I’m about to bash the bishops again, that is, have another go at religion. I know it must be very boring for some, my worrying this subject like a terrier with a bone, but I do firmly believe that if religion didn’t exist, without the myth of paradise or, in Christian theology, heaven. hell and purgatory, the world would be a saner, safer, more salubrious place. If only humans could accept the fact that dead means just that – dead. All right, so religion brings a deal of comfort to many a grieving soul, many who are ill, many who suffer the thousand and one shocks that flesh is heir to, but one has to ask the sixty-four thousand dollar question, has religion made the world a better place? The answer has to be a resounding no. Letters to the newspapers can be very revealing. There is a gentleman in Ontario, Canada, Paul Kokoski, who is obviously a faithful reader of the Athens News and who has had a number of letters on religious subjects published therein, for example: “Archaic Ideologies” – ‘Islamic domination and Jewish Zionism which mark the ideologies behind the conflict in the Middle East, are archaic and outdated. With the coming of the Messiah, Jesus Christ, God is no longer tied to a specific area. God’s kingdom is a universal kingdom today. All the people of the earth are the people of God. God is not a real-estate agent.’ Well, with regard to the conflict in Gaza, I’m not too sure what Mister Kokoski’s getting at here but, that apart, as Christianity predates Islam, surely it’s the Christian ideology that’s outdated.
In another letter Mister Kokoski states unequivocally that all abortion is murder as life starts at conception and life, of course, despite all evidence to the contrary, is sacred. Interestingly this letter is answered by a Thomas Reimitz who writes, “…notion that abortion equals murder very hypocritical indeed, as he uses pseudo-scientific arguments (beginning of life) to justify his narrow view … he calls people who do not agree with him perverts and evil. Medieval Inquisition had similar ideas towards “truth”. Another letter, this time from a Doctor William Mallison ostensibly has a go at the PC brigade but is in fact nothing more or less than a homophobic diatribe, which brings me to the bishops. I see on the news that 4000 Roman Catholic clergy in the states have been accused of sexual misdemeanours against minors and the church has paid out an enormous sum in compensation. I am quite sure that some of these cases have been brought by the unscrupulous, cashing in in this compensation culture but 4000 whichever way you look at it is a pretty high figure. But surprising? Chastity is a highly unnatural state so it isn’t in the least surprising. To quote a Glyn Jones line, “chase out nature and she comes back at the double.” Or did I nick that from someone else? Which brings me to one particular bishop – Richard Williamson, once excommunicated but now welcomed back into the fold, a man with the most peculiar views. He denies the Holocaust, saying the gas chambers didn’t exist (having seen them for myself at Dachau I can put him straight on that one) and that only 300000 Jews died under the Nazis. For my money that is 300000 too many. He also believes that women wearing trousers is an assault upon womanhood and that feminism is connected to witchcraft and Satanism. The film “The Sound of Music” he describes as pornographic soul-rotting slush. There is no denying this is a highly intelligent man and that he firmly believes the rubbish he espouses but what can account for it? Was it because his mother was a Christian Scientist, another bizarre and totally ridiculous sect believing Mary Baker Eddy’s nonsense, and his father a protestant that caused him to leap into the arms of Catholicism but with his own peculiar brand?
It is said of him that, “He’s so appallingly vain … he’s always so tremendously elegant and polished, and often surrounded by clean-cut youths who worship him. He adores being the centre of attention.” Another opinion states, “I have long suspected he has issues with his sexuality because he spews forth camp poison whenever the issue of homosexuality is raised. He’s absolutely obsessed with sexual deviancy of any sort.” And this man preaches to his flock about God?