Yesterday I engaged a Christian evangelist (I'm assuming Protestant) on Market Street in conversation. He said that the Bible is literally true, that theories of evolution cannot explain the complexity of the human body, that people who were born and died before Jesus but didn't have a chance to hear about the Gospel went to hell, and that all the good works in the world won't save a nonbeliever. I didn't get a chance to ask for his theodicy. Also recently Susie, Kristen, Joe, Frances, and John have been very helpful in explaining bits of LDS theology and practice to me. Thank you all!

Evidently I am also obsessed with Catholicism. First I read all of James Morrow, now this: The Archbishop of Denver (which to Leonard sounds like the title of a novel) shows us the entire transcript of his interview with a New York Times reporter. Interesting bits:

• "Abortion is more accepted than ever before. A lot of young Catholics are born into a world where they know nothing but abortion...." Spot the unintentional joke!

• Abortion v. deaths in wartime: not a question of utilitarianism.

  And you can never justify it [abortion]. You can sometimes justify going to war. You may think that the Iraq war is horrible, but there may be sometimes when you can justify [going to war]. It doesn't have the same moral weight. And, it's not calculating 40 million abortions against 40,000 deaths in Iraq. That's not how you do the calculus. The calculus is on the intrinsic act itself. You know, and abortion is never, ever, ever right.

  I can understand that stance now: if you believe in the possibility of just wars, and you aren't a pacifist like John Dear, then you can consider abortion a more fundamental problem than poverty, pollution, etc. I'm not sure about whether the death penalty is a "fundamental" problem, though. I'd imagine more abortions than executions take place in the US every year [Update: Seth tells me I'm right ], but the Archbishop denied utilitarianism, so that's not the answer.

• Even if you've been a lay Catholic your whole life and have thrown yourself into Church life, your opinions on Church policy mean nothing. I really think the Archbishop here is saying "I don't care what lay Catholics think; the clergy decide Church doctrine and that's that." Given that he believes in Papal infallibility, I suppose I should not be surprised. The most lenience he gives laity: "we haven't done a good job in the Catholic Church of helping people understand the consequences of their moral decisions. You can't take every position in the world and be a Catholic." Obedience, sin followed by confession, excommunication, conversion to some Protestant denomination - take your pick! (Contrast Jimmy Breslin, who wants to be a Protestant but call himself a Catholic.)

• Voting as cooperation in the candidate's policies.

  The standing is that if you know someone is going to do evil and you participate in that in some way, you are responsible. So it's not ... "if you vote this way, should you go to confession?" The question is, "if you vote this way, are you cooperating in evil?" Now, if you know you are cooperating in evil, should you go to confession? The answer is yes.

  I wonder about the Church's policies on paying taxes to governments that perpetrate evil, or buying products from pro-choice businessowners, and so on all the way to shunning evildoers.

In Dogma, Kevin Smith's mouthpieces say many funny things about religion, specifically Catholicism. If I recall correctly, one says the doctrine of papal infallibility is what got them all into the current mess. Certainly I find it hard to believe that something supernatural happens to a guy once he becomes Pope and everything he says and does from then on is unquestionably right.

[Update: Thank you, Seth and Zed, for pointing out to me that this is an exaggeration. More information on Wikipedia and at a Catholic Encyclopedia - you pick your authority! More accurately,

...the Roman pontiff when he speaks ex cathedra, that is when in discharge of the office of pastor and doctor of all Christians, by virtue of his supreme Apostolic authority, he defines a doctrine regarding faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, by the Divine assistance promised to him in Blessed Peter, is possessed of that infallibility...

As Leonard put it, the Pope can put on an infallibility hat. Still hard to swallow. ]

But then again, I find many bits in Christian theology as a whole hard to believe, which is why that preacher on Market isn't having much luck with me.