Nasty old men should be seen and not heard

The disgusting black hearted evil hate-monger Fred Phelps strikes again, arranging a picket of Heath Ledger’s funeral. I guess it was too much to hope that he might have learned his lesson.

Sometimes it sucks to be an atheist, because I don’t even have the comfort that the miserable old bastard will eventually get what he deserves.

*Sigh*

Catholics out scriptured by Anglican conservatives

I rage about so much about the Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell that it’s easy to forget the Anglican Archbishop of that city, Peter Jensen can be equally horrible:

OUTSPOKEN Anglican Archbishop Peter Jensen is galvanising opposition to homosexuality in the church, in the lead-up to an unofficial meeting of conservative bishops in Jerusalem.

As rifts in the worldwide Anglican Church threaten to become a schism, the Sydney Archbishop said American Anglicans had become missionaries for homosexuality in defiance of the Bible and Anglican teaching.

I guess it goes to show that American religiosity is not all fundamentalist biblical literalism. Good for them.

Pope says family is key to world peace

Just in case the exorcism squads weren’t embarrassing and anachronistic enough, the Pope has decided to lead in the new year by reinforcing the Catholic churches opposition to the non-traditional family on the basis of, wait for it, world peace. I kid you not.

Pope Benedict XVI ushered in the New Year by criticising policies that undermine the traditional family, saying they eroded one of the most important foundations for peace in the world.

The Catholic Church celebrates January 1 as World Day of Peace, and the pope used a midmorning Mass and a window appearance before thousands of faithful in St Peter’s Square to mark the occasion.

Traditional? Uh oh.

You say po-tay-toe, I say po-tah-toe

More controversy over recognition of same sex relationships by the government:

THE Rudd Government is on a collision course with the ACT Government over the territory’s plan to allow civil unions between same-sex couples.

Well, I guess we saw this coming.

Bishops ‘hinder tolerence of gays’

From the Australian:

HIGH Court judge Michael Kirby says only some of his colleagues have accepted his homosexuality, and that he is unhappy with the way relations between them have developed.

And Justice Kirby accused the Anglican and Catholic archbishops of Sydney, Peter Jensen and George Pell, of making it hard for people to adopt a more tolerant attitude to gays.

The Australian Christian Lobby

The Age reports that the Australian Christian Lobby (ACL) has launched a magazine aimed at influencing policy making on key election issues. Now this is not necessarily a bad thing – any special interest group has the right to lobby, just as any politician has the right to judge them based on the quality and content of any submission*. Let’s have a closer look:

God Hates Phelps

From the Brisbane Times:

BALTIMORE – A US jury today ordered an anti-gay Kansas church to pay $US10.9 million ($A11.7 million) in damages to relatives of a US Marine who died in Iraq after church members cheered his death at his funeral.

I generally try to be fair, but the Reverend Fred Phelps is a disgusting black hearted evil hate-monger.

Suffer in your jocks you old bastard.

Politics and religion margaritas! Half price Sundays!

Take 1oz of politics. Add 1 oz of religion. Shake and strain. Serve garnished with generous dash of stupidity:

FEDERAL Liberal candidate Pastor Peter Curtis says homosexuality is a perversion and that gay men die from disease at many times the rate of heterosexuals.

Hmm, and just why does he think that homosexuality is a perversion?

“As a Christian, I do not agree with the idea of homosexuality. That’s the reality. I can’t put it any other way,” Mr Curtis told The Sunday Age yesterday.

Ah. His religion. A good reason then [slaps head].

Okay, okay. You can get on the bus, just sit at the back

When contrasting the two major parties in the upcoming federal election, it’s interesting to see that the lesser of two evils can still be pretty crap. From the Age:

OPPOSITION Leader Kevin Rudd has angered members of the gay community by saying he is opposed to homosexual marriage and refusing to be drawn on the question of gay couples adopting children.

I know I’m late, but my pope gave me a note…

Okay, now this is just ridiculous. Pope Benedict XVI, in his position as God’s proxy server to the catholic church, has issued an apostolic exhortation – apparently the second toughest encyclical note issued by his office:

Pope Benedict XVI strongly reasserted Tuesday the church’s opposition to abortion, euthanasia and gay marriage, saying that Catholic politicians were “especially” obligated to defend the church’s stance in their public duties.

“These values are non-negotiable,” the pope wrote in a 130-page “apostolic exhortation” issued in Rome, forming a distillation of opinion from a worldwide meeting of bishops at the Vatican in 2005.

Now I don’t want to get into an argument over the morality of abortion or euthanasia. They are incredibly emotionally charged issues that challenge notions of morality and legal frameworks of society irrespective of religious belief – or lack thereof. But I couldn’t help but notice that gay marriage got slipped in there. How does that work? As far as I can see the only moral objection that the church has to same sex marriage is a dogmatic one, and as such puts it in a very different category to the other two. Attempted guilt by association? Or perhaps it is just that the dogmatic reasons are the most important ones to this papacy?

And “not negotiable”? Says who, and by what criteria? How can you arbitrarily pick and choose which parts of the Bible should be taken literally and which should not?

Such cherry picking is intolerant and discriminatory sure, but not really a surprise – here however is something interesting:

Consequently, Catholic politicians and legislators, conscious of their grave responsibility before society, must feel particularly bound, on the basis of a properly formed conscience, to introduce laws inspired by values grounded in human nature.

And there we have it.

To put it another way, catholic legislators should feel obliged to ignore that silly old secular church-state separation thingamy, and lobby for religious dogma to be enshrined in law. Is he actually allowed to call for that?

Sure, you can get away with that sort of thing here in Australia, but what about a country like the US where, despite a powerful Christian lobby, church-state separation has constitutional protections?

And finally:

In the document, the pope also repeated that celibacy remains “obligatory” for Catholic priests.

Fine by me. They have chosen to take his orders, and can opt out if they disagree. It’s just a shame that with the Pope’s call to legislators, we could lose the same chance.