Remember the Fortnight of Freedom that the Catholic Bishops ginned up so that their flock would take to the streets to protest the indignity of contraception? Here’s how that’s playing in my local diocese (click to embiggen). See that little red square? It’s the amount of front page space devoted to the protest. See that creepy picture? That’s the art for the 43rd front-page story the Courier has printed about how the diocese is going to crack down on child rape, and how they really, really mean it this time. I didn’t take a shot of the next page, but it’s a full-page editorial by the Bishop explaining how he, too, really, really, really means it this time.
When these guys want to mouth off for free, they churn out press releases crying about the government’s nefarious plans to make them release their death grip from women’s uteri. When they’re paying for ink and paper, it’a apologies for their kiddie raping ways.
MattF
The Bishops clearly need to fill out one of these:
http://www.bureauofcommunication.com/compose/apology
And that will be that!
Odie Hugh Manatee
I had Catholic radio (IH radio, Cornbinder Radio!) on this AM while taking my wife to work and they were talking about rallies held yesterday across the country protesting Obama shoving birth control down their throats. The lady said that today’s protests would include “protestants, jews and muslims” joining them in a united front against swallowing birth control.
I bet the lady who was reading the announcement uses birth control…lol!
Either way, is there some way to get Christian religions listed as hate groups by the SPLC? It seems that would be a start in the right direction. All I know is that I’m sick and tired of religious nuts sticking their noses in our lives. The only difference between them and the Islamic extremists they hate is who is controlling things and the level of violence used to obtain their goals.
beltane
The real reason the media runs with the “Obama hates Catholics” press releases is to concern troll the secular wing of the Democratic party. If the Church didn’t provide them with the press releases and talking points, they’d find someone else who would.
beltane
@Odie Hugh Manatee:
It is perfectly reasonable to ask all female, forced-birth public figures why they are not pregnant at the moment. Since we live in a “both sides do it” world, our side might actually want to consider “doing it”.
Odie Hugh Manatee
@beltane:
That’s a good point. We need to know why she isn’t producing children, especially boys, for the priests to molest later at a tender age.
If the Catholic church focused on stopping priests from molesting little boys like they focus on covering their asses with distractions like this, they would have solved the problem decades ago. Of course, that argument is with the presumption that the Catholic church wants to stop child molesting and rid themselves of pedophiles.
We all know that will never happen without outside intervention.
c u n d gulag
Catholic Church – how about more of Christ’s teachings about the poor and the oppressed, and more speaking that truth to power, and less playing “Hide-the-Mitre” with the altar boys, and less concern for what women do with their bodies and their hoo-haws?
Why anyone goes to a church whose leaders are senile women-hating child-feckers, or were somehow complicit in the feckin’ of children, mostly boys, is beyond me.
And stay away from women and their lady-parts.
WTF do you know about women? – except that you want and need the nuns to coddle and care for you.
But then again, why people go to any religious institution is beyond me.
RSR
It’s wrong of course, but many institutions of power and privilege believe they have a right and duty to keep their failings (moral, ethical, and beyond) in house and ‘fix’ them behind closed doors with “discretion.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/elite-horace-mann-prep-school-students-decades-sexual-abuse-article-1.1091243
RSR
@RSR: Sorry, I forgot about the block quote snafu…everything below the link is from the linked article.
russ
It is sad, what they are doing, because every statement and action the church takes lately is shrinking their fan base. I know I for one see the church as a useless enterperprise.
Jon Marcus
Just read in the NYT:
Schlemizel
@Jon Marcus:
Yes, when will DoJ finally bring RICO action against this organized cabal of rapists, thieves, extortionists and thugs?
MattF
@Jon Marcus: Ugh. It’s hard to imagine that there’s any sentient being in the existing space-time continuum who believes the Bishops’ continuing protestations of innocence. I suppose that criterion leaves out New York State Senators.
gaz
I really hope they actually mean it, but considering that kiddie rape has been RCC tradition going back 1700 years (or at least I’m fairly certain of this), I’ll believe it when I see it.
J
With the church on a roll like this, perhaps they should put a public campaign against self-abuse (by laity) at the top of the agenda!
NotMax
Sort of in line with the topic:
Majority of Christians Hate Christian TV, Survey Finds
gaz
@Odie Hugh Manatee: “Either way, is there some way to get Christian religions listed as hate groups”
Whatever man. The loud assholes that call themselves “Christian” and wield the bible like a club are not the only ones out there.
Plenty of Christian faith communities aren’t about hate, or kiddie rape. The reason you don’t know that is you only pay attention to the loud ones.
If you shut down the churches – including the one I patronize, you’d:
1. Kill family support centers for the poor and disenfranchised. (My church provides clothing, furniture, utility and rent relief, etc, for the working poor and the unemployed)
2. Kill detox for people so far gone on drugs that treatment centers won’t take them anymore. (My church takes in people that nobody else will because they’ve burned their bridges with every center in the state)
3. Kill places that fight for the migrant workers that gather your food, including harboring them in their buildings so that ICE can’t break up their families. (My church does this)
4. Kill groups that gives gang members in the community a way out. (My pastor is invited to shot caller meetings, my church provides tattoo removal for these guys, my church employees these kids to give them something better to look forward to)
All of that, and not a single sermon hating on teh gheys, or other marginalized people. In fact, they are AGAINST that.
You aren’t paying attention. If you could live with the above, your position says more about you than it does about Christians. Many are ANTI-HATE, and many do a lot of good in their communities. They just don’t get play on national TV
http://www.tierra-nueva.org/TNHome.html
Odie Hugh Manatee
Doing some good for some does not excuse being evil. Sorry, that just doesn’t work for me. As they say, tell it to the judge and see how far that gets you. No, not all religious sects are evil, nor is all of Christianity.
There is more than enough evil in religion today and the leaders of those problem sects are not interested in stopping the evil they have been perpetrating. That and their adherents are doing little to nothing to insist on change. Stop the evil, stop the intolerance, stop the hate and stop the abuse that these religions allow and promote. That and stop pushing for their religious views to become the law of the land.
Until religious organizations do that, IMO they’re a danger to our society.
They won’t do it. Most religion thrives on making the followers feel that they are above everyone else, that they alone are “the chosen”. The followers jump through the all of the hoops placed before them, giving the clergy a pliant and loyal following.
I am tired of hearing about all of the good religion offers and only seeing the results of all of the bad that religion has done.
Remember the line, “It only takes one bad apple to spoil the barrel”? It’s true.
gaz
“Doing some good for some does not excuse being evil.”
If you can point out the evil being done by tierra nueva, be sure to let me know okay?
Until then, I invite you to get bent.
Keithly
@gaz: gaz, my understanding is that the request to ‘get bent’ from power holders in organized religion is one of the core causes of the problems that those institutions face. You might want to choose a different riposte.
gaz
@Keithly: My response was perfectly appropriate. The origins of “Get bent” mean “Get bent out of shape” – the modern usage is like a slightly less vulgar “Fuck off”
I’m not a power holder in any institution.
You might want to choose a different line of reasoning.
Specifically I was addressing OHM’s advocacy for branding all religion as a hate group.
I took the most charitable possible interpretation of his response. It would probably be more accurate to accuse him of a sweeping Broad Brush fallacy.
He’s got Religion Derangement Syndrome. It’s brought on due to overexposure to people who seek wealth and power (rather than God) and shout hate from a platform – (funny that Jesus explicitly denounced these people in the Christian gospels). The humble non wealth/power seekers don’t do this, but they are ignored. I’m at least as offended by those people as he is, but unlike him I understand what they are after – attention, not a relationship with God. It’s childish to not understand that.
He also ignores the fact that haters use religion to justify their hate. Religion doesn’t make these people this way, their own hearts do. Religion is just a tool they use to justify it. Again, it’s childish to not understand that.
I could use the broad brush fallacy, and several atheist historical figures to paint atheism as evil as well. Stalin, Pol Pot, and Mao Tse Tung, for starters. It’s a bullshit fallacy.
maya
I really wish the Catholic hierarchy would update its position on Mortal and Venial sins. To wit:
Is it still only a Venial sin worthy of two Heil Marys and an Our Father in absolution when a Republican Catholic, or, Catholic Republican lies to the American public? Or will they now burn in hell forever and ever under the pain of Mortal sin if they should suddenly keel over after lying thusly?
Also too, my feline informs me that she is no longer Catlick. She is now Pussbyterian.
Patricia Kayden
Why don’t Catholic leaders kick/excommunicate the 90+% of American Catholic women who use contraception? If they cannot stop their own women from doing something they consider a grave sin, why are they trying to push their beliefs on society as a whole?
gaz
@Patricia Kayden: Money. Power. They’d have to acknowledge that the people that support them financially ignore them in matters of faith.
The best thing that could happen to the RCC Hierarchy is for the laity to stop giving them cash and otherwise supporting them. The kindest thing one can say about them is that they’re utterly lost. If they had their money-machine and support base dismantled it might wake some of them up. Who knows?
Ruckus
@russ:
Useless would be OK. The world would not suffer from useless.
They are far worse than that.
Far, Far worse.
Ruckus
@Patricia Kayden:
If they cannot stop their own women from doing something they consider a grave sin, why are they trying to push their beliefs on society as a whole?
Because they can’t control their own.
shortstop
“Uteri” always sounds like characters in a game or perhaps a George Lucas movie.
Joseph Nobles
That OP graphic shows what this is all about. People caught in their own crimes make the loudest complaints about others. People who victimize the most innocent search high and low for ways to claim victimhood as their own.
This is why Jesus said it is better to tie a large stone around their necks and cast them into the ocean. He didn’t mean it was better for them.
Cheryl from Maryland
@gaz: Yes, child abuse by priests and the attendant coverups have been documented to the 17th Century. Read Fallen Order
gaz
@Cheryl from Maryland: I pretty much knew this, but laziness was the motivation behind my qualifier. =) In any case, thanks for providing the link. =)
Although – I meant since about 300AD not the 17th Century. Considering the Church is Roman, and we know how they rolled back then, I think it’s a safe assumption. Not so sure it was covered up back then though, because I doubt they had to.