Showing posts with label pope. Show all posts
Showing posts with label pope. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

The Pope: A Health Hazard?

Remember a few years back when the former Pope John made some statements about activities such as yoga being against church beliefs? I was pretty stunned, maybe even giggled and thought it was quite a lame little health hazard. I figured he was slightly absolved from saying something so silly when polluting the earth was later declared a "sin". But the new Pope, Mister Benedict XVI made recent statements about the AIDS crisis in Africa that make my toes curl, my lips curl, and cringe at the pure ignorance that could cause a major religious based health hazard.

"You can't resolve it with the distribution of condoms," the pope told reporters aboard the Alitalia plane headed to Yaounde, Cameroon, where he will begin a seven-day pilgrimage on the continent. "On the contrary, it increases the problem." (read the rest of the article that has me pissed off here.)

With the lack of education & modern resources I imagine that Africa looks like a great place to go in and brainwash some people on how to get to heaven, in only the style the pope knows how. Abstinence. I suppose if he isn't getting any play, then no one should? What are you telling us Pope B? Just inform these people not to have sex, not to be humans, not to follow biological needs, to not do what inevitably WILL be done - and suggest that the one preventative contraceptive available and cheap isn't going to help the problem as good as your abstinence plan? Kind of like how Prez Bush took out sex education here in the US, replacing it with abstinence only programs that actually increased the percentage of teen pregnancies, and therefore STD's. Pope B, I have to ask, was this a statement directed towards your hunger for religious respect, fame and controversy - at the price of people's lives & health? I can not even fathom the numbers of people saved from terminal and terrible STD's using condoms since our knowledge of AIDS has increased. Not to mention pregnancies that were unwanted or unable to be cared for properly. And maybe you also forgot about things like misogyny and how possibly another culture differs from your micro Vatican white bread world in how they relate to their sexuality and relationships.

I am beyond disgusted that anyone is such power would propose statements that effect the minds of many people throughout the world, including impressionable and sexually active teens in the united states as well. In the real world people have sex- in fact, they have sex quite a bit - and once they get started they really aren't gonna stop because you said so - but maybe they won't have that condom in their hand to protect themselves because they couldn't get it from the government or they were too humiliated by the social & cultural rules you are perpetuating.
It's like you want to have blood on your hands - the blood of unwanted pregnancies, of people dieing of AIDS, people taking tons of STD meds that end up in our drinking water - while you sit pretty on your supposed moral high horse telling people not to be what they are (humans) as a solution.
Purity is in nature, not in selfish moral statements that have the weight to damage lives.

PS- Pope Benny, I would bet my life on the fact that you have your own F buddy - let's hope they use a condom (or vice versa) and don't give you AIDS.

Sunday, July 6, 2008

Pollution Is A 'Sin': The Pope & Green Bible

Back in March 2008 Pope Benedict XVI decided there were a few new 'sins' that needed to be urgently addressed due to modern times a changin'. One big shocker was that he declared pollution a sin! The reason I am shocked is because I went to Catholic school for 12 years, at which time I was completely pro active about saving the planet and got nothing but riducule and teasing, including from local priests, teachers, and students (aka-the community). I recently read various debates about whether declaring pollution a sin would force any ripple in the Christain world, which is notoriously thought of as environmently unfriendly. This led me to imagine children teasing each other on the playground -> if one kid didn't put the recycle in the right bin the other kids could tell them they were going to hell.
I kid not though- the ripple has begun...I just got word of the new GREEN BIBLE from earth first. This bible sets out to show where the good word tells us exactly how to care for the earth by being an environmental steward and not a destroyer. It contests the whole attitude that the Christian God handed us the earth to use up as we please, and points out passages from the bible that say God directly asked Adam to care for his garden of Eden - not rape it of every resource for your pleasure and shrug it off till the rapture comes. Amen!
From Business Week:
This fall The Green Bible will be published, complete with cotton/linen cover, partly recycled paper, soy-based ink, and passages about caring for the earth highlighted in green. The $29.95 edition of the Good Book also includes essays and a study guide about the spiritual mandate to protect the environment. Hoping to sell 25,000 to 30,000 copies a year, he plans to market The Green Bible to eco-aware churches and influential thinkers. Essay contributor Calvin B. DeWitt, a University of Wisconsin environmental professor and an evangelical Christian, says the Bible is “a kind of ecological handbook for right living on Earth.”

Photo: Business Week