I ran into an old friend on the bus the other day, who was going to work with a bad cold because there was no one to sub for her (she's a nurse private practice. So guess who came down with a cold yesterday.
And the news is it's depressing self, so I don't have much to say about that, except I thought this was good:
The culture of homosexuality is a culture of self-absorption because it does not value self·sacrifice. It is a glaring example of what John Paul II has called the culture of death. Islamic fundamentalists clearly understand the damage that homosexual behavior inflicts on a culture. That is why they repress such behavior by death. Their culture is anything but one of self-absorption. It may be brutal at times, but any culture that is able to produce wave after wave of suicide bombers (women as well as men) is a culture that at least knows how to value self-sacrifice.
Point one: self sacrifice: this man obviously only knows those gays within his own hierarchy. (I don't think anyone can accuse the Catholic hierarchy, at least the higher reaches of it, of "self sacrifice.") Another case of what's known as a "straw man" -- make something up, ascribe it to your victim, and then demolish it. I suspect if anyone were do actually look at the issue, they'd find gay men and lesbians represented in the helping professions -- psychotherapists, counselors, doctors, nurses, etc. -- far out of proportion to their numbers in the general population. And what about gay police officers, firefighters, and, yes, soldiers, sailors, marines and other military personnel?
Point two: for a Christian of any stripe to call anyone else's beliefs a "culture of death" is ludicrous in the extreme. Christianity is built on the worship of death and a complete disdain for life on earth. Look at the central image of Christianity: the Crucifixion. And the goal, of course, is the afterlife, not happiness in this life.
Point three: is this now official Catholic doctrine, that it's OK to kill gays? Is this what we're to expect from the hierarchy now -- be just like the fundamentalist Muslims? (Not that that hasn't been underneath their attitude toward gays for years, but it's interesting to see a Catholic bishop go public with it.)
Damn! I'm really cranky this morning. I suppose reading crap like that first thing doesn't help.
1 comment:
"Self sacrifice" implised a disinterested impulse to help in the best way one can to make the world a better place. *Disinterested*. Suicide bombers are encouraged to detonate by the myths their religious leaders tell about the rewards in the afterlife -- 70 virgins and unlimited revelry for the men, who knows what the women are supposed to be getting (out of the veil, perhaps?). That hardly qualifies as disinterested. Not that we expect any better from someone whose chief qualification as a thinker is the ability to read politics in such a way that he rises in the Catholic hierarchy. And that's just the beginning of my thought. Perhaps the LaBarbera Award could become a weekly thing?
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