by cameron | Jun 8, 2009 | Catholicism, Christianity
The Irish "Child Abuse Commission" released its findings last week and they are pretty harrowing. They blow a huge hole in the suggestion that child abuse was a small fraction of bad behaviour in the Catholic church. The commission finds that it was "endemic".
The Commission was set up in 2000 to conduct an inquiry into abuse of children in religious institutions in Ireland from 1936 – 1970.
According to one blog, the Catholic church is getting away almost entirely off the hook as a result of a Church-State deal:
In the closing days of the last Fianna Fail adminstration, a deal was rushed through which ‘indemnified’ the religious orders from any further financial responsibility than that agreed in the deal. This notorious Church-State deal, capped the contribution of the religious orders at €128 million (and only a fraction of that in hard cash), the religious orders claimed there had been no cover-up of abuse and no protection of abusers. We now discover from the Ryan report that this was a lie, and that several religious orders not only knew all about the abusers in their midst but concealed that knowledge from the rest of us.
It was a fantastic deal for the religious orders, and an absolute stinker for the people of Ireland, and most importantly of all a retrospectively studied insult to the victims .
The religious establishment here in Ireland , were in effect left well and truly off the hook, for a relatively small financial pay-out, most of which took the form of properties, which were in effect for various legal, and now, economic reasons unsaleable assets in any case.
Among the Commission’s conclusions:
- Sexual abuse was endemic in boys’ institutions.
- It is impossible to determine the full extent of sexual abuse committed in boys’ schools. The schools investigated revealed a substantial level of sexual abuse of boys in care that extended over a range from improper touching and fondling to rape with violence. Perpetrators of abuse were able to operate undetected for long periods at the core of institutions.
- Cases of sexual abuse were managed with a view to minimising the risk of public disclosure and consequent damage to the institution and the Congregation. This policy resulted in the protection of the perpetrator. When lay people were discovered to have sexually abused, they were generally reported to the Gardai. When a member of a Congregation was found to be abusing, it was dealt with internally and was not reported to the Gardaí.
- The recidivist nature of sexual abuse was known to religious authorities.
- When confronted with evidence of sexual abuse, the response of the religious authorities was to transfer the offender to another location where, in many instances, he was free to abuse again. Permitting an offender to obtain dispensation from vows often enabled him to continue working as a lay teacher.
- Sexual abuse was known to religious authorities to be a persistent problem in male religious organisations throughout the relevant period.
- In general, male religious Congregations were not prepared to accept their responsibility for the sexual abuse that their members perpetrated.
- Older boys sexually abused younger boys and the system did not offer protection from bullying of this kind.
- Sexual abuse by members of religious Orders was seldom brought to the attention of the Department of Education by religious authorities because of a culture of silence about the issue.
And that’s just the sexual abuse. There was plenty of physical, psychological and emotional abuse as well.
According to the ABC, many of the Irish catholic priests who were the abusers were moved overseas to countries such as Australia.
When are the authorities going to do something serious about the Catholic Church and hold it accountable for its actions? I still maintain that in Australia it should be SHUT DOWN pending an independent commission into it’s crimes. It’s ridiculous to suggest this was something that only happened in Ireland. It is probable that the same conditions that lead to this kind of abuse in Ireland also existed in other countries, such as Australia. It has everything to do, I suspect, with the insanity inherent in Catholicism itself.
by cameron | May 26, 2009 | Christianity, geopolitics, US politics
While there is some doubt as to the author of this article in AlterNet (the byline says it’s by Clive Anderson, while the bio down the bottom says it’s by Australia’s own Clive Hamilton), the subject matter is fascinating. And a little bemusing. I had always assumed that George W. Bush’s religiosity was a sham, a cynical attempt to convince the unthinking American God-fearing public to go along with his crazy schemes. This article, however, claims that Bush told French President Jacques Chirac that:
"This confrontation is willed by God, who wants to use this conflict to erase his people’s enemies before a New Age begins".
Apparently Chirac himself confirms this in a new book published in France last March and the conversation had been published earlier by a French theology professor who the French government turned to for clarification about what the hell Bush might have been talking about.
I seriously never thought of Bush as really nuts. I figured he just put on the whole Jesus-lovin’ Texan ol’ boy routine purely as manipulation, just as a way to squeeze extra votes out of the Religious Right. Could I have been wrong? Is Bush simply insane?
And if Obama continues his "war" in Afghanistan (I still laugh at how the US likes to declare that it’s a war but refuse to classify their prisoners as Prisoners Of WAR under the Geneva Convention), is he perpetuating Bush’s Holy Jihad?
Yet again we see Christianity used as a justification for the murder of tens of thousands of civilians. It’s just another reason why we need to treat Christianity in the same way we treat any other intolerant, violent philosophy – with extreme disdain and our own (non-violent) intolerance.
by cameron | May 25, 2009 | Christianity, climate change
I’m reading tonight about the case of Dale and Leilani Neumann, an American couple who let their 11 year-old daughter, Madeline Kara Neuman, die of diabetes last year. When it was obvious that she wasn’t well, her parents didn’t seek medical care for her. Instead, they prayed to God.
Last week, Leilani Neumann was found guilty of second-degree reckless homicide.
Then there is this mother who is on the run with her 13 year-old cancer-stricken son to avoid chemo.
This highlights what I’ve often said is one of my major concerns with religion. It invariably teaches that faith is not only equal to reason but actually superior to it. I’ve often said that this is a dangerous and despicable kind of brain washing. The death of this child is just one example of why faith is dangerous. On a larger scale, it seems to me that once people come to accept that faith is all you need, they are less likely to challenge authority figures when told things like "Saddam is going to use WMD on us" or "climate change is natural". If we live in a society that conditions us not to say "well hold on a second, where’s the proof?" but "ummm okay, if you say so", then we can be lead like sheep to the slaughter house by figures of power and authority.
Madeline Kara Neumann, known as Kara, died on Easter Sunday, March 23, 2008. Three weeks before that, on Feb 28, her mother wrote this article on a Christian site called "America’s Last Days". In the article, she talks about how she and her husband had been ‘laying their hands’ on people so that, as with one woman they touched, "the power of God fell on her and she immediately felt the Holy Spirit fill her with His Presence". She also writes:
"Many times The Lord has told me things that are going to happen many years down the road…"
Apparently he neglected to tell her that her daughter had Type 1 diabetes, was going to die in three weeks, and needed to see a doctor urgently.
The Neumann’s are part of a church called Unleavened Bread Ministries which is run by the preacher David Eells. Apparently in his conversations with God, the subject of Kara’s disease didn’t come up either.
Even worse than adults being inculcated with faith is when kids are brain washed before they are old enough to know better. In a press release Leilani wrote after the trial, she claims:
"Madeline Kara was a very mature Christian of deep faith in God’s Word; she did her own study on doctors and medicine exactly one week prior to her death…. Kara found out through her study of God’s Word that the Bible did not advocate doctors or medicine but, rather, that modern-day medicine is a counterfeit to God’s healing power."
I’m torn between feeling genuinely sorry for the Neumann’s and feeling disdainful at their ignorance. I can’t imagine how awful it must be to lose a child. And I don’t doubt for an instant that they thought they were doing the right thing. On the other hand, believing that your imaginary friend is going to heal your sick child is just plain stupid and irresponsible. There’s no excuse. She writes:
Dale and I thought we were within our rights to pray for our daughter’s recovery.
I agree. But why not take her to a doctor as well? What about Kara’s right to live? What about her right to have medical care? As a society, where should our priorities lie – respecting people’s religious beliefs, no matter how primitive and ignorant, or protecting children from their irresponsible parents?
The U.S. Supreme Court’s 1944 ruling in the case of Prince v. Massachusetts ruled:
The right to practice religion freely does not include the right to expose the community or the child to communicable disease or the latter to ill-health or death… Parents may be free to become martyrs themselves. But it does not follow they are free, in identical circumstances, to make martyrs of their children before they have reached the age of full and legal discretion when they can make that choice for themselves.
Neumann writing about the progress of her daughter’s illness:
Later on Sunday, I recognized a change in Kara’s condition, as we witnessed the deep sleep and a completely limp body, but for reasons some may not understand, I was not fearful — thinking this was something my daughter could fully recover from. Again, I did not understand what the changes in Kara’s body meant, whether good or bad, so we sought for answers from God.
"We sought answers from God." No doctors.
Now – if you’re a Christian reading this, and you’re saying to yourself "oh yes, well those people are obviously stupid Christians, but my particular kind of Christianity has it right", let me ask you: what’s so different between what you believe and the Neumann’s believed?
I continually talk to Christians who tell me that they have a "relationship" with God or Jesus and that one or both of them "talks" to them. What makes them different from the Neumanns?
Perhaps you’re thinking "well *we* would have taken our child to the doctor." Well good for you. But what areas of your life *do* you put faith ahead of reason and facts? If you put faith ahead of facts in any circumstance, then I submit to you that you are just as deluded and dangerous as the Neumanns.
Faith is dangerous. The people who told you that faith is superior have brain washed you so that you won’t question them while they pick your pocket and lead you down a blind alley. Faith is basically not thinking for yourself. Anyone who tells you not to think for yourself is someone who you should not trust.
The only sensible way to evaluate anything in life is to collect as much data as you can, think about it as best you can, and make the most educated decision you can.
“’Faith’ means not wanting to know what is true” – Friedrich Nietzsche
by cameron | May 18, 2009 | Christianity, US politics
Via Pharyngula:
Just another demonstration of how Christians use their Bible to justify violence and intolerance. As I’ve said many times before, violence is at the CORE of Christianity. It’s built into the very fabric of their scriptures. That’s why the history of Christianity is replete almost 1700 years of bloodshed and intolerance.
The final lines of Joshua 1 (from the OT) says it all:
Whoever rebels against your word and does not obey your words, whatever you may command them, will be put to death. Only be strong and courageous!
Getting back to the White House under GWB, I agree with Pharyngula’s final comment:
We lived under the rule of monsters for eight years. We can’t just pretend it didn’t happen, we need to fight back in the courts to condemn these people and their actions.
by cameron | May 18, 2009 | Christianity, Podcast
Via deusexmalcontent:
This forum "Teens Against Pornography" is a must read.
Are you addicted to pornography?
It’s a simple question. Are you? Have you ever decided to stop? Yeah, so have we. How long did it last for you?
It even has a podcast!
Teh pr0ncast offers practical, Christian-oriented advice to teens that desire to stop surfing porn (and the other act that goes with it) but can’t seem to kick the habit.
I can’t wait to listen to that one! One of the best posts is this one that deus linked to, where a forum member describes the "not abnormal" transition from innocent porn to feeling the need to watch videos about rape, homosexual acts, incest and bestiality.
I also like this post where someone asks "so i’m gay and sometimes i look at straight porn and get off on it. does that make me straight?"
Anyway, incest isn’t a bad thing in God’s eyes. Abraham married his sister. And they weren’t even from Tasmania.
