Let's take this blow by blow, shall we?
Proclaiming a sense of new energy and empowerment, the nation's Roman Catholic bishops on Wednesday issued instructions to Catholic voters that their eternal salvation could be at stake when they cast ballots.
TRANSLATION: You've forgotten about the whole hiding pedophile priests thing by now, right?
Bishops emphasized that voters must consider the church's teachings on abortion and other moral issues when they select a candidate for the White House or any other office. If they don't, bishops said, it's not clergy who will judge them but God.
The word "consider" implies that they're not saying that their word is the be all and the end all. Thing is, while the Vatican always says that one should keep one's own conscience, they won't hesitate to emphatically declare all who disagree to be of faulty conscience.
There's talk about Iraq too, and they take up a position I agree with there, but that's not the point. This is over the line even as far as religious interference in politics goes. Jerry Falwell may have been into some far more serious bullshit than the Catholic Church, but even he never put out a document saying that a vote for a candidate who disagrees with him would send you to hell. That being said, the breadth of transgressions that damned you in his eyes may have implicated all people who voted against the GOP anyways, but he never made a one to one correlation between dissent and damnation.
No one, not even Mahatma Ghandi in his day, has any business proclaiming themselves to be a moral authority. I don't give a shit what organization gave you a hat. If you go around saying that people's souls are in danger if they don't vote your way, you've earned yourself a spot against the wall, come the revolution.
Speaking of which, a spy tells us that we need to rethink what "privacy" means.
Sounds a bit like a rapist saying that we need to redefine "consent."
Privacy no longer can mean anonymity, says Donald Kerr, the principal deputy director of national intelligence. Instead, it should mean that government and businesses properly safeguard people's private communications and financial information.
Who here is as excited as I am? Remember how much fun it was redefining the right to a fair trial, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly, and separation of church and state?
the very concept of a Constitutional protection of privacy, as implied by the third, fourth, and ninth amendments, refers specifically to protection from government agents intruding upon one's home and effects. It's based on a healthy distrust of government that the framers all had. Saying that privacy means that government and business interests have the key and you can trust them is fundamentally bullshit.
In the words of my friend Anna, I'll be on the battlements with a bottle of scotch and a vat of boiling oil. Feel free to join me.
Your friend Anna I might have to join.
ReplyDeleteIf the Catholic church were not so notoriously hypocritical already I laugh.
A totally unrelated comment to say that I hath returned to the blogosphere. I'm extending my apologies to all who know me from over a year ago... my revived blog vainly attempts to explain what was going on.
ReplyDeleteIt was great to see that you're still blogging EW... you're one of the originals still standing!
Hope you're well, mate. Again, I'm truly sorry for being off the radar for so long...
I think the thing about the Catholic Church V the radical right is that most Catholics of my generation and younger--that I know--can't generalize--think for themself-well all people I know who are born Catholic do--and their mother's and grandmothers
ReplyDeleteBut many Evangelicals who think for themselves are scared to talk publicly, unlike say the Dawg--and many are sheep
In Myrtle the first time I came across people trying to sell Jesus I was a bit--get away from me--I'm an agnostic Jew--but wouldn't say that
I worked for a Catholic nursing home and saw how they got around the doctrine--which I will tell you someday if you're interested
Is voting for leaders on Earth not a little immoral to start with? Surely we should all be concentrating on getting a good seat in the hereafter!
ReplyDeleteHold on, I'm talking shit.
It shows great potential for a campaigning tool, and the slogans would be awesome...
ReplyDelete"Vote for me or burn in hell for all eternity!"
"Voted #1 by God Himself."
Cooper: They usually manage to put at least some sort of wispish veil on it though.
ReplyDeleteSteve: You and Sally make two of my original "crew" to resurface. awesome.
Pia: I've been thinking of putting buttons with phrases on the inside of my coat flap so that I can pull them out at any time. "Fuck off, I'm an atheist, would be one of them.
Mimey: Yes, but to a slightly lesser degree than the Holy See. Oh dear that rhymed. Please accept my apology... fuck
Steve: Hasn't been a campaign slogan, but there have absolutely been bumper stickers to that effect here.
The bishop's issuance is a clear reminder, I think, on the reason why there's a seperation between church and state.
ReplyDeleteAnd the privacy issues, well, lord, just wait 'til we really start going on the complete horseshit it is to have a different set of privacy laws for each new information technology we've adopted - telephony, mobile wireless, cable v. broadcast television, radio, and, heh, the billion pieces of the "Internet."