Get God or Get Gone

There’s a new pope. I don’t know if he’s said this in the past or as the new pope but he came out saying that marriage equality is a device used by the Prince of Lies to distract us from God’s message. (I’m paraphrasing but not by as much as you’d think.) I’m glad they finally got a pope who’s from somewhere other than Europe. Now they just need to get one from this century.

If the Catholic Church comes out against gay marriage, what else is new? Blaming it on Satan? Really? I think Lucifer has some civil wars in Africa and human right’s violations in Asia he’s pretty busy with at the moment. Maybe he can work with the gays when his schedule frees up.

It comes across as hypocritical since the Catholic Church spent a good bit of the 20^th century sponsoring the Pedophile Relocation Program. Two consenting adults getting married offends god because they’re the wrong gender but grown men of the cloth can touch little boys and that’s cool. I’m sure the Council of Nicea had a footnote in the Bible about protecting your own over the welfare of innocent children.

I have very little respect for the Catholic Church as an institution. These days the Vatican is a country within a city but for the better part of 1,000 years that church owned half of Europe. For centuries popes fathered children, sponsored bloody political coups, started crusades that tortured and slaughtered nonbelievers, and lavished themselves in decadence while others starved.

The Catholic Church has worked hard to tear down science for most of its prominence. It’s still working on that and probably will be for many years to come. The Catholic Church considers many women’s rights issues to be sins or crimes against God. As much hate as they have for women, it took them a while to notice one was in charge.

I know most of this because I went to a catholic high school and sat through a year of church history. The teacher was cool so I remember more than a bit. Boy did that backfire.

I’m sure the Catholic Church does plenty of good in the world. They have lots of programs and outreach and aid for places that might not otherwise get anything. I just question the quality of place that can have so much negative history and is all too happy to pretend it never happened.

I can already hear people saying that the pope is not responsible for the actions of every church official. If the head doesn’t know what the hands or feet are doing, what kind of organization are you running? If America starts some shit in another country, the President is responsible. If a corporation does something horrible, it’s on the people running it.

I know people who are Catholics who are decent human beings. I respect them and their faith in God. I don’t have to respect their faith or its leaders. IMHO, there are places to worship the holy trio that would be less offensive to Jesus.

Current Music: Losing My Religion by Lacuna Coil

Apparently Jesus Hates Girl Scouts

The Catholic Church seems to be a magnet for bad press as of late. Between the Girl Scouts and contraception in general, I guess it’s a good time for them to hate women.

The Girl Scouts were the focus of an article in the Washington Post a little while back about how all Catholic churches are refusing to allow the troops to meet in their facilities. Their reason is that Girl Scouts support abortion.

More than once, the organization has clearly stated they have no position on those issues and those are best discussed with the girls and their families. I think this is the perfect stance for them given the highly personal nature of these issues. Yes, a majority of the national leadership is probably pro-choice but there are many participants (girls and troop leaders) who aren’t.

The Catholic church’s stance reminds me of an ultimatum one of my nuttier roommates when she declared war on one girl and some of us wanted to stay out of it: “By not taking a side, you’re taking her side.” By not taking a side,you’re not taking a side. That’s kinda how that works.

Barack Obama has been lobbying for Catholic run organizations like hospitals and a TV network watched by 334 people to include contraception in their health care plans. They say it’s a violation of their rights. I say they’re full of something other than the Holy Spirit.

Yes, the primary point of contraception is to not get pregnant. However, it also has these handy side effects of limiting the length of your cycle and severity of your symptoms. The primary reason I stay on it, despite being single, is so I can plan when I might get one of my rare but debilitating migraines. Some women get cramps so severe walking is difficult or flu-like nausea.

Not all women have extreme symptoms and some women who do don’t get them all the time. You can’t know which month Mother Nature decides you’re going down. The pill is the primary way I know to treat some of these fun and unpredictable aspects of being a woman.

Plus, not everybody who works in these places is a Catholic. In this economy, a job is a job. You might be a Jewish nurse who needed a paycheck and St Mary’s was hiring. You might be an atheist ex-con who learned how to work a camera serving your time and Catholic TV is willing to take a chance. You might kick it Jesus-style but also believe children are better off planned. It is completely unfair for your employer to decide whether or not you can afford to do that.

According to these groups, denying their employees access to contraception for medical reasons is their constitutional right. What about the rights of employees who are having their healthcare dictated by a religion they don’t follow? Isn’t that a violation of their rights? Yes, these are religious organizations but if that’s allowed to stand, several business will grab a religion just to save money, employee welfare be damned.

Every time a ‘Christian’ group pulls something like this, I can’t help but think WWJD? Who would Jesus deny full healthcare to? Who would Jesus turn away? So far, I have no good answers to those questions.

Current Music: Storytime -Nightwish