But it’s a really heavy gold cross and I’m a really old man so I’m laying it down and calling it a day…
Lots of people are saying good riddance to the Popester. I don’t much care. He was a mouthpiece for orthodoxy and dogmatism. Why are we so surprised and angry about that? Comments to the New York Times article about him retiring are pretty much “Don’t let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.”
But is the next old white European male going to be any different?
They say the definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result….
Not too many religions anymore have a king as their head, a living idol whose very existence violates number two of the Ten Commandments. The Mormons do, only they call him a “president”. One of the first Mormon popes, Brigham Young, had a divine revelation straight from God that told him black people were not be admitted to the Mormon priesthood because they were descended from Cain, who killed his brother.
“The Lord had cursed Cain’s seed with blackness and prohibited them the Priesthood,” Pope Brigham said.
Not only were they barred from Mormon priesthood, but from full membership in the Mormon I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong club (i.e. religion).
This all changed in 1978 when a new Mormon pope, Spencer Kimball, had a divine revelation straight from God that told him black people were ok after all. All previous bans were reversed. This divine revelation came just in the nick of time, too, because the Mormon religion was greatly expanding its missionary activities in Africa.
Not only is God creator and sustainer of the Universe, but he is also very convenient.
Whenever you have one dude deciding everything for everybody else, that dude automatically becomes wrong.
They say our modern world is more secular, even less spiritual than before. I can’t speak to that, but it does seem more humanist and inclusive—though by no means remotely perfect. I believe the changes that have gone on in our society over the last century or so which these types of religious kings decry actually make us more in line with what Christ actually taught and lived.
Standard Industrial Christianity, whether it be Catholicism, Inc. or Evangelicalism, Inc. is in trouble in this country. One-in-five Americans now describe their religious affiliation as “None”. People can read the Bible, you know, and I believe this is part of the reason why they choose not to affiliate. They can see what it says and teaches. If they have half a brain, they know it doesn’t teach that gay people are sinful, nor the way they love and live. It doesn’t teach this anymore than it teaches Canadians are sinful. They know that it teaches tolerance. They know it teaches us to help the poor and sick, which makes American Evangelicalism, goose-stepping along with I-Got-Mine-Screw-You Ayn Rand Republicanism, especially ridiculous.
I believe the rejection of orthodoxy and dogmatism is always a good thing. Listen to your own heart, not someone else’s words and rules, because in your own heart is where God lives the most.
So Pope Benedict stepping down is pretty much a non-event to me. In the words of the Who: “Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.”
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