I was thinking about this too, but to be honest right now I am not so worried - however that will change if the Church is suddenly given a greater role in world politics. If that happens I think you will be proven correct to say we should be worried.
Dom and I were brought up Catholic, but brought up to believe one essential truth, which was to treat other people as you would want to be treated yourself. I am not a practising Catholic, I don't even know if I could be described as Christian even these days, but that one rule always felt, and still does feel, like a positive thing. It certainly doesn't preclude the use of contraception, or outlaw homosexuality, or reduce the role of the female to nothing more than a subservient egg hatcher. What it does do, is demands personal responsibility for all your actions, and that's the main reason that I have come to distrust religion - for alot of people, religion is about having an excuse, a 'confessional get-out clause', a 'do as you are told shall be the whole of the law' doctrine.
When the Pope was alive, he always preached Catholic doctrine to the letter of the Catechismic law, he certainly wasn't soft on anything. In spite of this, I think we had come to think of the Pope as a somewhat benign figurehead - like the monarchy. He carried on in the way appropriate to his tradition, but it made no real impact on our first world well educated day-to-day lives. Theoretically his replacement should have just as little impact on us too.
What has been worrying me is the whole Opes Dei thing; this Catholicism within Catholicism and the sudden upsurgence in people professing to be part of it, not least of which our PM, some of his side kicks and of course, the proposed replacement to JP II. Maybe I have accidentally been suckered in and scared by the Davinci Code, but I feel deeply uncomfortable with what looks like 'the special Catholic club for the powerul right wingers'. Let's not forget now that the Nazis were anti drugs, anti alcohol, anti self abuse in any form. If they hadn't gone around butchering anyone that didn't fit the mould in such a blatantly psychopathic fashion, they would have been heralded as the last centuries Christian Holy War heroes. There's a scary thought!
What I think we need to do as a nation, is be aware of how much right wing doctrine is creeping into political decisions, and therefore our lives. I do not appreciate knowing that Ruth Kelly MP is a strict Catholic who already has a million kids in spite of being barely married, I don't like the fact that apparently under her influence, the PM has stepped up his own Catholic manifesto which threatens to make this country even less tolerant than it is clearly becoming. The Daily Mail readers are garnering support! For that we should be panicking. I am glad that we are being told the truth in these matters, but the question always has to be 'why'. What relevance? I don't feel entirely comfortable with France's secular approach to society, because I think it would be nicer if we could all share and celebrate our cultural differences, but in this era of rising religious hatred betwenn al kinds of peoples, and on our doorsteps at that, I am definitely beginning to see the advantages to banning them all.
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Date: 2005-04-03 01:13 am (UTC)Dom and I were brought up Catholic, but brought up to believe one essential truth, which was to treat other people as you would want to be treated yourself. I am not a practising Catholic, I don't even know if I could be described as Christian even these days, but that one rule always felt, and still does feel, like a positive thing. It certainly doesn't preclude the use of contraception, or outlaw homosexuality, or reduce the role of the female to nothing more than a subservient egg hatcher. What it does do, is demands personal responsibility for all your actions, and that's the main reason that I have come to distrust religion - for alot of people, religion is about having an excuse, a 'confessional get-out clause', a 'do as you are told shall be the whole of the law' doctrine.
When the Pope was alive, he always preached Catholic doctrine to the letter of the Catechismic law, he certainly wasn't soft on anything. In spite of this, I think we had come to think of the Pope as a somewhat benign figurehead - like the monarchy. He carried on in the way appropriate to his tradition, but it made no real impact on our first world well educated day-to-day lives. Theoretically his replacement should have just as little impact on us too.
What has been worrying me is the whole Opes Dei thing; this Catholicism within Catholicism and the sudden upsurgence in people professing to be part of it, not least of which our PM, some of his side kicks and of course, the proposed replacement to JP II. Maybe I have accidentally been suckered in and scared by the Davinci Code, but I feel deeply uncomfortable with what looks like 'the special Catholic club for the powerul right wingers'. Let's not forget now that the Nazis were anti drugs, anti alcohol, anti self abuse in any form. If they hadn't gone around butchering anyone that didn't fit the mould in such a blatantly psychopathic fashion, they would have been heralded as the last centuries Christian Holy War heroes. There's a scary thought!
What I think we need to do as a nation, is be aware of how much right wing doctrine is creeping into political decisions, and therefore our lives. I do not appreciate knowing that Ruth Kelly MP is a strict Catholic who already has a million kids in spite of being barely married, I don't like the fact that apparently under her influence, the PM has stepped up his own Catholic manifesto which threatens to make this country even less tolerant than it is clearly becoming. The Daily Mail readers are garnering support! For that we should be panicking. I am glad that we are being told the truth in these matters, but the question always has to be 'why'. What relevance? I don't feel entirely comfortable with France's secular approach to society, because I think it would be nicer if we could all share and celebrate our cultural differences, but in this era of rising religious hatred betwenn al kinds of peoples, and on our doorsteps at that, I am definitely beginning to see the advantages to banning them all.