Birthday shout-outs go to:
1. Matthew Narciso Veliz, my nephew from Lubbock, TX (April 2nd)—Happy 6th birthday Matthew. Spend your day the way you want.
2. Caty, my colorful female cat with a sweet personality (April 15th)—Get ready for your favorite treats…Temptations.
3. Alex Hernandez, D’s niece, Midland, TX (April 18th)—This birthday is her Sweet Sixteen. She grew up too fast!
Now it’s time to get on my soap box. Easter weekend has come rather quickly this year. Many people, especially the church-going type, will be attending religious services, with a tasty meal and Easter egg hunt afterwards. But the holiday seems sort of tainted this year.
The actions of religious people dumbfound me. First, after the passage of the health care bill, we see many of these people shouting at the tops of their lungs how the bill is the first step towards socialism and how Obama is the “anti-Christ.” Then, members of the House and Senate are getting threats of physical violence. Boy do I admire their Christian attitudes! Am I shocked? Yes. Am I surprised? No. And now, even after all the malicious talk, these people will be dressed in their Sunday best, driving to their respective churches to listen to the Easter sermon, all the while letting the information go from one ear and out the other as if the message was totally irrelevant to them.
And then, voila! We have breaking news from the Vatican…the Catholic Church finds itself in quite a dilemma and it’s not another Protestant Reformation either. It’s the same crap…AGAIN. What timing! Perhaps Holy Thursday and Good Friday should become Cover-Up Thursday and Blame-Others Friday. First, the Church is marked by scandal in Europe, which tells me the situation not only exists in America, but the problem is worldwide. Obviously Vatican officials did not learn from the lessons of the scandal in the U.S., where hundreds of priests were dismissed over a 3-year period. But then we read Laurie Goodstein’s disturbing report in The New York Times about how Pope Benny, while he was still a cardinal (Ratzinger), was personally warned about a priest (Murphy) who had molested as many as 200 deaf boys. But, as usual, church leaders chose to protect the Church instead of the children. They’re even trying to demonize gays! Dora and I were watching CNN the other night and Bill Donohue, the Catholic League president, offered this comment: “The Times continues to editorialize about the ‘pedophilia crisis,’ when all along it’s been a homosexual crisis.” What a crock of shit! Needless to say, we were both pissed off about his remarks.
Long story short, Ratzinger failed to respond to two letters. I read these letters and I do not comprehend how Vatican officials can claim that Pope Benny knew nothing of the Murphy case. Some of the letters and memos I read went through Ratzinger’s office! So what happened next? Murphy the molester wrote to Ratzinger, making the case that he [Murphy] should not be put on trial because he [Murphy] had already repented and was in poor health and that his case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations. Are you, Mr. Murphy, kidding me?! First of all, Murphy claims he had repented…after molesting 200! Oh my, is he truly remorseful. Secondly, Murphy claims he was in poor health. What about the mental and emotional health of the children he molested?! Lastly, he claims his case was beyond the church’s own statute of limitations. Are you serious?! Fuck the church! What about the federal crime that was committed? Murphy wrote: “I simply want to live out the time that I have left in the dignity of my priesthood.” What an MFer! What about the children? Their lives will forever be haunted by your sick actions!
To make matters worse, Murphy was never tried or disciplined by the church’s own justice system. In fact, according to the memo I read, he was still receiving a salary and he was still benefitting from health care insurance (Blue Cross/Blue Shield). Ain’t that a holy bitch?! Furthermore, Murphy was quietly moved to the Diocese of Superior in Wisconsin in ’74, where he spent his last 24 years working freely with children in parishes, schools, and a juvenile detention center.
I also read some of the written statements by some of the victims. The following statement is from a former St. John’s student (May 15, 1974): “In 1964, I went to Father Murphy’s office with my problems and he scolded me as a bad boy. Then he encouraged me to his bedroom and taught me about sex. At the first thing he spanked my ass with his belt and he started to touch my penis while he explained sex things to me. This continued even in the confessional." I’m disgusted!
I guess we will continue to observe the Catholic Church’s tone deafness and hypocritical attitude. What do I mean by this? Well, let’s see…Pope Benny has continued the church’s ban on female priests and is adamant against priests having wives. He has started 2 investigations of American nuns to check if they’ve grown “too independent.” As a cardinal, he wrote a Vatican document urging women to be submissive partners and not take on adversarial roles toward men. Give me a damn break Benny! I’ve always known that the Catholic Church is very patriarchal in nature, but could you be any more sexist?! Seems to me that your religion would be better off with female priests since your male priests can’t keep their hands off children.
Also, American bishops have gotten politically militant in recent years, opposing the health care bill because its language on abortion wasn’t vehement enough, and punishing Catholic politicians who are pro-choice and who favor stem cell research. Perhaps if they spent as much time protecting the children already under their care as they do championing the rights of those who aren’t yet born, they’d be in a better position to offer their two cents, which is exactly what it’s worth.
I do want to provide the following disclaimer before I go any further. By my harsh criticism of the Catholic Church, I’m not saying that most Catholics are not good people. I am simply suggesting (subtly) that given the history of torture, subjugation (including the oppression of women), and now child abuse, isn’t it time to look at an alternative path to God? The Bible preaches that man should remove thyself from the lap of luxury. The leaders of this church have their own opulent little country to live in, built on the backs of the people they are supposed to guide (which is one reason I have no desire to visit Rome as it sits too close to the Vatican). Many Catholics have cried out for reform and it’s obvious the church hierarchy will never go for that because it means conceding some power to the laity.
In February, I checked out a new book release from the public library: Losing My Religion: How I Lost My Faith Reporting on Religion in America—and Found Unexpected Peace by William Lobdell. Lobdell is a journalist who reported many scandalous stories in various religious sects from Mormonism to, yes, the Catholic Church. In fact, during the time he was reporting on hundreds of stories, he was attending classes at his Catholic Church. He had planned to convert to Catholicism. He is now an Atheist.
One of the stories he reported involved a priest by the name of Michael Harris. (Google his name and you will get more details about the case.) Long story short, in ’95, a former student of his filed a lawsuit, accusing Harris of molesting him. Two other accusers stepped forward, but the diocese and community backed Harris. No shocker there. The lawsuit was thrown out because the statute of limitations had passed. How convenient. But who essentially brought him and the Roman Catholic dioceses of LA and Orange down? A former Texas Tech Lady Raider (bb) by the name of Katherine K. Freberg, the attorney for Ryan DiMaria. The dioceses agreed to pay her client a record $5.2 million to settle the case. And Harris agreed to leave the priesthood.
But boys are not the only targets. Lobdell reported a story involving a young teenaged girl named Rita Milla. As an awkward, overweight young teen, Rita had caught the eye of a parish priest named Santiago “Henry” Tamayo at St. Philomena Church in Carson, CA. In ’78, after grooming her with special attention and visits to her home, the priest molested Rita, then 16, through a broken screen in the confessional. He later introduced her to six other priests, who took turns having sex with her—once allegedly at a hotel room that was rented by the hour and then in the parish’s rectory. When Rita became pregnant in ’82, Tamayo wanted her to get an abortion (now he’s suddenly Pro-Choice), but she refused. So instead, he shipped Rita off with $450 to the Philippines, where she and her baby almost died in childbirth. When the scandal surfaced, the bishop blamed Rita for luring the priests into bed. She filed a lawsuit against the priests and the Archdiocese of LA. Unfortunately, because all seven priests fled, none of her rapists were arrested because of the statute of limitations.
It wasn’t easy for Lobdell (the author of Losing My Religion) to finally come to the conclusion that there was no God. In fact, I found that I had many things in common with him. For years, I, too, tried to quiet some nagging thoughts about Christianity. As a kid, I didn’t believe faith could be questioned, so I kept these “heretical” thoughts to myself. But the wheels in my mind kept turning. As I became an adult (and an ordained minister), I found it strange that church leaders be given grand receptions fit for a king. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples and told his followers that the first shall be the last, but today’s church leaders (like the pope) are treated literally like royalty. I doubted the wisdom of giving 10 percent to the church. It felt like a gimmick by religious leaders to make sure their organizations were well funded. Church leaders live in the lap of luxury. Does anyone not dare to question their resources? Through all my religious training, the one passage in the Bible that stuck out the most for me was when Jesus went into the temple and, in a rage, tossed the collection table. He preached out in the open and never asked for money. Organized religion in any form is a twisted version of what Jesus admonished when he said, “Keep your eye simple.” Then, too, the Bible contains many contradictions. The Apostle Paul wrote that God is not a God of confusion, yet the Bible is perplexing enough to spawn thousands of different interpretations and Christian denominations. And what about the story when God tests Abraham, commanding him to sacrifice his son Isaac? It seems like a sadistic request, especially when God abruptly stops Abraham just as he’s about to plunge a knife into his son. But Abraham had to have known that Isaac would either be saved or resurrected by God because God had promised Abraham earlier that Isaac would have many descendents. How could Isaac have children if he were dead?
And what about the many awful things that have been carried out in the name of religion (or Christianity in this case)? The Inquisition? The main way a church liked to perpetrate its crimes was to outlaw all competing religions in the territory it controlled so that it would have a “legal” excuse to kill or torture those who did not conform.
So in light of what happened in history and what is happening today, religion, I believe, is the root of all evil. It’s divisive. And like Lobdell, I have come to the conclusion that there is no God. How could there be? But the conclusion is mine. I know only what is true for me. If God is real, it would make sense for God-fearing people, on average, to be superior morally and ethically to the rest of society. Statistically, however, they are not. I also believe that God’s institutions, on average, should function on a higher moral plain than governments or corporations. I don’t see any evidence of this. The Church of Scientology has been on the news lately for its abuses. The FLDS in Eldorado, Texas was in the news for weeks last year. And now, the Catholic Church, one of the biggest branches on the Christianity Tree, finds itself in a spiritual hole. Besides, it has been my experience that religious people tend to be the most bigoted and non-accepting people on earth. To me, religions are off-switches of the human mind. They are authoritarian hierarchies designed to dominate your free will. I have learned that if you value the ideal of unconditional love, you won’t find it in religion. Real compassion doesn’t arise from believing in God. Compassion can only result from conscious choice, and this requires the freedom to choose without the threat of punishment or the promise of reward.
My decision to adopt Atheism is one I have made with no regrets. I feel no vacuum created by my lack of faith in God. The faith I do have is faith in myself, my family, and close friends. My life makes better sense now. My mind isn’t troubled by the unsolvable mysteries that plagued me as a believer. At least now, when I see injustice and suffering, the randomness is just that. A God in heaven didn’t sit idly by while the little boy died. Because I don’t believe in God, I don’t credit Him for the things I have, but I don’t blame Him for the bad things that happen. My morals and values haven’t changed. At least now, when I do something thoughtful or good for someone, I do it because I want to, not because I’m working to gain entrance to some heavenly bliss. When I stumble, I don’t blame Satan. It wouldn’t make sense for me to do so because if I don’t believe in God, then I don’t believe Satan exists either. When I do wrong, it’s due to selfishness or poor judgment on my part. Ultimately, what is gone is the placebo of faith. And when I admitted that I had been taking the sugar pill of faith, relief swept over me. I have gained a tremendous sense of gratitude for the things I have and for the people in my life. I find myself wanting to better my life and accomplish goals to avoid wasted time. I’ve tightened my circle of friends, wanting to maximize time with the people I love, my friends and my family. More importantly, I’ve become more true to myself because I’m not worried about what others think of me. I feel wonderfully free—not to go on a binge of debauchery like the Prodigal Son, but to stop wrestling with the mysteries of Christianity or any other religion.
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