re: #286 The Artist formerly known as Satan

You and I have gone down this road before. It is about issue remoteness. Something is more offensive to someone the more it is directed towards them. It has more cogency and more impact.

So the Catholic church saying “All gay people are damned unless they repent” is somehow supposed to offend me less than them saying “And that includes your friend Martin”?

They are performing an act. A ceremony to confer a particular status on someone posthumously.

No, this is wrong. Do you understand that this is wrong? What they do— what they feel they are doing— is offering a choice to the soul, to convert or not. A choice. Are you not getting that bit?

See my comment above. Issue remoteness. The fact that the former includes the latter is not disputed. Simply the impact that has on the family of a particular person is in question.

But that doesn’t match up; people aren’t getting upset about their own family members, they’re getting upset about it happening to people they have no connection to.

I agree that naming particular people may be part of what makes people irrationally fly off the handle at this, it doesn’t change the fact it’s an irrational response and that other religions believe in crap that’s even more patronizing and insulting.