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Monday, January 24, 2005
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THEOLOGY OF DEATH
Many have argued that radical Islam represents a culture of death. American social conservatives say that modern America is one. This past weekend, the Roman Catholic Church reminded us all that they invented the very concept.
The Church, in which I was raised, has a long history of sectarian violence that streches from the Spanish inquisition through its inaction during the Holocaust. Though it no longer wishes to be seen as engaging in or promoting violence, the Holy See may well be the most visible proponent of human misery in the world today. As a lapsed Catholic who is seemingly incapable of being excommunicated, the Church declares itself to be speaking in my name.
I take hearty exception to virtually everything it has to say. At best, its positions are demonstrable nonsense. At worst, it does nothing short of advocate casual genocide. I'd like to start with the demonstrable nonsense, if I might.
Unlike the United States, gay marriage is a legal reality in most of Canada. The Courts of Appeal in Ontario, Quebec and British Columbia (the three provinces where most Canadians actually live) have ruled that any ban on same sex marriage is unconstitutional. This leaves the federal government to pass a new law that would bring the remaining provinces in line. The Supreme Court of Canada has ruled than any such law would be legal.
The Church doesn't see it that way. This weekend, they sent a letter to Prime Minister Paul Martin insisting that he invoke the Notwithstanding Clause of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.
For those of you unfamiliar with the comedy gold that is Canadian constitutional theory, I'll explain. The Notwithstanding clause is a built in "fuck you" mechanism. It allows the federal government or any province to keep a law on the books that has been ruled unconstitutional by the courts. Were the U.S constitution to have such a clause, segregation would still be in effect today and Roe v. Wade would be meaningless. In fact, President Nixon could have used it to ignore United States v. Nixon and keep the tapes that ultimately destroyed him.
The Notwithstanding clause allows Canadians to pretend that we take our rights seriously, but not that seriously.
Now, if I were the Catholic Church, I wouldn't run around mentioning the Notwithstanding clause all that frequently. Because it could, in theory, allow the federal government or any province to outlaw the Catholic Church. Religious freedom is just as tenuous as any other in Canada.
Of course, you could argue that the Church has every right to tell the government of Canada, just as I scream about what they should or shouldn't do. There's an important distinction to be made, though. That is that I pay taxes and the Catholic Church does not. The Church is free to tell people who believe that there's an invisible man in the sky what they may or may not do. However, if they want to weigh in on what what everyone else gets to do, I suggest they start paying the entrance fee.
Catholic opposition to gay marriage is merely silly. They way it has recently demontrated its opposition to abortion in Boulder, Colorado is outright offensive. It turns out that they have been getting the ashes of cremated fetuses from an abortion clinic and giving them funerals. Not only is this offensive to virtually everyone involved, it violates Church doctrine.
The Church, imbued with the same mongloid mysticism that marks most religions, has specifically stupid rules about funerals. Specifically, they are not to be performed for non-Catholics. How should anyone know which grains of ash came from a Catholic mother and which ones didn't? Actually, as none of those ashes were baptized or confirmed and, therefore, none of those ashes are Catholic. In short, that church is violating its own doctrine to make a purely political point.
And by the way, how would you like a bunch of fanatics using the remnants of the most painfully personal decision you'll probably ever make to make a cheap point? My guess is that you wouldn't respond well. The fact that is about abortion is irrelevant really. It could be anything. It would be hard to argue that strangers are using people's most private issues as a PR stunt. Even abortion opponents, whose views I generally do respect, should be offended by this.
Will the Vatican condemn this bizarre orgy of death? Of course not. It fits their party line.
While most Catholic dogma is, in my opinion, retarded and deeply offensive, from time to time they shift into the outright genocidal. Genocide isn't new to Catholicism. Ask Europe's Jews. That is if you can find any. From the Inquisition in the fifteenth century to the Holocaust of the twentieth, when the Church itself wasn't committing unspeakable atrocities against Jews, it stood aside silently and watched. This is because it was the official position of the Vactican until 1962 that the Jews killed Christ. This displays an almost shocking ignorance. The Jews didn't kill Christ, the Italians did. That Rome is Catholicism's hometown explains the misconception somewhat. It looks bad if one condemns Romans from....Rome. It presents something of an appearance problem, if you know what I'm saying.
Yet, Pope Pius XII - a passive spectator to the Holocaust, and not infrequently referred to as "Hitler's Pope" - is currently on the fast track to sainthood.
Since you can count the number of people in North America and Europe who take anything the Church has to say seriously with your fingers and still have one free to pick your nose, the Church has focused on the Third World.
The Third World is noted for three things; poverty, ignorance and despair. Luckily, these are often the conditions that often breed blind religious faith. To those who take exception to this in reference to the Catholic Church, just remember that you didn't when I said the same about militant Islam.
And there is a significant difference between the jihadists and the Holy See. However psychotic the reasoning and methods, militant Islam seeks some manner of independence and dignity for its followers, albeit incredibly demented. The Catholic Church, on the other hand, actually celebrates poverty, despair and ignorance. Mother Theresa actually called poverty "a gift from God." Presumably, she said this just before boarding a Lear jet provided by the tyrannical Duvalier family of Haiti.
I remain amazed to this day that none of the recipients of "God's gift" didn't punch that Albanian dwarf in the mouth.
On Saturday, Pope John Paul II went a step further than the Church's regular endorsement of starvation and stupidity, he actually endorsed suicide. This amazes me in ways that the English language can't adequately describe.
Pope John Paul on Saturday stressed that the Roman Catholic Church believed abstinence and fidelity within marriage, and not condoms, were the best way to stop the spread of HIV/AIDS.
The Pope's words, spoken to a new ambassador to the Vatican, took on an added significance being his first direct comment on the controversial topic since a Catholic official in Spain this week appeared to question the Church's stand against condoms.
"The Holy See ... believes prevention through education about the sacredness of life and the correct practice of sexuality, that is chastity and faithfulness, is necessary above all other things in order to prevent this disease responsibly," the 84-year old Pontiff said in a written address.
The Church opposes condoms in all except the rarest of circumstances because they are a form of contraception.
It says promoting the use of condoms to fight the spread of AIDS fosters what it sees as immoral and hedonistic lifestyles and behavior that will only contribute to its spread.
They have got to be fucking kidding. It is hardly a secret that, in the Third World, promiscuity is a virtue held above even faith, in that it is a demonstration of virility. That this may seem like an incredibly racist thing to say doesn't negate the fact that it happens to be true. And given that this statement is directed at the only people who still listen, those in the places hardest hit by HIV/AIDS, makes it the most irreponsible thing I've ever heard.
The message is also particularly obscene considering its messenger. The Catholic Church demanding sexual restraint would be laughable if the consequences weren't so fucking tragic. I'm not exactly sure how many billions of dollars the Church has paid in settlements because priests saw their Sunday schools as discount whorehouses, but I'm certain it's several.
If Catholic priests are so demonstrably incapable of controlling their own libidos, how DARE they demand that of their flocks? And to do so while declaring that the one means of protecting themselves and their families from certain death is a mortal sin is incomprehensibly evil.
There are countries in sub-Saharan Africa where HIV infection is approaching 30% of the population! Apparently this isn't high enough for the Church. What will be enough? How many people - whose only real sin is being ignorant enough to have any faith at all in the Church's ritualistic nonsense - will have to die before the Church, at long last, sees the blood on its hands?
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