Forgive Me Father

"The story of groups of Catholic gays being denied communion when they approach the priest wearing rainbow clothing has jumped from Australia, where the Rainbow Sash Movement began, to Chicago.

"Color me baffled again. Catholic teaching is clear. If you are living in “mortal sin,” you are not allowed to take communion. To do so is to commit yet another mortal sin. Mortal sins include all gay sex, masturbation, adultery, birth control, lying, skipping mass on Sunday, and a host of other fun things.

"The only way to get communion once you commit a mortal sin is to go to confession and be absolved of your mortal sin by being truly sorry and promising not to do it again. In the Catholic world, all non-celibate homosexuals are barred from communion unless they’ve just confessed, been absolved, and not yet sullied themselves again.

"This is all silly, of course. Catholicism is delirious of course. But, come on, people: If you don’t believe in the teachings and moral requirements of a particular church, go find another church!"

— Rex Wockner, gay journalist.

Nail on the Head

Rather surprising that a bourgeois liberal like Penelope Leach would say something so absolutely on the mark:

Why is it socially reprehensible for a man to leave a baby fatherless,but courageous, even admirable, for a woman to have a baby whom she knows will be so?

The Case Against Pacifism

If we believe that if Britain had only been fortunate enough to have produced 30% instead of 2% of conscientious objectors to military service, Hitler's heart would have been softened and he would not have dared attack Poland, we hold a faith which no historic reality justifies

Yet most modern forms of Christian pacifism are heretical. Presumably inspired by the Christian Gospel, they have really absorbed the Renaissance faith in the goodness of man, rejected the Christian doctrine of Original Sin as an outmoded bit of pessimism, have reïnterpreted the Cross so that it is made to stand for the absurd idea that perfect love is guaranteed a simple victory over the world, and have rejected all other profound elements of the Christian Gospel …
This form of pacifism is not only heretical when judged by the standards of the total Gospel. It is equally heretical when judged by the facts of human existence. There are no historical realities which remotely conform to it. It is important to recognize this lack of conformity to the facts of experience as a criterion of heresy.

— Reinhold Niebuhr

Down with Bourgeois Atheists!

I've been reading "I Don't Believe in Atheists" by Chris Hedges and it is really good!

Those who believe in collective moral progress define this progress by their own narrow historical, cultural, linguistic and social experience. They see "the other" as equal only when the other is identical to themselves. They project their own values on the rest of the human race. These secular and religious fundamentalists are egocentrics unable to accept human difference. Those who are different do not need to be investigated, understood or tolerated, for they are intellectually and morally inferior. Those who are different are imperfect versions of themselves.

These secular utopians, like Christian fundamentalists, are stunted products of a self-satisfied, materialistic middle class. They seek in their philosophical systems a moral justification for their own comfort, self-absorption and power. They do not question the imperial projects of the nation, globalization or the vast disparities in wealth and security between themselves, as members of the world's industrialized elite, and the rest of the human race. Philosophy, like theology, is often in the service of power. This creed is no exception.

True in Politix and Relegion

"The fundamentalist mind … looks upon the world as an arena for conflict between absolute good and absolute evil, and accordingly it scorns compromises (who would compromise with Satan?) and can tolerate no ambiguities. It cannot find serious importance in what it believes to be trifling degrees of difference: liberals support measures that are for all practical purposes socialistic, and socialism is nothing more than a variation of Communism, which everyone knows is atheism."

— Richard Hofstadter
Anti-Intellectualism in American Life

Sounds About Right ...

From Indexed

Socialistes Pour la Vie!

French Socialists march for Life!

Slogans include:

• Right to housing, right to work, right to life!
  
• Capitalism is death, revolution is life!
• Our lives are worth more than their profits!
  

Check out their blog if you speak French!