hobbit-humanist
Humanism, atheism, some politics and lots of common sense.
Archive for the category “Newspapers”
More Of The Same
Same story, different day. That’s how I feel about the election of the new pope. Argentina’s Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio is now Pope Francis I. What a pope from outside of Italy? Not really, he’s a second generation Italian immigrant, talk about keep it in the family!
What we will get is more of the same prejudice and ignorance by a geriatric that is out of touch. How on earth people can wait outside the Vatican for the news is beyond me, and frankly I feel, quite sad.
When I saw footage from inside the Vatican yesterday and saw all the opulence or… maybe even decadence I thought … if Jesus ever existed is this what he would have wanted or been about?
The Catholic church and everything it stands for sickens me to the core.
An Admission
I blogged a few days ago about the head of Scottish Church and main catholic representative in Britain cardinal Keith O’Brien and sexual allegations made against him. Back when I wrote the blog he was going to contest the allegations and apart from himself and the accusers nobody knew if he was culpable or not. The news today confirms he is in fact guilty as he’s made an admission that says;
“I wish to take this opportunity to admit that there have been times that my sexual conduct has fallen below the standards expected of me as a priest, archbishop and cardinal.”
All I can say is what a complete and utter shambles the catholic church is.
Hypocrite
Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the biggest head honcho in the catholic church in the UK is resigning amid claims of inappropriate behaviour. Yesterday I read he was going to take legal action over the claims yet today he’s resigning. Ironically this is the same Cardinal O’Brien that has spoken out in the past about same sex marriages.
I’m sure it will be hard to prove or disprove the allegations and they were committed some years ago however I suspect there must be something in them as they would have never surfaced and are by multiple people. This means our most prominent catholic won’t be able to cast a vote for the new pope, oh that’s a real shame.
As well as the above there’s all sorts of rumours surrounding the resignation of the pope such a this report here.
Seemingly everything that happens regarding the catholic church recently is mired in scandal and controversy. Would any rational person want to put their trust the men that run it?
Spiritual China
I keep reading articles about how the Chinese are embracing religion now the country is becoming more open and dare I say it… westernised. Being an anti-theist I read such things with concern but having been to China myself part of me isn’t worried either. Some years ago I spent time in Hong Kong, Macau and visited some of the more southern cities in the new territories around Hong Kong, I’ve also visited Thailand several times. Orientals are if nothing a pragmatic people.
It’s fair to say China has changed a great deal over the last decade, my friend Gary has been living there a good few years and often tells me of new changes and trends, a Chinese friend I have has also embraced Christianity. When you look at the big picture of course religion has been largely closed off especially in the past and the Mao and cultural revolution era (though it wasn’t very cultural at all!). Mao of course went one further than Karl Marx’s ‘Opium of the people’ comment and referred to religion as poison, so he had some redeeming things about him then!
Even in more recent times the Chinese government have been known to crack down on religion for instance the spiritual sect of Falun Gong saying they were opposed to communism and science. Now we are seeing a more tolerant China and some religions of course don’t need inviting before they shove their proverbial foot in the door, especially Christian Evangelists.
The Christians doing missionary work in China will be pretty much use the same tactics as they do elsewhere. Tell the people they are sinners, they need to be born again to achieve salvation, submit and then follow a book that has no relevance to the Chinese people culturally and then of course lets see the colour of your money.
They will sell things like the ‘golden rule’ as a nugget of Christian wisdom to win hearts and minds, the irony being Confucius had thought of this a few hundred years before, so had Buddha, so had the Greeks and many other cultures around the world from antiquity. Christianity would have it as their own though because other faith’s simply don’t count because when it comes to other religions Christian fundamentalists and Evangelicals are somewhat atheist about other gods.
Hopefully Christianity is just another new thing to be experienced by the Chinese as western trends and influences become increasingly accessible. The Chinese aren’t stupid though, they’ll look at their history and see that they were far superior culturally and technologically around the time of the alleged Christ and they had Confucius’s wisdom way before. China doesn’t need Christian meddling but I suspect in the coming years it will get it regardless, so to end with and twist a little phrase of mine ‘I hope they wake up and smell the Chinese tea!’.
Oh No Soho
Soho is one of my favourite areas in London. When I visit, which isn’t as often as I’d like I often wander through it because it has a certain bohemian vibe to it. Little streets with interesting architecture, pubs nestled in corners, a small street market and quirky little shops. Yes, its also known as a seedy area too but that area seems to be confined to a certain locale and its more pornographic book shops now and the odd lap-dancing club I think. A friend in London tells me that area has been cleaned up somewhat and much of Soho has had a cosmetic face lift, there certainly seemed to be lots going on last time I was there. I’d recommend Soho in the daytime for anyone visiting, Soho square being especially nice in summer.
It came as no surprise yesterday when I read gay Catholics were holding masses in Soho but this has now come to stop because Vincent Nichols the Archbishop of Westminster has ordered an halt to it. Though I often muse on why gay people worship in the first place I do feel for them in this instance. Seemingly the masses have been going on for several years but the Catholic church seems determined to take a hard line on the gay issue.
On a positive not I found an article today in which many worshippers who attended the Soho masses have found a new venue in Mayfair and have been made very welcome.
I don’t know why the church has a problem with gay people but the reality is its something that isn’t going to go away. There were gay people in the past, there will be gay people in the future, it’s most likely genetic (there’s several theories and explanations), and if god is the so called creator then what went wrong? Christians feel free to put me right on this one.
I’m not gay but I agree in equality for all and that that love transcends sexual orientation.
Extradited
At long last terror suspect Abu Hamza and four others are being extradited to the United States after a long protracted legal battle. I’m sure they’ll find the facilities over there even less comfortable than the UK. Personally I’ve no sympathy at all.
Hamza caused a great deal of upset and controversy, he hated Christians, Jews, Secularists alike and this produced much tension in the community where he was based. Given chance of course Hamza and like minded people would like to plunge the world into a Muslim dark age, where women come secondary and where archaic laws rule the populace, all in the name of Allah.
At least Hamza who is an imam won’t be able to preach on the streets any more like he once did.
I’m all for free speech but not the religious fundamentalist kind, be it Muslim or Christian that seeks to impose its will on the populace. This being the will of ignorant old men from long ago that in reality knew very little and what they did know has little relevance in the world we live in today.
Abuse Of Power
Yet another day, yet more stories of abuse by those in power within the church. On the UK national news today we had this story involving abuse in the church of England. The conclusion to a report into the abuse;
“A profoundly negative culture” within the Diocese of Chichester led to two decades of child protection failures.
One canon is reported to have been accused of 38 sexual offences against 18 children and young teenagers, another ex priest faces 29 charges of sexual offences against three boys.
Not wanting to leave out religious people across the pond we have Atlanta pastor Craig Lamar who is reported to have had multiple affairs with both men and women inside and out of his congregation and also has HIV.
Abuse of power? Without doubt.
Invariably
This weekend here in England it is a bank holiday, a long weekend of taking it easy, relaxing, taking a short break somewhere, drinking and generally doing what we want to with the extra time given. Bank holiday Monday began for me with a phone call from my dad who said he’d possibly broken his wrist or arm in a fall. I went around to his place and noticed the swelling and then took him to the local hospital casualty and he’d broken his wrist as suspected.
After spending a good deal of time at the hospital I got him home and settled and then thought to myself ‘the day can only get better’. A cup of vanilla earl grey in hand I sat down to relax and read the news online. One thing is for certain these days is that invariably religion or religious related news makes a regular, if not daily appearance and invariably its not good news.
The first story I came across was a report of people being beheaded in Afghanistan by the Taliban for apparently socialising together. The Taliban it would seem do not like men and women mixing socially. Why? Religious perspective of course.
The second story regarded the ongoing saga involving Scottish plans to introduce gay marriage. Pardon the pun here but it seems the catholic church aren’t taking this laying down. The catholic church sees marriage as a lifelong union of a man and a woman. Can I just take this opportunity to tell people of the christian faith that people were getting married before christianity came along, in ancient Rome and Greece same sex relationships weren’t a big deal, and why should they be? We don’t live according to biblical/Islamic law and we are better for it. Cardinal O’Brien, the head figure in the Scottish catholic church said back in March that same sex marriages are;
“A grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right”
This coming from a man who represents a church that has a proven track record of its priests fucking little boys, is that less grotesque than consenting adults fucking each other?
In The News
There’s been some interesting and sad articles in the news of late. Firstly there’s the tragic news of the shooting at the Sikh temple in Wisconsin. Some details are emerging and it is suspected that it may have been a hate crime going by certain tattoo’s on the killers body.
“This is something we have been fearing since 9/11, that this kind of incident will take place,” said Rajwant Singh, chairman of the Washington-based Sikh Council on Religion and Education. “It was a matter of time because there’s so much ignorance and people confuse us [as] being members of Taliban or belonging to [Osama] bin Laden,” he told Associated Press.”
