The Tablet (aka The Bitter Pill aka RU486) is running a survey about the Extraordinary Synod of Bishop which is just starting up.
What do you say we give them a hand? I am sure that they would want your voices to be heard, don’t you think?
Wait until you see see some of the survey’s choice options.
This is their blurb:
HAVE YOUR SAY [Okay! We will!]
Take part in our survey on the bishops’ synod on the family03 October 2014 15:11Bishops from around the world are meeting in Rome from 5 to 19 October to discuss issues affecting the family.
A year ago the Vatican sent out a detailed questionnaire in which thousands of Catholics gave their views on issues such as marriage, divorce, single parenthood, gay relationships and contraception. Already in recent weeks, cardinals have openly argued over a proposal to reform the ban on divorced and remarried Catholics receiving Communion, but many other issues will be up for discussion.
What would you like to see from the synod? Take part in our survey. It will take around five minutes. We will be reporting on respondents’ views in our news coverage of the synod. Click HERE to start.
This is an ACTION ITEM! Help them out.
But wait! There’s more!
BONUS ACTION ITEM!
If you wanted to… I’m not saying’ you have to, or anything… but if you wanted you, you could comment on your favorite Q&A here. I mean, think about how helpful some of those survey suggestions are!
Loading ...
Done.
Not difficult to see the bias in the questions…
Done
Delighted to.
Done. Thanks for the heads-up, Father!
I agree with Mike above, their bias is obvious.
Done!
Done! Wish there was a fill in the blank on a couple more of those questions I did not like the options, but other than it being very left leaning it was fine but what do you expect. I hope alot of folks from here get on there and get that poll going toward the narrow path rather than the highway that it seems to want to lead people down.
Done. I’m with RJHighland, some of the questions needed clarification.
Please report the findings Father. I don’t want to give their site any more than one hit.
Done…
Male.
Female.
Other.
Gag me…
Very happily participated. The more the better!
Very biased and leaning to “spirit of” kinds of answers and outright heresies– but there were at least some answers that the slant seemed to hope nobody chose. Found them, went with them.
Loved the question on what we hoped for– so for two of mine I hoped for Mass that is tolerant of children’s noise, and choosing other asked for more extraordinary form Masses.
I would never know about these things except that I come to this blog– wheeeee!
Not as bad as I expected, but the deck is stacked for the cuddly progressive crowd.
But this one mystified me:
Isn’t “quite important” more important than just “important?”
It is biased, but at least they give the option to pick the truth for the most part.
My favorite question was the one that asked what you hoped the outcome would be.
I love how Fr. Z never passes up an opportunity to remind liberals/progressives that internet polls are not scientific surveys. (I’m a programmer, so it usually reminds me of things like deliberately reducing the security of an internet-facing program in order to increase usability — which you wouldn’t think would be a thing people do either, but it is too.)
I helped, to the best of my magisterium-supporting ability.
whose bright idea was this poll in the first place…..
Silly me: I thought the teachings of the faith were timeless.
Happy to participate. Hopefully more obedient Catholics will do so….
Sadly, I couldn’t even answer the one on artificial contraception. “Catholics must accept” versus “can in good conscience ignore” … as if it is impossible for anyone to actually gladly assent to the church’s teaching!
Done. Question 8 “how important is Communion for the divorced/remarried to you” is ambiguous. Better question “should the above be allowed to receive Communion” nope.
Taken care of
Did you also highlight the similar survey that the NY Times is running?
No option for “somewhat important” or “neither important nor unimportant”? What is supposed to be the difference between “quite” and “very”? And who thinking it was unimportant would even bother to fill out the survey? Stupid.
Throw rocks at me if you want but I wish they would change the stance on remarried couples so my answers were in support of this.
Aren’t we parents busy enough with our God-given paternal duties to be wasting time in synods making demands of this and that so that our lives are as comfortable as the lives of the wealthy. People in society, especially socialists, need to get over the fact that there are different levels of social classes in society. Some are higher than others, it’s all in God’s plan to keep some humble and others to work towards humility.
Done
I wish they had more options to add our thoughts
For those who were upset about their choices of Male, Female, or Other, it was simply so that they would be ready if Angels came to take the survey. However, Fallen Angels are probably more likely to read their site while the Holy Angels continue to read WDTPRS.
For those who were upset about their choices of Male, Female, or Other, it was simply so that they would be ready if Angels came to take the survey. However, Fallen Angels are probably more likely to read their site while the Holy Angels continue to read WDTPRS.
2. How can the Church best support families? Select up to three options.
My least favourite question, actually.
I told them that I though the Church needed to recognize that single people are also part of families and have faith formation options for adults that do not have kids. With people marrying later or not at all the idea of going from CCD, to youth group ( in some parishes this starts at 18 and goes to about 25) to family activities is leaving folks out in the cold. We can support the programs for the families, monetarily , but we are not really welcome to partake of most parish faith formation related activities. To bring it back to the family synod….just because a person has not had kids, does not mean they are not part of a family. This needs to be recognizes
Done! Biased questionnaire, of dubious statistical relevance. The “choose up to 3 answers” questions are so designed that contradicting answers may be chosen and further manipulated at will. As someone who often reviews surveys as part of my duties as part of a Research Ethics Boatd, this one does not make the grade. Or, as one of my Boatd colleagues like to say, “everyone has the God-given right to do bad research”.
“2. How can the Church best support families? Select up to three options.”
“Offer family-friendly Masses that are tolerant of noisy children”
What? Clown Masses?
“Offer separate men’s and women’s days”
To do what? To offer Mass, as in Men Priests and “Wymyn Priests?” To receive Holy Communion if they are in “irregular” relationships. Whaaat?
“Give non-judgemental advice”
What “non-judgemental advice” doesn’t mean: “Go to confession and amend your life.”
“3. Do you believe that in an ideal world a child should be brought up by a father and a mother?”
I believe that in an ideal world a child should be brought up by a male father and a female mother and a Martian. A global orientation as inculcated by 2 parents can no longer be considered as a sufficient means towards universal inclusiveness and diversity in the 21st century.
“4. What would you say are the greatest threats to marriage and family life? (Select up to three)”
Bishops who never accepted Humanae Vitae
Bishops of the “Seamless Garment” school
Bishops who are willing to hand over Jesus’ Precious Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity to people who persist in disobeying Church Doctrine.
“10. Is a couple’s decision to cohabit”
Sinful, sinful, and sinful. And VERY Unrulsey.
“12. What do you hope will be the consequences of the current synod on the family and next year’s? (Tick as many as apply.)”
I hope that Cardinal Burke will be the next Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Don’t YOU? :-)
Aaaaah, that felt good!
Done, thank you.
It seems that most of my answers were towards the bottom.
And yes: male female other>>>>give me a break
And why wouldnt the UK include the Channel Islands, doesnt seem to be that inclusive, and what in the Sam Hill can we say about people from The Isle of Man???!!!!???
There’s no good answer on some of the questions because they clearly have an agenda.
“I believe that in an ideal world a child should be brought up by a male father and a female mother and a Martian.”
Best answer EVAR, choirgirl!
‘Set out the Church’s teaching on sexuality, e.g. contraception, pre-marital sex, homosexuality’
Yes, it should be set out very clearly. Oh wait, is that like “take away” food? Catholic polls should be done in Latin so there is no confusion.
“(Tick as many as apply.)”
I always try to tick off as many as possible.
BTW choirgirl, it was very biased that in the last section “where do you live?” Mars was not an option.
The question of communion for divorced and remarried couples is very important to me but not in the way that it probably is to Tabletistas!
I held my nose and answered. Now praying for Our Lady’s intercession for extra showers of grace for perseverence upon the faithful of a land whose hierarchs encourage this kind of garbage.
Done.
Did my best to skew their stats in favor of Catholic virtue, not Catholic madness.
I rather disliked their limit of three on one of the questions though: I would have liked to have picked four threats to marriage and family because I think contraception, pornography, reluctance to commit, and gay marriage and adoption are all serious threats to the family.
I reluctantly did not choose the last, but only because it has only been a serious and growing problem in the most recent of years. Arguably, internet pornography came earlier, but I’d be willing to bet that porn certainly hasn’t hurt the cause of gay rights in a sense.
“I always try to tick off as many as possible.”
LOL, Eric!
“Offer family-friendly Masses that are tolerant of noisy children” Is there any other kind? Maybe in the UK. But if I don’t hear
screaming bratsangels in training, I think I’ve wandered into an Episcopal church by mistake.I saw the question on Mass attendance and skipped past the first option, “At least once a week” assuming the others would be more realistic. It seems they forgot the “At least once a day” catagory.
This is terribly biased but I completed it.
“How important is the question of communion…etc.” It’s “highly important” but that doesn’t let you explain why it’s highly important, yay or nay. I guess they get to interpret that. There are others.
I put a younger age. I don’t feel like being conveniently dismissed because too many respondents fall into that older demographic who are opposed.
What a stunner to find out we are now in a church where polls are replacing the Word of God.
‘Set out the Church’s teaching on sexuality, e.g. contraception, pre-marital sex, homosexuality’
Yes, it should be set out very clearly. Oh wait, is that like “take away” food? Catholic polls should be done in Latin so there is no confusion.
I thought that was trick wording so in the space they gave for “other” on that one I changed it to something like “reinforce the Church’s teaching on…”
Done. Let’s hope we skew the numbers they were anticipating.
I was rather surprised (though perhaps I should not have been so) by the question on Mass attendance. I read it and immediately thought, “Well, lately I have only assisted on Sundays like so many others, so I will have to choose a limited option.” How old-fashioned of me…”Once a week or more” was the option representing the greatest frequency. Surely they intend to show the inevitable correlation between regular assistance at Holy Mass and orthodox “views”?
Wow. I haven’t seen such a biased poll since…just, wow.
Uncertain what “Set out the Church’s teaching…” meant. Does this mean “set it out for all to see?” or “set it aside so…” Given the bias of the poll, I suspect the latter, so I went down to “Other: Reaffirm the Church’s teaching…”
Also wish that under “threats to the family” I could’ve checked off at least 4, not just 3. Because in addition to the obvious, the sad fact of the matter is that there are too many poor family role models.
Poll trolled. I mean thoughtfully and prayerfully answered…though any first grader at a decent Catholic school or homeschooled could have answered the entire thing correctly =-p
I was happy to help out. I love the “non-judgmental” option, as if every other option was judgmental.
“Offer family-friendly Masses that are tolerant of noisy children”
Hilarious. This option was infamously inspired by the infamous Bishop Kieran Conry:
http://tinyurl.com/BpConry
… whose comments became an infamously hot topic of conversation:
http://tinyurl.com/CHnoisy
… and inspired a counterpoint from an infamous Saved Pusson:
http://tinyurl.com/otqtw68
Done. As a person who was divorced, received an annulment, and is now married. I find the survey rather bias and insulting. It points up the real problem with the circus around the Synod, and the Church as a whole: That there is an attitude that there are no objective truths and that everything is up for debate, question and change. This is at the heart of the so-called “Spirit of Vatican II” that has tortured the Church these last 50 years and my entire life.