Institutions, religions, Catholics, and perversions

By Ken Gillman

Last updated Mar 8, 2020 | Published on Oct 10, 2017 |

Introduction

‘Proselytizing is an indispensable and inalienable characteristic of Religions; ‘believers’ are impelled to convert others because they know the real truth and must save others from their (incorrect) truths.  Religions are therefore inherently divisive and alienating.  As history reveals, unfettered, proselytizing soon descends the path to division, fear, and thus conflict.  Consequently, religions are only peaceful, safe, moral, and acceptable when they have been made so by being neutered through the influence of rationalism, education, science, and a secular society, with a complete separation of church and state — which has not yet been accomplished by any western country.’

I have written this commentary for several reasons.  I have added minor updates since Pell’s guilty verdict has been announced, although it was actually given in December 2018, and will post this version when the appeal is (finally) dealt with.

Retrial Date Pushed Back in Catholic Church Sex Abuse Scandal Due to Coronavirus

TOP CLASS ACTIONS

By Joanna Szabo
March 27, 2020

Although the Roman Catholic Church sex abuse scandal has been making headlines for years as thousands of people come forward with their own stories of abuse at the hands of priests, only one Church official has actually gone to prison as a result.

Now, that official’s retrial date has been pushed back by nearly a year due to concerns over the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

THE DARK SIDE CHRISTIAN HISTORY / HELEN ELLEBRE

This is simply a book that everyone must sit down and read.
Alice Walker

This book is dedicated to freedom and human dignity.

Contents

Preface i Introduction 1 

ONE Seeds of Tyranny 4 

TWO Political Maneuvering: Making Christianity Palatable to the Romans 

14 

Preface i Introduction 1 

ONE Seeds of Tyranny 4 

TWO Political Maneuvering: Making Christianity Palatable to the Romans 

14 

THREE Deciding Upon Doctrine: Sex, Free Will, Reincarnation and the Use of Force 

30 

FOUR The Church Takes Over: 

The Dark Ages 

41 

FIVE The Church Fights Change: 

The Middle Ages 

54 

SIX Controlling the Human Spirit: 

The Inquisition and Slavery 

76 

SEVEN The Reformation: 

Converting the Populace 

93 

EIGHT The Witch Hunts: 

The End of Magic and Miracles 

114 

NINE Alienation From Nature 139 

TEN A World Without God 165 

ELEVEN Conclusion 185 

Notes _{Bibliography Index Illustration Credits} 

189 _{208 213 220} 

Preface 

In June of 1995 the Chicago Tribune reported that Pope John _{Paul II had urged the Roman Catholic Church to seize the “particularly propitious” occasion of the new millennium to recognize “the dark side of its history.”}1 _{In a 1994 confidential letter to cardinals which was later leaked to the Italian press, he asked, How can one remain silent about the many forms of violence perpetrated in the name of the faith—wars of religion, tribunals of the Inquisition and other forms of violations of the rights of persons?}2 Unfortunately, too many have remained silent. Several years _{ago I listened in amazement as an acquaintance spoke of how the Christian Church had embodied the best of Western civilization and how it had brought peace and understanding to the people it touched. He seemed entirely unaware of the Church’s dark past. I decided to prepare a short presentation chronicling the dark side of Christian history—a presentation to help balance the perception that organized Christianity has historically lived up to its professed principles and ideals. I assumed that I would easily find all the information necessary for this presentation at the bookstore, but was soon shocked to find so little available on the subject. While historians have certainly written about the dark side of Christian history, their words have largely stayed within the confines of academe. And few have written of Christianity’s role in creating a world in which people feel alienated from the sacred. Why, at a time when so many are searching for deeper spiritual meaning, isn’t} 

It is not possible to divorce George Pell’s acquittal from the Catholic church’s history of child abuse

The Guardian

Francis Sullivan

The bishops should end their obsession with Pell and take up their moral responsibility to victims

‘The abuse scandal has broken the hearts of Catholics and the only real impetus for change has come from public shaming.’ Photograph: James Ross/EPA

Cardinal George Pell’s acquittal was legally the correct decision. His relief and that of his family and many supporters will be palpable. He – not the Catholic church – was on trial and the high court has seen fit to ensure justice was served.

But it is not possible to divorce the acquittal from the broader context of the Catholic church’s history of child sexual abuse.

With the matter concluded the Catholic bishops should end their obsession with Pell and take up their moral responsibility to the victims of church perpetrators and those who obfuscated and concealed on their behalf.

How do you become, formally, not-a-Catholic? You take the law into your own hands

The Guardian

Sebastian Tesoriero

Sat 11 Apr 2020

The church has tried to make it so it can’t be divorced. Yet people do want to leave. In droves

 Sebastian Tesoriero, who has formally left the Catholic church. Photograph: Supplied

“Are you a Catholic?”

The question eventually surfaces over dinner or drinks in so many conversations: about the child sex abuse royal commission, marriage equality, religious freedom, legalising abortion and euthanasia. About George Pell.

Many of us baptised Catholic have drifted – through boredom, scepticism, disbelief or outright disgust with the Roman church – from Christmas Catholic to census Catholic to lapsed Catholic. Over the decades I’ve been outside the church I’ve also used ex-Catholic, non-practising Catholic and mis-Catholic.

CHURCHES SAY: “YOU’RE NOT THE BOSS OF ME!”

RELIGION NEWS

08 APR 2020,  POSTED BY SAM FIELD

Pastor Jon Duncan of the Cross Culture Christian Center in Lodi, Calif., has been ordered by the San Joaquin County Department of Health to stop religious gatherings. The Church, which has continued to hold in-person services during the Coronavirus pandemic has been labeled a “public nuisance” and a “non-essential service” by the county, according to Church attorney Dean R. Broyles. Pastor Duncan disagrees with that assessment, of course, and said that while his congregation will follow the CDC’s recommendations to prevent the spread of the Coronavirus, on Palm Sunday he will hold services anyway.

Cardinal Pell welcomes court’s dismissal of abuse conviction

Associated Press

Cardinal George Pell welcomed Australia’s highest court clearing him of child sex crimes Tuesday and said his trial had not been a referendum on the Catholic Church’s handling of the clergy abuse crisis.

Pope Francis’ former finance minister Pell had been the most senior Catholic found guilty of sexually abusing children and has spent 13 months in high-security prisons before seven High Court judges unanimously dismissed his convictions.

In a Pandemic, Religion Can Be a Balm and a Risik

Workers disinfecting a mosque ahead of Friday prayers in Istanbul this month.Credit…Chris Mcgrath/Getty Images

As scientists and Politicians struggle for a responce to the coronavirus, many people are turning to faith. Bat some practices raise public health Concerns.

The New York Times

By Vivian Yee

March, 22. 2020

BEIRUT, Lebanon — Down on earth, the coronavirus outbreak was felling lives, livelihoods and normalcy. A nation-spanning blessing seemed called for. So up went a priest in a small airplane, rumbling overhead at an epidemiologically safe distance from the troubles below, wielding a sacred golden vessel from a cockpit-turned-pulpit.

Before his flight over Lebanon, a soldier at an airport checkpoint asked the Rev. Majdi Allawi if he had a mask and hand sanitizer.

“Jesus is my protection,” said Father Allawi, who belongs to the Maronite Catholic Church. “He is my sanitizer.”

Religion is the solace of first resort for billions of people grappling with a pandemic for which scientists, presidents and the secular world seem, so far, to have few answers. With both sanitizer and leadership in short supply, dread over the coronavirus has driven the globe’s faithful even closer to religion and ritual.

But what is good for the soul may not always be good for the body.

Believers worldwide are running afoul of public health authorities’ warnings that communal gatherings, the keystone of so much religious practice, must be limited to combat the virus’ spread. In some cases, religious fervor has led people toward cures that have no grounding in science; in others, it has drawn them to sacred places or rites that could increase the risk of infection.

Coronavirus: Trump and religious right rely on faith, not science

THE CONVERSATION – Academic rigour, journalistic flair / March 29, 2020 

As the coronavirus pandemic spreads globally, many governments have forbidden large gatherings. Some groups have been slow to heed the call, however.

This month in the United States, several neo-charismatic preachers decided not to cancel their church meetings and events. Some have since said they would move their meetings online.

Others appeared to minimize the physical health threats of the virus or emphasized how atonement, spiritual preparation or protection is strengthened through church tithing or donations.

These initial and ongoing response of some of these leaders have highlighted dangerous worldviews that stress the authority of Christian charismatic personal prophecy and sees in calamitous events signs of Christ’s final triumph.