April 11th 2010
Understanding right and wrong
By Marie Alena Castle
[I sent this to the Strib. Don't hold your breath waiting to see it in print.]
When I read Katherine Kersten’s April 11 defense of the pope in the pedophilia scandal I was struck by how little value was placed on real people. It’s all about protecting religious institutions and saving imaginary souls. Pedophilia has been rampant, and ignored, in the Church for centuries. For example, the historical record shows that an 11th century priest, Father Damian, complained bitterly to the pope about the church ignoring the “unbridled wickedness” of priestly pedophilia, to no avail.
It took the modern day tort law system to call the Catholic Church, as well as others, to account. They do not understand right and wrong. That is why it is necessary to go after their money, and do it publicly, because religions rely on a good public image to maintain power. It’s all about image, not children, in the Church’s centuries-late interest in controlling pedophilia.
As for understanding right and wrong, Kersten and these patriarchal religions seem unclear on the concept. Kersten lauds the Catholic Church’s stands against abortion, stem-cell research and same-sex marriage. These stands are based entirely on unverifiable religious beliefs that value “saving” imaginary souls at the expense of the health and wellbeing of real live people. Beliefs that cause so much demonstrable harm have no claim on society’s support.
1 Comment »
Parabola on 11 Apr 2010 at 09:10pm #
I’m glad to see other people speaking out against this kind of immorality, good on you for writing to the Star Trib. I also agree with most everything you said, and I like the delivery. But I do have to say, I would differ with you on this part:
“They do not understand right and wrong.”
I think they do know the difference, but they also think they’re above the rules. They have serious influence across the globe, and across many parts of society — do you think the average cop/lawyer/judge wants to be party to the conviction of the vicar of Christ? I’m not sure most of them have the stones.
It seems like these sociopaths are literally held to be something more than human, and perhaps slightly less than divine, like a Joseph Stalin with a funny hat. They can literally get away with something as depraved as child rape and skate away from justice, it really is mind-bending.