claim to own text which belonged to others has been the cause of crusades, of pogroms, of the Holocaust, of hate crimes against people who love their own gender because that is how they are made.

When I say "the Church" I do not mean only the Catholic Church, but the Church as a whole, because the Protestant churches also predicate their existence on the adoption doctrine set forth in the letter to Romans.

This is why the Church will "tolerate" marriage equality, but will not accept it as religiously valid, even though text is quite clear that marriage equality was accepted in the social/religious world which generated and owned the text.

Peter Abelard (1079 – 1142), a contemporary of Maimonides, has been one of few Christian theologians to challenge the notion that the only way to access God is through Jesus.  But he did not start with that theology.  Before his...surgery his theology was in accord with Christian triumphalism.  After he was castrated by the men of the Fulbert, uncle of Heloise and canon of the cathedral of Notre Dame, his theology changed to one of greater acceptance and tolerance.  His theological formulation was not well-received.  Among his chief opponents was Bernard of Clairvaux, who promoted the beneficial value of the Second Crusade, and (as it is politely phrased) "preached against the Cathars," a diplomatic way of saying he advocated what became known as the "Albigensian Crusade."

In contrast to Bernard, who upheld the rightness of Church doctrine no matter what, Abelard advocated a more humanist theology, in which he said the way to God was not limited to Christians, nor was it restricted to belief in Jesus.  Abelard's theological formulation was declared heresy.  That was about 1000 years ago.

1000 years later, the Church still protects itself by anathematizing others.