Much needed conversation here. Thank you for this. Never has the phrase MEN CREATED GOD IN THEIR OWN IMAGE rung truer! Religion is just control.
Religions (almost all) survive by controlling women and taking away their rights. They hide the evil acts of their priests, ministers and rabbis who molest and rape the children entrusted to them. They disrespect other religious groups and use religion as a political tool. If I had a god it sure wouldn't look like these religions' gods.
The native American religions for the most part honored and respected women as equal partners with men. This idea was destroyed when the Europeans with their male centric ideas took over most of the Americas unfortunately. To a lesser extent African cultures honored women as well but the same thing happened to them as happened to the natie American cultures. Destroyed by European conquerers.
A dear friend of mine is a devout Catholic and ….. a Trump supporter. You cannot call yourself a Christian and support the anti-Christ. if it’s so obvious to people like us, why isn’t it obvious to them?
Same. I have a good friend who is Pentacostal, and supports Trump. Yet, he immigrated from India, has lived in Mexico and Columbia and loves the people, he has gay friends, and supports government programs (I.e. vaccinated, public schools.. ).
The only way he is conservative is his patriarchal views. However, he defends Trump because he is being persecuted. WTF?
I'm not a very religious person. I believe the world would be better off without Religion dividing us into little cults. The Catholic church is responsible for so much human suffering in the name of God. Surely a loving God could never endorse it. Great article. Thank you!
Fundamentalism is dangerous in all its forms whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, hell even Atheism. Unfortunately they are running the asylum. I hope we can get through this but some days I have my doubts.
The Vatican been caught in more than one financial scandal. Giving your money to a cult that shifts predators around to hide child abuse is a bad idea. The lack of transparency and the government funding of hospitals run by the Catholic church is a recipe for malfeasance. The vatican has paid out around 1 billion dollars in settlement for child abuse. Everyone who got a payout was required to sign a non disclosure agreement. Nothing says trust me like a non disclosure agreement. Good article there are a lot more atrocities through our history but the fee for writing a story and disclosing all of the "good" works of the catholic church would merit a very significant amount of time. I got my $20 dollars worth. Thanks Ossiana All the best to you and yours.
The hospital thing has enraged me for years! They wanna run them with their religious rules? Fine -- go right ahead. Just don't expect a PENNY from Medicare or Medicaid.
I was furious with Obama when he carved out an "exception" during the ACA fight. Yes, he was being pressured -- the bishops & cardinals swarmed Capitol Hill. The Church went "judge shopping" to find those who'd overturn ACA rules they didn't like.
It IS a religious subsidy. Full stop. ABSOLUTELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL, but money talks & they always find donors to fund their blatant political campaigns.
I am an elderly Roman Catholic. The FIRST mistake was no conspiracy trials when the sex abuse scandals erupted. If DOJ had pressed charges, we wouldn't be fighting this battle now -- too many dioceses would have been bankrupted. They would be trying to stay afloat, not take over (money making) healthcare.
Excellent article. Another modern example is the residential schools. Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in religious schools. Many of them were abused and neglected. Thousands died. In Canada, 2/3 of those schools were Catholic. It's a major topic here in Canada, but I know the residential schools existed in the US and Australia as well.
I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools. and left the church as soon as I got out of my parent's house. It's astonishing to see so many people stay in a church where you wouldn't want to leave your children alone with any of the priests. A friend who's a devout Catholic, had a priest offer to take her two sons on a ski trip. She had a bad feeling and made up an excuse, since she couldn't directly challenge his authority. Later, it came out that he'd been victimizing young boys in the parish for years. I'm thankful that my brothers never wanted to be altar boys.
My mother died in a Catholic hospital. They did give her pain medication, administered via a pump by pressing a button. They put my sister, brother and me in charge of giving her the doses, and left us alone to figure it out, so maybe that was their Catholic way of not being responsible for reducing pain and suffering.
"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan is a novel about the Magdalene Laundries, and how the community looked away and justified the terrible injustice toward women. And. also how one man dares to take a stand at great cost.
As far as hospitals are concerned if a hospital is funded by the government in any way THEN it cannot bar medical procedures that are totally legal. IF THE hospital is privately funded then they choice the procedures they want to do. Similiar with church schools vs public schools. However even church schools are required to teach certain things if they are to be accredited as "schools" for educating children. The situation gets muddy if church hospitals take public money. They often do this under the table so to speak so they can do what they want and get funded by the government. It is up to the government to crack down on this, but the political will to do this is often lacking even though legally there is authority to do this.
Did you know the abortion prohibition began as a compact with Napoleon?
"It comes as a shock to most people that the Catholic Church’s fierce opposition to abortion was not always what it is today, because the Church pretends that its position on pregnancy termination has been based on a “right to life” and has remained unchanged for 2000 years. Poppycock. In fact, it has varied continually over the course of history, with no unanimous opinion on the subject at any one time...It was as late as 1869—only about a century and a half ago—that Pope Pious IX ruled all abortion murder and defined it as excommunicable.
And therein, my friends, lies a tale.
Napoleon III was gravely concerned that the birth rate had been dropping and that France would face a serious depletion of soldiers for its wars and colonizations. Pius IX, for his part, had long yearned to pass a doctrine of papal infallibility—but had faced opposition from within the church as well as from external kings, czars, and the like. But Napoleon was an emperor.
So the two struck a deal.
In return for Napoleon’s powerful support for papal infallibility, Pius would change the Church’s regulation of abortion—which at that time forbade the procedure only after quickening, at about three months. But Pius, a shrewd bargainer, played hard to get. So Napoleon threw in a further inducement—that all teaching positions in French schools would thereafter be filled by the Church.
Done.
Napoléon would get his huge crop of babies to grow into cannon fodder, because the Vatican would outlaw all abortion. In return, Pious and all popes after him would get their infallibility plus Roman Catholic control of French children’s minds (and those of kids in colonies around the world) for generations to come.
Much needed conversation here. Thank you for this. Never has the phrase MEN CREATED GOD IN THEIR OWN IMAGE rung truer! Religion is just control.
Religions (almost all) survive by controlling women and taking away their rights. They hide the evil acts of their priests, ministers and rabbis who molest and rape the children entrusted to them. They disrespect other religious groups and use religion as a political tool. If I had a god it sure wouldn't look like these religions' gods.
The native American religions for the most part honored and respected women as equal partners with men. This idea was destroyed when the Europeans with their male centric ideas took over most of the Americas unfortunately. To a lesser extent African cultures honored women as well but the same thing happened to them as happened to the natie American cultures. Destroyed by European conquerers.
A dear friend of mine is a devout Catholic and ….. a Trump supporter. You cannot call yourself a Christian and support the anti-Christ. if it’s so obvious to people like us, why isn’t it obvious to them?
Same. I have a good friend who is Pentacostal, and supports Trump. Yet, he immigrated from India, has lived in Mexico and Columbia and loves the people, he has gay friends, and supports government programs (I.e. vaccinated, public schools.. ).
The only way he is conservative is his patriarchal views. However, he defends Trump because he is being persecuted. WTF?
There is just no logic to it all.
I'm not a very religious person. I believe the world would be better off without Religion dividing us into little cults. The Catholic church is responsible for so much human suffering in the name of God. Surely a loving God could never endorse it. Great article. Thank you!
The beat goes on.
Thanks for reporting.
Fundamentalism is dangerous in all its forms whether it be Catholic, Protestant, Muslim, hell even Atheism. Unfortunately they are running the asylum. I hope we can get through this but some days I have my doubts.
The Vatican been caught in more than one financial scandal. Giving your money to a cult that shifts predators around to hide child abuse is a bad idea. The lack of transparency and the government funding of hospitals run by the Catholic church is a recipe for malfeasance. The vatican has paid out around 1 billion dollars in settlement for child abuse. Everyone who got a payout was required to sign a non disclosure agreement. Nothing says trust me like a non disclosure agreement. Good article there are a lot more atrocities through our history but the fee for writing a story and disclosing all of the "good" works of the catholic church would merit a very significant amount of time. I got my $20 dollars worth. Thanks Ossiana All the best to you and yours.
Thank YOU for being my first BMAC commission!
Your welcome. Good luck in the future.
The hospital thing has enraged me for years! They wanna run them with their religious rules? Fine -- go right ahead. Just don't expect a PENNY from Medicare or Medicaid.
I was furious with Obama when he carved out an "exception" during the ACA fight. Yes, he was being pressured -- the bishops & cardinals swarmed Capitol Hill. The Church went "judge shopping" to find those who'd overturn ACA rules they didn't like.
It IS a religious subsidy. Full stop. ABSOLUTELY UNCONSTITUTIONAL, but money talks & they always find donors to fund their blatant political campaigns.
I am an elderly Roman Catholic. The FIRST mistake was no conspiracy trials when the sex abuse scandals erupted. If DOJ had pressed charges, we wouldn't be fighting this battle now -- too many dioceses would have been bankrupted. They would be trying to stay afloat, not take over (money making) healthcare.
Excellent article. Another modern example is the residential schools. Indigenous children were taken from their homes and placed in religious schools. Many of them were abused and neglected. Thousands died. In Canada, 2/3 of those schools were Catholic. It's a major topic here in Canada, but I know the residential schools existed in the US and Australia as well.
Yes, they were here in the US too.. Thank you for bringing this up. Native Americans have suffered under righteous assholes
and abusers. So much shame to be had.
The OGs of discriminatory practices, long before Protestants/Fundies exisited. They used to kill entire villages, so baby steps? lol
I was raised Catholic, went to Catholic schools. and left the church as soon as I got out of my parent's house. It's astonishing to see so many people stay in a church where you wouldn't want to leave your children alone with any of the priests. A friend who's a devout Catholic, had a priest offer to take her two sons on a ski trip. She had a bad feeling and made up an excuse, since she couldn't directly challenge his authority. Later, it came out that he'd been victimizing young boys in the parish for years. I'm thankful that my brothers never wanted to be altar boys.
My mother died in a Catholic hospital. They did give her pain medication, administered via a pump by pressing a button. They put my sister, brother and me in charge of giving her the doses, and left us alone to figure it out, so maybe that was their Catholic way of not being responsible for reducing pain and suffering.
"Small Things Like These" by Claire Keegan is a novel about the Magdalene Laundries, and how the community looked away and justified the terrible injustice toward women. And. also how one man dares to take a stand at great cost.
Wrote. Love the history lesson! Thanks.
As far as hospitals are concerned if a hospital is funded by the government in any way THEN it cannot bar medical procedures that are totally legal. IF THE hospital is privately funded then they choice the procedures they want to do. Similiar with church schools vs public schools. However even church schools are required to teach certain things if they are to be accredited as "schools" for educating children. The situation gets muddy if church hospitals take public money. They often do this under the table so to speak so they can do what they want and get funded by the government. It is up to the government to crack down on this, but the political will to do this is often lacking even though legally there is authority to do this.
Did you know the abortion prohibition began as a compact with Napoleon?
"It comes as a shock to most people that the Catholic Church’s fierce opposition to abortion was not always what it is today, because the Church pretends that its position on pregnancy termination has been based on a “right to life” and has remained unchanged for 2000 years. Poppycock. In fact, it has varied continually over the course of history, with no unanimous opinion on the subject at any one time...It was as late as 1869—only about a century and a half ago—that Pope Pious IX ruled all abortion murder and defined it as excommunicable.
And therein, my friends, lies a tale.
Napoleon III was gravely concerned that the birth rate had been dropping and that France would face a serious depletion of soldiers for its wars and colonizations. Pius IX, for his part, had long yearned to pass a doctrine of papal infallibility—but had faced opposition from within the church as well as from external kings, czars, and the like. But Napoleon was an emperor.
So the two struck a deal.
In return for Napoleon’s powerful support for papal infallibility, Pius would change the Church’s regulation of abortion—which at that time forbade the procedure only after quickening, at about three months. But Pius, a shrewd bargainer, played hard to get. So Napoleon threw in a further inducement—that all teaching positions in French schools would thereafter be filled by the Church.
Done.
Napoléon would get his huge crop of babies to grow into cannon fodder, because the Vatican would outlaw all abortion. In return, Pious and all popes after him would get their infallibility plus Roman Catholic control of French children’s minds (and those of kids in colonies around the world) for generations to come.
https://www.robinmorgan.net/when-the-vatican-thought-abortion-was-moral/