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acroyearPharyngula: Sanctimonious monsters:
Priests are HUMANS first, citizens of this planet and their respective societies first and foremost. No human, save Christ, was conceived to be anything more than a man, and no man's "faith" makes him any the more immune to the requirements of a society to punish wrongdoers and enforce a shared moral code, certainly regardless of the profession he has chosen. Be they of the cops or of the cloth, soldier or statesman, no one should be protected from justice merely by their job, ESPECIALLY when the action involved the abuse of their authority in that position.
The "Separation of Church and State" does not in any way at all mean that the Church or its members are immune from prosecution for wrong-doing that other organizations are not. Quite the opposite. The WHOLE POINT of that Separation is to declare, constitutionally once and for all, that the Church, any church, is NO DIFFERENT from any other organization. They are subject to the power of subpoena just as much as any other. Meeting minutes, financial records and statements, the whole lot. ALL are subject to the Law and all are protected by ONLY those same rights that protect all other organizations and individuals.
In matters of taxation, if they can't prove they really are "non-profit" the way every other non-profit organization has to prove it, then tax the crap out of them at the same rate as any other corporation. If they can't survive that, well, neither can many other companies so figure it out. If "God" (as they describe him, not me, thus the quotes) really works miracles for his people, then the money will be there even after the taxes are paid.
The only exception I take to this is the confessional. I believe that to be just as private as doctor-patient and client-patient confidentiality and will stand by the Church on that one. Yes, it is a power that can and will be abused (in faith as well as in law), but it is necessary.
The Church does not exist to serve God. No, really, it doesn't. It certainly does not exist to serve itself, though many religious leaders have abused their flock to creating self-sustaining empires. It most assuredly does not exist to serve the State, nor to serve its leaders by shielding them from the justice the state exists to enforce (provided it is true justice and not power abuse).
Its sole reason to exist is to serve its people and other people in need, so that THEY can serve God each in their own individual way that they are called to do so. Everything else is either irrelevant to that mission or expressly gets in the way of that mission. Everything else is done by men who have no idea what Love is.
There's an evil tableaux for you: the callous torturer stands up with blood on his hands and a lie in his teeth, while the priest draped in guilt reassures him of his righteousness. How often has that scene played out in history, I wonder?hmm...Henry II, Richard I, Henry V, Henry VIII, Mary I, Elizabeth I, James I, Charles I, and that's just the English Kings...nevermind the perpetrators of the Inquisition or the worst abusers of the Crusades (oh, sorry, named Richard I twice) or the Witch hunts or the 30 Years War or ...
Our press seems to be more interested in promoting the pomp of a papal visit than actually addressing the vileness that this administration prosecutes; we'll see more of the [...] mass in New York this weekend than we'll see addressing the unconscionable evil these great pious leaders condone. I won't be watching any of it. The sight of these two sanctimonious monsters makes me ill.The politics of the recent unpleasantness in the Catholic Church in America is a war between church and state that goes back long before Beckett was appointed (and then assassinated for not solving the way the then king saw it to be solved). And while I respect Beckett's decision to take up the side of the church when the took up the cloth and preserving a personal and professional integrity, well...he was wrong.
Priests are HUMANS first, citizens of this planet and their respective societies first and foremost. No human, save Christ, was conceived to be anything more than a man, and no man's "faith" makes him any the more immune to the requirements of a society to punish wrongdoers and enforce a shared moral code, certainly regardless of the profession he has chosen. Be they of the cops or of the cloth, soldier or statesman, no one should be protected from justice merely by their job, ESPECIALLY when the action involved the abuse of their authority in that position.
The "Separation of Church and State" does not in any way at all mean that the Church or its members are immune from prosecution for wrong-doing that other organizations are not. Quite the opposite. The WHOLE POINT of that Separation is to declare, constitutionally once and for all, that the Church, any church, is NO DIFFERENT from any other organization. They are subject to the power of subpoena just as much as any other. Meeting minutes, financial records and statements, the whole lot. ALL are subject to the Law and all are protected by ONLY those same rights that protect all other organizations and individuals.
In matters of taxation, if they can't prove they really are "non-profit" the way every other non-profit organization has to prove it, then tax the crap out of them at the same rate as any other corporation. If they can't survive that, well, neither can many other companies so figure it out. If "God" (as they describe him, not me, thus the quotes) really works miracles for his people, then the money will be there even after the taxes are paid.
The only exception I take to this is the confessional. I believe that to be just as private as doctor-patient and client-patient confidentiality and will stand by the Church on that one. Yes, it is a power that can and will be abused (in faith as well as in law), but it is necessary.
The Church does not exist to serve God. No, really, it doesn't. It certainly does not exist to serve itself, though many religious leaders have abused their flock to creating self-sustaining empires. It most assuredly does not exist to serve the State, nor to serve its leaders by shielding them from the justice the state exists to enforce (provided it is true justice and not power abuse).
Its sole reason to exist is to serve its people and other people in need, so that THEY can serve God each in their own individual way that they are called to do so. Everything else is either irrelevant to that mission or expressly gets in the way of that mission. Everything else is done by men who have no idea what Love is.
