On Friday, according to Newser, Pope Benedict issued a strong condemnation of atheism and warned that advances in technology must be met with similar advancements in ethics. This from a man whose business is selling eternal life, whose greatest marketing tool is the fear of death, who underscores the fear by promising torture and damnation unless you buy his product.
In his “encyclical letter,” Benedict, a former Hitler youth member so grounded in the ways of dominance and subjugation that he seems unable to risk a rational perspective lest the fragile construct of his fantastic universe shatter, asserts that only “god” can create justice (par. 44). The whole thing deserves a good fisking, starting with the premise that the christian church has a monopoly on truth, and owns the key “eternal life.”
As the christian Advent season gets underway, I pray that this year we can put the X back in Xmas, and return to the modest beginnings of the 19th and 20th century to nullify the power and redistribute the wealth of the fetishistic cult that puts “salvation,” the collection of human souls in anticipation of some final horror movie judgment day, ahead of life on earth.
5 Comments
I think that Benedict Ratzinger is the Alan Greenspan of the Catholic Church (or of religion, more generally). In plainer language, a lying manipulative SOB who may not be completely conscious of how bent he may be.
Ooof. That’s a bit harsh, don’t you think? I think we’d all appreciate being given more benefit-of-the-doubt than that, and we could all use the perspective that walking in another’s shoes will bring.
I’d actually like your perspective on this. I know a few atheists, and even more anti-religious-abusers. And I’m always confused at why these voices seem so often to complain about the black-and-white attitudes of hatred found among some religious folks, while speaking in black-and-white, hateful language themselves, about the religious folks. Isn’t the thing we should weed out the black-and-white thinking, and the hatred, not just change who is using it on whom??
I hope this doesn’t offend – I’m truly looking for feedback on this….
Jon, I’m glad I’m not the only one.
Catherine, there’s a serious game afoot and Ratzinger is playing for the dark side. People he sees as his enemies have been dying for decades while his friends prosper (and I’m not imputing agency here, the WHINSEC or School of the Americas has been doing its dirty work regardless of who’s in charge in Rome). So when I think of the state of liberation theology in Latin America, the death of Archbishop Romero and others, I find it difficult to agree that my post is at all harsh.
I’ve read your blog and see that you find comfort and pleasure in liturgical practice, that you are uplifted by the christian message of love and salvation, that you see beauty there. I think I can honor your personal attachment to your cultural heritage, but I’m surprised that you see my efforts to encounter the abusive power of christian fear mongering as a black and white argument.
Martin Luther suggested that man is “saved by faith through the grace of god.” This was a radical suggestion in the 16th century, but not so radical perhaps as the suggestion that “salvation” is a state of mind that people can find here on earth regardless of mystical, metaphysical constructions of ancient perspectives regarding an afterlife and the landscape of that dimension including heaven, purgatory, and hell.
Benedict Ratzinger came to power in a time informed by corporate globalization and odd rips in the social fabric caused by things like the facts surrounding Pinochet’s rise in Chile, and Henry Kissinger’s Nobel Peace Prize. He structured his work around his sense of doctrine confirmed by the second Vatican Council. John the 23rd being safely dead for forty or more years, not many people were in a position to argue with Ben. Ratz. about doctrinal matters.
Nor am I in these comments prepared to reach back the 17th and 18th century awareness that maybe “original sin” was merely a construction of a priestly caste that could well be abandoned in search for truth and justice here on earth. Send me an email if you’d really like to go deeper into where I’m coming from on these things.
I’ve been sitting in the Lutheran Church with my dad each Sunday lately, and I’m constantly reminded of reasons why I laid christianity aside a long time ago.
I’m not seeing your email address anywhere – will you start it off by emailing me at lyric poetry at gmail dot com? Thanks.