Trifecta of Depravity

I'm starting to wonder if the Catholic hierarchy's constant assault on women and freedom of religion is in part an attempt at distracting the public from their horrible behavior. To anyone who has bothered to pay attention this is nothing surprising and certainly nothing new. The only real difference I can see is in the media's willingness to cover the Catholic churches many moral lapses. Over the past few months there has been a sort of media hat-trick regarding the churches despicable behavior.

The ongoing pedophile/pedophilia cover-ups is unfortunately a given source of shame. Why more Catholics have not played a more active role in going after these scum-bags is truly mind boggling. I remember hearing about such cases when I was a kid in the 1980s and it goes back a lot further. The most disturbing aspect is the level of complacency that the hierarchy has shown and continues to demonstrate. It goes all the way up to the Pope (both current and past).

The Legionaries of Christ order is such a disgusting den of shameless, harmful, immoral behavior it is hard to know where to start. The combination of corruption and secrecy that enabled so many to commit a variety heinous acts and crimes is sickening. The fact that the Vatican knew about many incidents dating back into the 1950s is simply unforgivable.

Then, of course, to top it all off is the scandal(s) involving leaked documents. I find it quite interesting that the Vatican has spent so much effort at finding the whistle-blower and preparing for prosecution rather than addressing the level of corruption the leak has revealed in the the Holy See's finances. I never saw anything Holy about the Vatican. I doubt it will lead to most Catholics re-assessing their allegiance to that den of criminals but it is still a nice dream.

In then end, the Catholic hierarchy have about as much moral authority as Jack the Ripper. On second thought, they have less. At least Jack only managed to destroy a life or two at a time. How these bastards have the nerve to preach to the rest of us is astounding. They are not moral authorities. At best they serve as negative examples.


Further readings

Pedophile/Pedophilia scandals

http://religion.blogs.cnn.com/2012/05/23/accused-priest-i-was-helping-priests-and-helping-victims-as-best-i-could/

Legionaries of Christ

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/15/us-vatican-legionaries-idUSBRE84E1DS20120515

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=153252584

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/22/legion-of-christ-scandal_n_1535387.html?ref=religion

Book/Leaks

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/19/vatican-calls-vatileaks-b_n_1529964.html?ref=religion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/24/vatican-bank-chief-ousted_0_n_1543334.html?ref=religion

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/05/25/vatican-tracks-down-docum_0_n_1545425.html?ref=religion

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/05/30/vatican-butler-idUSL5E8GUBPZ20120530


And there is plenty more.

Premarital Sex and Religious Delusions

A recent post on CNN's Belief blog, "Why Young Christians aren't waiting anymore", seems to have fallen for one of the favorite myths of the Christian Right. As the nation slowly but steadily shifts to a more secular outlook the nations morals have not really changed that much. Even if, premarital sex is an indicator of lax morals, there is nothing to indicate that the rates of sexual activity among the unmarried have changed in any statistically significant way. In general Christians are no different than any other identifiable group when it comes to sexual activity*. They may come across as more repressed and tend to deny publicly having sexual relations but that is not the same as actually abstaining. Maybe young Christians are becoming more honest and accepting of reality, at least as it relates to sexual behavior.



* Among conservative Christians there are actually some statistical differences when compared to more liberal Christians. Conservatives have higher rates of teen sex, teen pregnancies, and STDs in their general population (teens and adults). Conservatives also tend to have higher criminal rates related to sexual activity and personal relationships. They exceed their more liberal counterparts in rates of incest, adultery, domestic abuse, and rape.