BrianJarrett.com

They’ve outdone themselves this time. According to Reuters, the latest rhetoric to come out of the Vatican is that an Italian comedian launched “vile attacks” on the pope in front of an “excitable crowd”.

I often avoid writing about politics and religion and usually only do it when I find something just chaps my ass. This is one of those things. They go on to claim:

“This, too, is terrorism. It’s terrorism to launch attacks on the Church.” “It’s terrorism to stoke blind and irrational rage against someone who always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man.”

Let’s break this down. First of all, the comedian, Andrea Rivera, said:

“The Pope says he doesn’t believe in evolution. I agree, in fact the Church has never evolved.”

I would argue this is true. And I would also argue that this is most certainly not terrorism. He also criticized the church for not giving a funeral to a man paralyzed with muscular dystrophy who campaigned for euthanasia but did provide funerals for Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet and Spanish dictator Francisco Franco. Apparently they were more deserving.

Also, his comments don’t appear to be blind or irrational. The rational for this is very sound and give specific examples. And to the pope always speaks in the name of love, love for life and love for man, is debatable.

Nobody blew up the church; that’s terrorism. He criticized the church and that’s free speech. It’s also one of their worst ememies.

This comes after Archbishop Angelo Bagnasco made comments that homosexuality is comparable to incest and pedophilia. Another enlightened statement to come out of the Vatican.

The church should be able to defend its words and its actions, particularly its actions. Remember, this is the same church that sanctioned witch burning in the late 1400s. In 1484, Pope Innocent VIII issued an edict, Summis desiderantes affectibus, where he alleged that many men and women were in collusion with the Devil. All Christians were to extend their help to two Dominican monks the Pope placed in charge of fighting people who, in association with Satan, caused diseases, pestilence, harmed harvest and cattle, and perpetrated other heinous crimes. No one knows the exact numbers of innocent people who were murdered with the church’s consent but some estimates are around 50,000. Other estimates range between 40,000 to 100,000. No matter how you slice it, they sanctioned the deaths of thousands of innocent people. This doesn’t include the people murdered for so-called “blasphemy”.

Does that sound like love of man and love of life?

This behavior, in my opinion, is as bad as radical Islam. Kill anyone who disagrees with clerical teachings. The only difference here is that the Catholics aren’t actively calling for the death of their opponents…now. They used to do so freely, and seem to have “forgotten” about that little snafu.

And don’t forget about all the child molesters they’ve been protecting for all these years. Where’s the credibility to make this kinds of outrageous claims?

And let’s be clear about my critique here as well; I’m criticizing the church here, not God. If there is a god then he/she/it is operating well above and beyond critique and my level of comprehension-and the level of any human being, including the church. They don’t know any more than I do about what happens after we die; they just claim to know. My criticism comes because of organizations that use God to monopolize power and profit, organizations that attempt to dictate right and wrong to me when I know damn good and well what the Golden Rule is all about.

Criticizing the church is not terrorism. Vilifying critics is only a deflection, a way to avoid having to rebut the critique. And allowing this kind of rhetoric only gives them more power, more opportunity to take away your power: the freedom to question and choose.