Shadow Casting

Taoiseach Enda Kenny on attempts by the catholic church to frustrate the Cloyne Report, and to downplay the rape of children.

Found via @surpassthepast on Twitter.

Jamie Kilstein on Gay Marriage, with Lewis Black, Ron White, and Kathleen Madigan

Found via @mal-luck on Tumblr.

Church to say sorry for forced adoptions

In Australia, the healthcare arm of the catholic church is apologizing for forced adoption practices where newborn babies were forcibly removed from their mothers, and placed for adoption. According to the article, at least 150,000 women had their babies stolen from them.

Australia isn’t alone in this travesty. Look at the Magdalene houses in Ireland. Many of the women placed in these houses also had newborn babies removed from them. In addition, they were often forced into hard labor at these houses to punish them for having a child out of wedlock.

Whenever the catholic church works to destroy reproductive freedoms, they often prattle on about the “dignity of women”. Apparently, having the freedom to control your own body somehow destroys this dignity, and the catholic church is simply protecting women from themselves.

It’s pretty obvious that the catholic church thinks that women are not capable of managing their lives. Whether it’s the decision to have sex, use contraception, or have an abortion. Whether it’s the decision to keep a child, or place the child for adoption. The church knows what’s best.

The church can throw around words like dignity all they want, but their true intentions are obvious. There is nothing dignified about having your freedoms trampled on. There is no dignity when an adult is treated like a child who is inherently incapable of making good decisions.

Sure, they’re apologizing now to soothe the public outrage over forced adoptions. They can no longer get away with such things in Australia. In other parts of the world, it wouldn’t surprise me if the church is still involved with such practices. They’re only sorry in Australia because they got caught.

When it comes to contraception or abortion, however, the church still demands total control over the lives of women everywhere. They spend large sums of money to ensure such control by passing legislation that destroys reproductive freedoms. Fifty years from now, I wonder if they will be apologizing for that.

Originally posted on Shadow Songs

A few days ago, my atheist twitter account was followed by some christian group for young adults. I occasionally get followed by christians, and I always wonder why. It can’t be much fun to see their religion mocked on a regular basis.

It was a slow day, and I was curious, so I looked through their tweets. What I found was pretty typical: bible quotes and meeting announcements. As I scrolled through their timeline though, I started to find retweets from various homophobic christians. After being on twitter for a few years, I’ve encountered many of the biggest homophobes, so I recognise their names immediately.

Near the bottom of their timeline, I actually found a recommendation for one of the most virulent homophobes on twitter as a “faith builder”. To be fair, I did not find anything in their timeline that even mentioned homosexuality. However, you are known by the company you keep, and recommending a raging homophobe to your followers is enough to get on my bad side. As such, I added them to my bigots and assholes list, and went on my merry way.

Apparently, the owners of the twitter account didn’t appreciate being listed, and they decided to use it as an opportunity to share some christian love. First, they informed me that I am making assumptions due to my personal bias. Then, they told me that I am unique, and that they would rather make a friend than force their beliefs on someone. All told, this was about the most truth I’ve ever received from a christian. I am unique, just like every other person on the planet. I also have a very strong bias against christianity, and the people who practice it.

I’ve spent my entire life listening to christians tell me what a piece of shit I am. That I’m an abomination. That I’m sick and disgusting. I have heard them say that people like me should be deported, locked up, or even killed because we will destroy any country that tolerates us. We destroy heterosexual marriages. We corrupt children by recruiting them into our filthy lifestyle. I have heard all of this, over and over again, my entire life.

I have also watched them spend huge sums of money, and large amounts of their time, to deprive us of the most basic human rights. And, I have seen them drive too many people to commit suicide in an effort to cure them. As a result, it’s not all flowers and puppies whenever I happen to come into contact with a member of that horrible religion.

When someone tells me that they’re a christian, I cringe. All of my walls go up. To be honest, I am physically and viscerally repulsed by them. Sure, I know that not all christians are bigoted homophobes. I also know that there are many queer christians, and liberal denominations that support the rights of gender and sexual minorities.

However, that knowledge does not change the strong emotional reaction I experience when I encounter a christian. I do find it curious that the members of an institution which has spread so much hatred and caused so much suffering are actually shocked by my reaction. Do they really think that their actions will have no consequences?

Needless to say, the offer of friendship from a christian didn’t leave me jumping for joy. My response was actually: “If there’s one thing I know it’s that christians aren’t my friend. Never have been. Never will be. Whole lotta misery I don’t need.”

At this point, the person running the account started tweeting me from their personal account instead. I guess he didn’t want the church account caught up in an argument. It might not look good to potential suckers, uh, converts.

After pointing out that the church account was retweeting and recommending some of the biggest homophobes on twitter, I received a reply from the church account saying: “why do you keep twting me if it’s just to insult? I RT a quote, an idea, not the people..if you have a problem talk to them“. The church account also unfollowed me.

From the personal account, he replied to tell me that I’m spewing too much negativity. As he put it: “you believe you are part of the solution, but you’re the problem.” Essentially, his tweets to me amount to nothing more than a big, giant shut the fuck up. All of it said in the nicest possible way, of course. As a christian, I’m sure he would never resort to something so horrible as profanity.

There is much that I find hilarious in all of this. First of all, I only became aware of the church account after they started following me. I replied to them because they started tweeting me. I also love that they consider it an insult for me to point out that they are recommending a hate filled bigot to their followers. How dare I do such a thing. I guess that’s why I’m the problem.

Looking through the timeline of both the church account and the personal account, I could not find a single instance where they have called out any of the numerous homophobic christians on twitter for spreading hatred. Apparently, negativity is not a problem for them when it comes in the form of bigotry from a hate filled christian. Hell, they might even recommend such a person. It’s only a problem when I say something negative about their religion. I am the problem. How dare I be angry, or negative. How dare I be offended by their associations.

Oh, well. If the solution is for me to sit down and shut the fuck up, then a problem I will continue to be. In fact, I think it will be my new mantra.

I am the problem.

I am the problem.

I AM the problem.

Then again, maybe not. Chanting that would just make me feel silly. I guess I’ll just get on twitter, and spread some more negativity around.

Originally posted on Shadow Songs