The Second Original Sin

An Obscure Biblical Doctrine 

Spread By Today's Christian Right

I was born in an infant asylum. OK, a orphanage.* A Catholic orphanage.** I was a bastard. OK, to be more PC:  illegitimate. It was only by the grace of Edna Gladney*** that "Illegitimate" was not stamped on my birth certificate, but that's another story. I then went on to a Catholic grade school that took pleasure in immediately informing us kids that we were born in sin. Original Sin. Two strikes against me? I was born in a mess of bastards in addition to a blot on my "permanent record"?

The guilt set in early.

Later on, I found out that the guy who founded and fostered the idea of Original Sin, Saint Augustine of Hippo, had an Oedipus complex and such massive guilt about it that he figured everyone should share in the pain. Nice work, Augustine. You set the stage for Western Civilization's cockeyed world view: everyone's born with a black mark against them. "We're ALL sinners" has been used to soften the blows from street preachers and pulpit pimps the world over. It sounds more egalitarian than just pointing the finger and casting the first stone.

In Augustine's view (termed "Realism"), all of humanity was really present in Adam when he sinned, and therefore all have sinned. Original sin, according to Augustine, consists of the guilt of Adam which all humans inherit. As sinners, humans are utterly depraved in nature, lack the freedom to do good, and cannot respond to the will of God without divine grace.

But (horrors!) what if there is more than one Original Sin? What if a certain sin could be passed on from one person to the next - like a cold?

I think there is such a sin, and it is so bad that its effects can be horrific. However, the reason we don't hear about it from our pulpits is because of the method of contagion: for the method is just as bad as the sin itself.

The Second Original Sin is like the First for it is found at birth. Second birth, that is. It is the Original Sin peculiar to the Born Again Christian. I am writing of course, about the sin of Intolerance.

"But not all Born Agains are intolerant!!"  No, they are not. But that is simply because some are de-programmed not to be so later on. Intolerance is born along with the Born Again. Simple, but true. I suppose some people might argue that a Born Again chooses to be intolerant, but that would be counter-intuitive to a Christian. No, it's a simple fact that all Born Agains are born with the black mark of intolerance until they can prove otherwise.

Think of it: a Born Again does not think, but KNOWS that he is saved by Jesus Christ the son of the One True God. The Born Again also KNOWS that others have not been saved. The Born Again is flush with the knowledge that God loves him and counts him as a true Christian: the insufferably righteous phrase "It's the Christian Thing To Do" is proffered every time, everywhere. The Born Again KNOWS that his distinct spiritual philosophy is true and others are false and evil. The  Born Again is always on the lookout for sinners in every nook and cranny with the hope that he can save them, thereby chalking up one more saved soul on their spiritual scorecard. The Born Again avoids people who have shunned his offer of salvation or dares to counter his divine reasoning. The Born Again is a novice at demonizing, but an eager pupil: the sin of Intolerance does not need much encouragement. Under the guise of "love" a Born Again is allowed to bludgeon a person's life and loves with impunity. The duty of the Born Again is to make you feel as shameful and guilty as possible.

And along with that grave sin of Intolerance come its sister sins of righteousness: righteous arrogance, righteous indignation, and righteous stupidity****

The ministers who hang every sermon, every word on John 3:5 are the conductors of the Original Sin of Intolerance, passing it on ... no ... BESTOWING it as a great gift to the Born Agains. The most obvious and vocal example is Lou Engle who manages to make Intolerance sound very virtuous and very righteous:

In speaking of the legalization of same-sex marriage in California, Engle has alleged that "What happened to California will release a spirit that is more demonic than Islam, a spirit of lawlessness and anarchy. And a sexual insanity will be unleashed into the Earth." Lou Engle has also said: The most "dangerous terrorist" is not Islam but God. One of God's names is the avenger of blood. Have you worshipped that God yet."

Born Agains (especially Born Again ministers) like Lou Engle will always be tainted with the sin of Intolerance because they embrace it and consider the sin to be a badge of honor. Of course, we call it Intolerance, while they call it Righteousness.

And it is not, as some people think, easy to be saved from the sin of Intolerance. Salvation involves opening the mind that the ministers and mentors closed. It involves looking at others without being judgmental in any way. It involves honoring the right of individual thinking. It involves pure love. 

I know that sounds naive: salvation from Intolerance can't win against Engle's imagery of blood, war and martyrdom. Maybe it is.

But it's the only way of erasing the black mark of the Second Original Sin.

Just a thought.

* The sobriquet "asylum" was not always paired with "insane," although some of the orphans may have differed. 

** I popped out of my mother's womb into the arms of a big, strapping nun. I know I screamed "PUT ME BACK!!" after I saw her, but not having mastered sounds much less the English language, it came out as a cry the ancient nurse/nun ignored.

*** Edna Gladney's life was immortalized by actress/diva Greer Garson in the movie Blossoms in the Dust." Gladney looked nothing like Greer Garson, but was able somehow to get the disgustingly boorish and "conservative" legislators of her state to remove the word of shame. The state was Texas, of course.

****There is also an obscure sin of righteous halitosis that effects some Born Agains who become ministers and people who hang around water-coolers.

Poor Greta, Poor Sean, Poor Fox

77% of FOX viewers think 

Greta Van Sustern is very, very stupid

Greta,

You got that right, you have a mind like a seive. Your brain is empty.

Matter of fact, it is so empty, if you put a pea in your skull it would rattle around like a BB in a boxcar. You said it, gal, not me, but I sure do agree with you. A true blonde.

Brian ***

Tahlequah, OK
PS How do you get that cush job, anyway?

Greta Van Sustern took a poll to show off a viewer who thought that she was stupid. Unfortunately, The poll did not go, shall we say, in her favor. 

I can only reiterate what some people have stated on her blog: it was dumb to take the poll. The man's language did not show a great command of English, let alone any semblance of intellect. Even if the poll numbers had been reversed, it would still have shown that 23% didn't think she was too smart. She also allowed a simple-minded critic to rattle her to such an extent that she bothered to comment on it in her blog. 

This blog has seldom battled with comments and never with anyone purely negative. 

Poor Greta is now in a terrible quandary: should she say something about the poll? Will she be terribly silent, hoping that the FOX execs don't know about this? How will she proceed? She can't shoot back with any anger, but that would seem arrogant on her part. 

Will she be able to keep her job at FOX? Of course, she will. Few businesses sponsor Glen Beck and he's stayed on. FOX must be hemorrhaging money at this point, though: who would want to buy air time on Greta's program knowing that her viewers, such as they are, think she's an idiot?

I wonder if Sean Hannity were to take a poll...

DADT May Be Repealed, But NOT Violent Homophobia: The Gay Blood Libel Of Fischer, Lively, et al Has Just Begun!

The Christian Right Has Ratcheted Up The Hate 
- Big Time!

The House voted to repeal Don't Ask Don't Tell on the day the 1000th US soldier was killed in Afghanistan, making the day bittersweet, in a sense, for the military: if ithe impending repeal had been sooner (or if it had not been enacted at all), would the addition of over 14,000 highly skilled servicemen have prevented that death?

According to some people, there will been MORE deaths caused by openly gay soldiers. The reasoning may be considered bizarre, but it clings to elements of the Christian Right like hate clings to violence.

There is no doubt that the months-long progress of the repeal has brought out the worst in people: situations like the pending legislation in Uganda demonstrated what the CR is capable of fomenting, and just days ago the Gay Blood Libel* was utilized to crush the repeal.

Hitler discovered that he could not get straight soldiers to be savage and brutal and vicious enough to carry out his orders, but that homosexual soldiers basically had no limits.

- Bryan Fischer, American Family Association

A PERSONAL NOTE

I am not a true gay rights activist, I ashamed to say. Today's LGBT community has enough problems without including my insubstantial my rants as part of its cause. I wish to God I were one. I just can't work hard enough: in perspective I haven't accomplished nearly as much as so many who work night and day to help us gain respect, acceptance and security.

So this article is not coming from an activist, but from a person who is just adding his voice to the chorus.
 

When I first heard the term "gay agenda" I was dumbfounded. Even after years of being out, I had never heard the term before. I fancied myself as a well-read, urbane gay man, so I wondered how I had missed that one. Once, in about 1978, I saw a documentary titled "Gay Power, Gay Politics." Some today would have given it the term "mockumentary," but believe me, the producers thought too much of themselves for anything to be tongue-in-cheek. The title said one thing, but the content was just a make-shift polemic on men cruising in public areas. How they ever arrived at the title is anybody's guess. It also hinted at a "gay agenda," so I suppose the term may have stemmed from this specious piece. And because there were people who wanted to believe that gays were mindlessly promiscuous men with evil intentions, the "gay agenda" took hold and slowly, stealthfully, grew.

Thirty-two years of demonstrating our proverbial worth should have eaten away at that nonsense, but the "Gay Blood Libel" thrived, albeit in the most insanely homophobic pockets of America's Christendom. Why it thrived is rather obvious: there are people who need to hate ... anyone. People like Fred Phelps bask in infamy because their obsession gives them a kind of celebrity status. The means of its growth is a bit more complex: twisted reasoning backed up by specious "research" and half-truths marketed to create sensational reactions.

Perhaps the most outstanding attempt at the Gay Blood Libel is The Pink Swastika, by Scott Lively and Kevin Abrams (Veritas Aeterna Press, 2002, $39.95, paperback, 1st edition 1995). This book sets off alarms (unintended) even before perusing it:

1. It's self-published. There are some really wonderful self-published books in the mainstream book market, but there are also some truly dreadful books self-published simply because no reputable publisher would publish them.

2. The list price of $24.95 for a paperback book is outrageous. Only the most biased readers would pay it to add to their "collection."

3. Pink Swastika is virtually out of print: major retailers like Barnes & Noble can only obtain used copies at prices much higher than the "listed" price (as high as $39.95 - for "collectors"). Perhaps Lively utilizes a print-on-demand process, but that means he hasn't the funds to do a decent print run.

4. The endorsements include people like R.J. Rushdoony, the founder of Reconstructionism and the Council of National Policy:

The Center for Religion, Ethics and Social Policy at Cornell University considers the Council for National Policy a leading force in the Dominionist movement. TheocracyWatch, a CRESP project, describes it as "an umbrella organization of right-wing leaders who gather regularly to plot strategy, share ideas and fund causes and candidates to advance the theocratic agenda." ·

5. The reviews of the book are so polarized that the category of "people who bought this book also bought" features titles such as The Pink Triangle: The Nazi War Against Homosexuals, by Richard Plant and Marx and Satan, by Richard Wormbrand.

From one review:

This book presents an excellent overview of the degenerate sexual practices that were at the heart of the NAZI ideology and the lives of its highest ranking members. Lively makes a fascinating tie that binds the origins of modern German militarism (from Fred.t Great to Hitler) to the murderous and pederastic society of ancient Sparta.

INCENDIARY RHETORIC AND PURPOSE-DRIVEN HATE

"...we were scrupulous in our documentation of homosexuals as the true inventors of Nazism and the guiding force behind many Nazi atrocities."

- Forward, The Pink Swastika, 4th Edition

The Pink Swastika has been in the news recently, because author Scott Lively,* now head of Abiding Truth Minitries has found venues to promote its ideals: Uganda and DADT. Lively was one of the instigators of the "Kill the gays" bill in Uganda during his speeches and presentations in Kampala last year. He is, of course, backpedaling about his influence since the bill gained international notoriety, and has promoted the bill only "in parts."

Another of Lively's organizations, Watchmen on the Wall, based in Riga, Latvia, caused concern for the LGBT community of Sacramento, California when it was determined that one gay man's death was due to the assault of some "Watchmen." The group continues to appear at gay events and celebrations with a menaciing presence.

The ever-imaginative Bryan Fischer of the American Family Association has also taken up the Gay Blood Libel standard:

Homosexuality gave us Adolph Hitler, and homosexuals in the military gave us the Brown Shirts, the Nazi war machine and six million dead Jews. Gays in the military is an experiment that has been tried and found disastrously and tragically wanting. Maybe it's time for Congress to learn a lesson from history.

Of course, it's possible that both Scott Lively and Bryan Fischer were inspired by His Holiness, Pat Robertson:

Many of those people involved with Adolph Hitler were Satanists, many of them were homosexuals--the two things seem to go together.-- The 700 Club, 1/21/93

In the last several weeks, the venom of the (Christian) Right seems to have reached a new level beyond mere moral-mindedness. Maybe Andrew Sullivan was right when he wrote that the imminant repeal of DADT has made them desperate. Witness the latest:

 - The FAMILY RESEARCH COUNCIL "report" on homosexuals in the military says that "gay rape" will increase if DADT is repealed. Unfortunately, if you look at their "findings," they'd have a hard time proving it.

 - A punk rock ministry backed by Rep. MICHELE BACHMANN says that executing gays is MORAL. And its pastor, Bradlee Dean tells people that “On average, they [gays] molest 117 people before they’re found out." The group is called YOU CAN RUN BUT YOU CANNOT HIDE. It has boasted about its presence at Republican events.

 - And according to the group, America’s Survival the repeal of DADT will endanger our troops with more disease-tainted gay blood.

 - Immediately after the news of DADT's probable repeal came out, the American Family Association's ONE NEWS NOW intentionally edited the AP script to include it's idea that

Congress has given in to pressure from gay activists and the White House ...

 - The Family Research Council has declared its solidarity with WATCHMEN ON THE WALL. It will join 400 pastors to ostensibly "pray" and meet with Congressmen and Senators about continuing DADT.

Keith Olberman talked to Dan Savage regarding these new developments in the anti-gay movement (see below). Typically, Olberman takes the stand that these are "idiots." They are, of course, but discounting them could be deadly: it's evident that taking lives is not beyond them.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

* The Blood Libel was a slander against Jews in Europe that lasted several hundred years: Jews killed Christian children to drink their blood during evil and sacrilegious rituals.

**Irony: Lively holds a Certificate in Human Rights from the International Institute of Human Rights. The tenets of the Institute are based on The Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which, according to Lively, do not apply to homosexuals because they are not human.

A Ministry Unraveling, A Call For Murder, A Convicted Sex Offender: We're Not Making This Stuff Up!

"...take 'em all out and 

shoot 'em with a scatter shot gun."

Perhaps it's just the evolution of hate speech.

Written at 12:30PM:


I knew, as did many people, that it would come to this: a mega-church preacher overtly calling for the death of gays. Who now says that what he said was wrong and that he was The MP4 was yanked from YouTube, but Joe Jervis (Joe.My.God) was able to save both his initial speech and the more "gentle" speech. You can compare them. 

Fire up your printers and create some awesome posters.

Owens is in the midst of a nationwide speaking tour. Why don't we show him what we think of his "slip"? The schedule is posted here. The list goes into 2012 and covers at least 30 Baptist churches in the U.S. and Canada. Would it be fair to say that any of the Baptist churches espouse his views? Protests in each town should spark debate. Maybe his tour could be "shortened" by cancellations.

Here's a transcript of his short, but exceedingly vicious tirade:

In America we need to stop burnin’ flags and start burnin’ fags. It’s about time somebody said what needs to be said, it’s vile, it’s reprobate, and AIDS is a curse sent from God. It’s a curse sent from God. You say that “you shouldn’t say that” Well (indecipherable) it’s my turn. (prolonged cheering). We need hunt-a-homo week. We do! Straighten it up and put it on television. Put it on television. That’ll put em’ back in the closet. I’ll tell you somethin’  - those that are yellin’ ‘n screamin’ ‘n shoutin’ the reason they came out of the closet ‘cause there weren’t enough men on the other side of the closet to keep ‘em in! If you’d been a man, you wouldn’t have that problem. Ya know, we should take ‘em all out ‘n shoot ‘em with a scatter shotgun.

Written at 8:30PM:


Pastor Owens has been hit with a barrage of phone calls, emails, whatever. He's written an apology, recorded it and posted it on his website. It seems that he had delivered that sermon in about 1995 when he was "young."

I no longer preach like that and I purposely teach and train others to preach and behave properly as well. The hurtful words in that sermon tape were erased many years ago and somehow have resurfaced much to my disappointment and embarrassment. I realize I have disappointed many who have heard those words in that sermon. May I include my disappointment in myself. Once again, I offer my humble apology.

"I no longer preach like that." That remains to be seen. Last year Owens delivered his "Sodomy Sermon"and while it avoids the calls to kill, it's just as venomous. Listen to it on YouTube, it's divided into 7 parts. Listen to it and count all the buzz-attack words, faulty reasoning, and outright b.s. Listening to the sermon (Sodomy, Part Five) makes for a depiction of depraved and sinful people. According to Owens, most people who are gay are simply bored with normal sexual relations. (?!). The irony: it was recorded on Christmas Eve. Absolutely no good will towards men. None. 

Defense of his words and actions rests almost entirely on his "youth" and "stupid(ity)" And he evidently thinks that some people will believe that, but a little research into his career shows us that he was PREACHING FOR TWENTY YEARS when his tirade was delivered. 

Note to Pastor Jeff Owens:

Pastor Owens: Where were you in 1995? I know where I was: volunteering for the AIDS Emergency Fund in San Francisco. The epidemic was churning out victims at an alarming rate, but people were no longer dying in the streets. By that time it was known that AIDS could not be caused by casual contact, but people like you (TWENTY YEARS INTO YOUR MINISTRY) continued to stoke the fires of fear and hate with your "AIDS is a curse sent by God" mantra. A great many people were kicked out of their homes while they were sick and dying. Even when you were only abou 26 years old, And let's not forget that NINE YEARS INTO YOUR MINISTRY (1981),  God gave you a fantastic opportunity to practice your belief in compassion...and you blew it.

OK ,so we have a pastor who said some despicable things 15 years ago and who is still  demonizing gays and lesbians albeit with less overtly menacing rhetoric. He's apologized, but that apology looks very weak in the light of his present "Sodomy Sermons."

But Wait - There's More!!


From The Seminal:

Jeremiah Daniel Owens pleaded guilty to two counts of sexual assault charges from an eight-count indictment handed up in October 2007 that charged him with sexual assault and sexual abuse against two girls, ages 15 and 13, and that stemmed from separate incidents earlier that year.

Owens had been had been convicted before of burglary, but with these particular crimes, he will be a registered sex offender.

According to a previous report, the mother of the 13-year-old, whose name will not be published to protect her identity, said her daughter met Owens at the Shenandoah Bible Baptist Church in Martinsburg where Owens’ father is the pastor.

... AND MORE!!!

Dr. Jeff Owens has written a children's booklet. The title, however is confusing: it's marketed as Character Lessons for Children although the book cover is pictured with the title Obedience Lessons For Children. Presumably, the title with "Obedience" is too strong, even to the pastor-father of a child molester. Owens' book is available for sale now.

Now Icing On Top: REAL homophobes love gay porn

One articlethat came out of the recent Rekers scandal pointed out that a study done of virulently homophobic men showed them to be aroused by gay porn. (!?) It left the door wide open to the possibility that "practicing homophobes" were really epic cases of gay men steeped in denial and self-loathing. Hmmm. So could Pastor Jeff be...

But he apologized! Remember the fracas that ensued when Jimmy Swaggart  told his congregation:

"I've never seen a man in my life I wanted to marry."  (shouts, applause) "And I'm gonna be blunt and plain, if one ever looks at me like that I'm gonna kill him and tell God he died." (laughter, applause) "In case anybody doesn't know, God calls it an abomnation (sic).  It's an abomnation (sic)!  It's an abomnation (sic)!"  (applause) Swaggart later apologized and laughed it off as a joke.

A spokesperson of HRC at the time had this to say about Swaggart's apology and it applies to Pastor Jeff Owens as well:

"Apologies don't discourage violence - action does. We hope that he takes action. His language only encourages an environment where hate crimes occur."

A thirtyfour year ministry preaching against homosexuality. A twenty year history of telling people to kill homosexuals. An apology. A children's book on obedience. A son in jail for sexually molesting a 13-year-old girl. Owen's life is sick...and sad.

Wowie Malawi, Dude! Africa's Getting More American Every Day!!

   

And Bart Simpson May Be Right!!

So many African countries are trying to emulate America that I'm sure there's an "Afro-Disney" in the works. At most, the attempts to be like America are very palpable: 

A visitor to South Africa today can scarcely help but be struck by how American it seems. Yet few appreciate the long historical roots of the U.S. presence in South Africa, or the complex political and cultural conflicts to which it has given rise.

Dr. James Campbell, Brown University

Americanization of (South) Africa

But in some countries, the "aping of America" goes only as far as the amount of money they receive. Or the amount of aid from American faith-based charities.   And while we do not know approximately what Rick Warren's P.E.A.C.E. program in Uganda and Rwanda   dishes out, it is enough to allow it and others like it to proselytize (excuse me) evangelize whole nations.

With the encouragement of people like Lou Engle, Tony Perkins, Rick Warren and a host of evangelizers Africa has shunned the virtues of compassion and tolerance: people are scouring the villages and towns for sinful gays to report on.. Many are practicing "corrective rape" on lesbians and now... 

From The Times Online:

A court in Malawi yesterday convicted a gay couple of gross indecency and unnatural acts in a case that has highlighted the persecution of homosexuals in Africa and drawn international condemnation.

...Large crowds have jeered and pilloried the men on each occasion that they have been brought to court. At a previous court appearance Mr Chimbalanga, who was sick with malaria, was forced to return to the court room to mop up his vomit.

The Malawi Government insists that the men broke the law. Church leaders say that the West should not be allowed to use its financial power to force Malawi to accept homosexuality. Some analysts believe that the rows over homosexuality in Africa are really a proxy war in an American cultural dispute, with both evangelicals and gay rights groups in the US pouring money and support into the continent. (emphasis mine)

That last statement should be qualified because the amount of money to subsidize hatred against gays is staggering in comparison to amounts raised to save the lives of many Malawians. If the Mormon Church paid over $40 million to back California's Proposition 8, think of what they're willing to spend on a people who are ripe for conversion.


Talk of withholding financial aid to Malawi has begun in the U.S. and Europe (especially Britain), but there are some people who insist that "starving the people of Malawi into tolerance" is not the answer.

Huffington Post 

While [Dan] Savage and most of the civilized world is rightly outraged at the decision to imprison homosexuals, it doesn't mean we punish the rest of the country for the crimes of its government.

And Madonna jumped into the fray:

Today, Malawi took a giant step backward. The world is filled with pain and suffering; therefore, we must support our basic human right to love and be loved. 

But is that "basic human right" restricted to heterosexuals simply because Africans feel obligated to legislate what the evangelizing American Christians tell them to legislate? Lou Engle lied when he stated that he did not agree with Uganda's "kill the gays" bill, then appeared in Uganda at a prayer rally praising the "courage" of the proposed law's authors. And as with many right-wing actions, you can tell they have influence when they choose NOT to do something; in this case, actively intervene.  Rick Warren only stated his opposition to the Uganda bill after an enormous public outcry, and did nothing to intervene and talk to local religious leaders. 


The Christian Right is tired of today's "culture wars" and views Africa as a new place  entrench, regroup and plant the seeds of their (strictly) American Christianity in a land  rife with the problems of 3rd world chaos, 3rd world poverty 3rd world disease and 3rd world gullibility. Today's uber-Christians come to Africa with stories of their own beleaguered land, a land in which they are "persecuted", a great land which has buckled under the yolk of hedonism and sin, a land that will not listen to their pleas to make that land holy and righteous.

So, is Africa really getting Americanized? Depends. Which America are you from?

Good Nun, Bad Nun

From Religion Dispatches: 

Catholic Nun Excommunicated for 

Saving Pregnant Woman’s Life! 

Post by Jonathan L. Walton 

Last year a gravely ill pregnant woman was admitted to St. Joseph’s Hospital and Medical Center in Phoenix with heart failure. Doctors advised the woman that the pregnancy was literally killing her. She agreed to an abortion. One major problem: St. Joseph’s is a Catholic hospital.

Since the woman was too ill to be transferred to another hospital in time to save her life, Sister Margaret McBride, hospital administrator, approved the procedure. Yet when Bishop Thomas Olmsted received word that Sister McBride approved an abortion, he passed down the harshest penalty of the Catholic church, excommunicatio   

Here is my comment on this atrocity:

 

Catholic Nun Excommunication Abortion  

Posted by Daniel Vojir posting anonymously on May 20, 2010 at 7:41 PM

I saw this article and felt compelled to comment for personal reasons, so please bear with me.

I was born in St. Vincent's Infant Asylum and Maternity Hospital in Chicago. It was an orphanage and I was put up from birth immediately. So, I literally popped out of the womb into the arms of a nun.

I know I screamed "PUT ME BACK!!" but nobody listened to me. I was handled by nuns for the first 15 months of my life. I went through Catholic grade school with flying colors. Others were not so lucky. To say the nuns were harsh ... They were also very, very old and undereducated. They had bizarre quirks that they fostered in the extreme. They used kids (like me) to further their own political stance within the parish or with their mother superior. They worshiped the ground the priests walked on.

After my grade school incarceration, I then went from the frying pan into the fire: a college prep school taught by Dominican priests. No, I wasn't molested (I wasn't cute enough), but they certainly beat us into submission.

I am now a recovering Catholic.

Several years ago, I found out about the Duplessis Orphan scandal that rocked not only Canada but the rest of the world. I was struck dumb, for you see, my birth mother was French Canadian and I was born at the very height of the atrocious abuse. There but for the grace of God...

My point is this: the Catholic church wouldn't know a good nun from a bad one. The nun in question made the right decision, but if the situation were put forth in front of any of the nuns who handled me, I am positive that the pregnant woman would have been sacrificed.

Up until the 1980's the sadistic Magdalene Laundries operated with impunity. 'Wayward girls" were to be treated as worthless slaves: physically, emotionally and, yes, even sexually.

The present pope still believes in the subjugation of women.

Sister Mary McBride I salute you. I only wish you were around when I was growing up.

Bonehead Of The Month Redux: Rep. Souder Resigns

The Hypocrisy Machine continues To drone on:

from USA Today:

 

WASHINGTON — The announcement Tuesday by Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., that he will resign after acknowledging an affair with a female aide demonstrates the increasingly tough stance House leaders have taken on scandals in advance of November's high-stakes congressional elections, political observers say.

 Hmmm. Let's wait and see which House leaders will be using the word "contempt" the most. After all, they might be next to resign. The greatest hypocrite is always the most vocal critic.