Harris on the Vatican scandal
May 12, 2010 at 6:13 pm (Catholicism, Max Dunbar, religion)
Sam Harris explains why there is institutional culpability.
Consider the ludicrous ideology that made it possible: The Catholic Church has spent two millennia demonizing human sexuality to a degree unmatched by any other institution, declaring the most basic, healthy, mature, and consensual behaviors taboo. Indeed, this organization still opposes the use of contraception: preferring, instead, that the poorest people on earth be blessed with the largest families and the shortest lives. As a consequence of this hallowed and incorrigible stupidity, the Church has condemned generations of decent people to shame and hypocrisy—or to Neolithic fecundity, poverty, and death by AIDS. Add to this inhumanity the artifice of cloistered celibacy, and you now have an institution—one of the wealthiest on earth—that preferentially attracts pederasts, pedophiles, and sexual sadists into its ranks, promotes them to positions of authority and grants them privileged access to children. Finally, consider that vast numbers of children will be born out of wedlock, and their unwed mothers vilified, wherever Church teaching holds sway—leading boys and girls by the thousands to be abandoned to Church-run orphanages only to be raped and terrorized by the clergy. Here, in this ghoulish machinery set to whirling through the ages by the opposing winds of shame and sadism, we mortals can finally glimpse how strangely perfect are the ways of the Lord.
The nascent Christian right in this country hope that this issue will be forgotten. It won’t be.
Shiraz Socialist 
resistor said,
May 12, 2010 at 10:11 pm
Sam Harris fantasizing about the mass murder of millions, on the basis of their religion
‘What will we do if an Islamist regime, which grows dewy-eyed at the mere mention of paradise, ever acquires long-range nuclear weaponry? If history is any guide, we will not be sure about where the offending warheads are or what their state of readiness is, and so we will be unable to rely on targeted, conventional weapons to destroy them. In such a situation, the only thing likely to ensure our survival may be a nuclear first strike of our own. Needless to say, this would be an unthinkable crime—as it would kill tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day—but it may be the only course of action available to us, given what Islamists believe. ‘
(The End of Faith pp. 128-129).
Will said,
May 13, 2010 at 12:36 am
and? wot is the problem with any of that you little nazi?
Stupid and pointless abuse which has been edited.
shug said,
May 13, 2010 at 8:29 am
Whats anti christain,is they make these limited nuke things.Pay the workers who slave over these things bugger all,hang shoot ,and beat those who make a stand.
Wheres the hammer and nails.
resistor said,
May 13, 2010 at 1:21 pm
I see ‘Will’ can’t see anything wrong with killing ‘tens of millions of innocent civilians in a single day’. Who’s the Nazi now?
Gabriel Wilensky said,
May 13, 2010 at 6:17 pm
Pedophilia is just the latest and most visible in a long list of transgressions from the Catholic Church. These days the Vatican is facing legal action in Kentucky for child abuse cases by Catholic priests, and the ensuing cover up from the Catholic hierarchy including, allegedly, by Cardinal Ratzinger (today’s Pope Benedict).
I believe attorneys could and should widen the scope to include previous transgressions, particularly those that lead to the commitment of heinous crimes during the Holocaust. In my book “Six Million Crucifixions” I make a legal analysis of the various counts a potential indictment against the Church, the Vatican and members of the clergy might have looked like, had the Allies set up an international trial styled after Nuremberg and put any clergy guilty of crimes on the dock. In particular, an indictment might have included the following charges:
* Defamation
* Incitement
* Complicity in human rights violations
* Accessory or complicity in crimes against humanity
* Failure to warn/act
* Obstruction of Justice
* Profiting from stolen property
* Abuse of diplomatic privileges
* Crimes against humanity
I think it’s time to revisit the role of the Church in the Holocaust and its aftermath, and do it quickly as Pope Benedict is attempting to whitewash history by canonizing Pope Pius XII, while the Vatican Secret Archives covering the Nazi era remain closed and will continue to remain closed for another five years.
Gabriel Wilensky
—————————————————————————————————
Author
Six Million Crucifixions:
How Christian Teachings About Jews Paved the Road to the Holocaust
http://www.SixMillionCrucifixions.com
Follow me on Twitter at http://twitter.com/sixmillionbook
Become a Fan on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/SixMillionCrucifixions
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Jenny said,
May 13, 2010 at 11:21 pm
Speaking of religion, I think this is worth a look about Hitchen’s rather poor conception of the free will of women who wear Burqas and veils:
Will said,
May 14, 2010 at 12:34 am
Stupid and pointless abuse that has been deleted
Will said,
May 14, 2010 at 12:31 am
I see resistorrrrrr can’t see a problem with killing tens of millions of JeWS in a single day — who’s the nazi now?
gawwwd love a duck. such philosophical profundity.
Stupid and pointless abuse which has been edited.
maxdunbar said,
May 14, 2010 at 5:23 am
What I think about the burqa is this:
1) It is a symbol of male domination and religious repression
2) Banning it would be extremely problematic, given that the ban would effect mainly immigrant communities
shug said,
May 14, 2010 at 11:32 am
I wonder if Lacresure Borgia,bloody forgein lanquages, would have worn a burka if she had been muslim.Her father beded her, as did her brother, probably would have.Male domination, shrouded in fear and belief.
Rosie said,
May 14, 2010 at 5:52 pm
That article Jenny linked to is a lot of modish nonsense but Hitchens’s article was not his best.
My feminist blood boils when I see a woman in a burqa. My liberal blood would boil if a cop arrested her for being dressed like that. Leave ’em alone.
Similarly, when I hear that in ISOCs in universities the women will not speak themselves but only through a male moderator I’m absolutely furious with those stupid, stupid idiots of women, but realise that (a) there’s nothing much anyone can do about if they choose to be such fools; (b) that if they graduate and have to take jobs they’ll pretty much have to drop that nonsense – you can’t really be a lawyer/teacher etc and not speak out for yourself.