Pope rant and other news bits

As I'm sure you're all aware now (since the news won't shut up about it), there's a new pope in pedoville.  Almost immediately the Vatican had to go on damage control, since as soon as Bergoglio's name was announced information about his potential dark past began circulating www.globalresearch.ca/washingt… articles.latimes.com/2005/apr/… .  Anyone familiar with Argentina's history will immediately raise an eyebrow upon hearing of anyone in authority during the years of the military dictatorship.  No one should be so naïve as to think one can get to the highest position of authority for one of the oldest, richest and most powerful religious institutions in the world (to be regarded as “your holiness”, the infallible divine hand of god, no less) without stepping on some toes, but for one to also be in a position of authority during the reign of a brutal authoritarian who killed, tortured, and disappeared thousands of people and had no tolerance for dissent...well, I personally don't see it to be much of a stretch to think the man who personally gave communion and religious counsel to said tyrant would have some dirty hands to some degree www.dailymail.co.uk/news/artic… .  Especially as this particular religious institution has been, at the very least, silent in the face of human rights abuses, if not actively friendly with fascist regimes, including during this specific bit of Argentine history www.nytimes.com/2007/09/17/wor… www.alternet.org/pope-francis-… .

But as sick as Bergoglio's possible past dealings may have been, I find his current unabashed same ol' conservative Catholic stances to be my real issue with him (and even more my issue with the media hype, who seem to be desperately reaching to paint him as some radical shaking things up).  When I say “conservative” I don't just mean a traditional Catholic, but a stanch social and political conservative in every sense of the word.  For being a man who supposedly pays lip service to the poor, he sure seems venomously opposed to anything remotely liberal.  He's not only publicly accused the current left Argentina government of ushering in a new age of authoritarianism (which is rich coming from him), but seems to be a supporter of a far right-wing organization known as Communion and Liberation www.alternet.org/pope-francis-… .  Besides these such politics, he's loudly against marriage equality (saying it's a “a scheme to destroy God’s plan”...to which one has to wonder if God's plan is so easily destroyed then how great was his plan, omnipotence, and omniscience?) and he's against same-sex adoption, going so far as to write a letter in response to gay marriage legislation in Argentina saying it would “gravely harm the family” thinkprogress.org/politics/201… .  This is the type of arguments the great Jesuit Pope can come up with, fear mongering about how giving people equal rights will hurt families?  And of course, as a Catholic, he is obviously strongly and vocally opposed to abortion and contraception www.slate.com/blogs/xx_factor/… .  He not only equated abortion to the death penalty, but used threats of excommunication for “threats against life and family”.  Sounds about as sophisticated as Kevin Swanson www.rightwingwatch.org/categor… .  And obviously we've yet to see what, if anything, he will do about the sex abuses.  Argentina has been an exception amongst South American countries to have had numerous high profile clerical abuse scandals, specifically Archbishop Edgardo Storni, and yet despite the abnormal lack of silence in that particular country on the issue the church has remained typically defensive and relatively silent which includes the new Pope.  (Although I did run across this which shows Evangelicals aren't free of this filth either www.salon.com/2013/03/12/evang… ).  He also may have been off to a bad start with his peculiar meeting with former Boston cardinal Bernard Law www.thedailybeast.com/articles… .  

Just to seal the deal for me, I just saw an article on his spontaneous first Sunday appearance, and I was struck by what he said.  Not so much his address, but what he said to some kids afterwards.  According to the article worldnews.nbcnews.com/_news/20… :

“'Francesco, Francesco,' children shouted his name in Italian from the street. As he patted one little boy on the head, he asked 'Are you a good boy?' and the child nodded. 'Are you sure?' the pope quipped.”

…All the TONS of pedophile jokes aside that this little clip virtually screams, I more got a knot in my stomach seeing this man (who is praised as more than a man) use his church's stereotypical weapon of guilt onto some poor bystander kids.  They're goddamn children, how bad do you think they are, it's not like they're embezzled in financial scandals and sex scandals and forced labor scandals like your fucking institution old man!  That's the trick, that's why this church will just refuse to go away no matter how vile and perverse it is, from the top down it is all about guilting people.  It's convincing people that they're sick and then selling them the cure.  That's Christianity in a nutshell, taking innocent trusting children and rather than lifting them up crushing them beneath a weight of self doubt, shame, worthlessness, dogmatic rules and deceptive indoctrination which is not to be questioned.  Those boys should have asked him if he's been good, and I don't see those boys claiming to be some holy ruler beyond reproach.  At the heart of it all that is what disgusts me the most about the church (any of them), even beyond the corruption and ideology, it's the abuse.  The psychological abuse which says you're not good enough, that your very thoughts are evil, and every natural impulse you have is wrong.  That you deserve eternal suffering and torment just for being born.  It's bullshit.  Just you being alive is beautiful, because life is beautiful and amazing in that this is the only planet we know of out of billions which has it, and made even more wondrous by the millions of years it took for us to evolve to what we are now.  You're much more moral than the bronze age barbarians in their holy book, you have vastly more knowledge, and certainly more emotional depth given how they treated other humans and living things.  How dare these prude out of touch self righteous assholes accuse children they don't even know of being anything less than awe inspiring lovely human beings worthy of respect and deserving of encouragement as the future generation.  Maybe rather than condescending blind accusations at random children who just came to see him, the pope should be looking at himself, the criminals within his organization, and holding the god in his book up the same judgmental scrutiny.  How telling that he obviously thinks innocent kids are evil, while clerics who abuse, rape, and steal and a god who excuses genocide and slavery amongst other atrocities are somehow deemed the moral righteous authorities.


With that rant out of the way, let me just quickly mention a few things, including that this week is “A Week”.  To summarize their words, it's a little “online event” to promote awareness of how many people are good without gods www.aweek.biz/ .

Check out FFRF's action page ffrf.org/get-involved/take-act… , there's a few recent pieces about more fundamentalist activity in schools, but there is also a national piece of legislation which would see unprecedented public money go to restore religious institutions.  They explain it better than I could, so I'll just say if you care about issues of church and state you should definitely read it ffrf.org/news/action/item/1670… .  
They're also suing the US Treasury in an attempt to remove “In God We Trust” from US currency ffrf.org/news/news-releases/it… .

Just to stress how that wall of separation is always threatened, certain fundamentalist Christian groups seem to be regrouping and aiming their efforts for the 2014 elections www.secularnewsdaily.com/2013/… .

Obama has appointed Melissa Rogers as the new director to the Faith-Based Office, who among other things was executive director on the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.  But also a fellow with the Brookings Institution, so not sure what to expect as I'm not very familiar with her work, but hopefully a step up from DuBois (although no Faith-Based Office would be best, imho).   thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/20…

The “cure the gays” group, the National Association for Research and Therapy of Homosexuality, lost their tax-exempt status.  Unfortunately it doesn't seem to have anything to do with their practices, but that they just didn't file their forms for three years so the IRS revoked their status.  But I'll take gains where ever they come www.advocate.com/politics/2013… .

I was just made aware of a fantastic group, Hispanic American Freethinkers, so I have to give a shout out to their site hafree.org/ .

Just for some encouragement, here is a recent article about 5 young people who are truly inspiring for their work against Christian influence in public schools www.alternet.org/5-kids-bravel… .  Hemant Mehta, author of the Friendly Atheist www.patheos.com/blogs/friendly… , also has a recent book out called The Young Atheist's Survival Guide which gives plenty of similar examples, so I feel the need to plug it for you young people, as well as the not so young who want to see just inspirational the newer generations can be.

And while I'm plugging books, Lauren Drain has just come out with a book called Banished about her years in and then leaving the Westboro Baptist Church.  I haven't read it yet, but having heard what her fundamentalist father has said I'm sure it will be an interesting read.  While giving a recent interview she threw out there that Phelps might be gay himself (would any of us be surprised?) www.pinknews.co.uk/2013/03/14/…