More Snot-Nosed Catholic Whining

January 23, 2012 in Atheism, Belief, Catholic Church, Catholics, Education, Invalid Belief, islam, Law, Philosophy, pope, protectthepope.com, Reason, Religion, Religious Freedom, Religious Persons, Social Justice, Valid Belief

Image via Wikipedia

There are catholics across the province of Ontario who believe that their rights to freedom of religion are being affected by the Ontario government, which is requiring all schools in the province, including roman catholic schools, to be more tolerant towards students who are traditionally victims of bullying in school, including those students who identify or consider themselves to be homosexual or otherwise a member of the LGBTQ community. In addition to discussing homosexuality in the classroom, all schools across the province are being required to allow students to form gay-straight alliances, if the students so desire, even though there are disputes lingering as to whether or not the title of ‘gay-straight alliance’ must be allowed to be used. This initiative is being taken to reduce the amount of bullying, including cyber-bullying, that is taking place in Ontario schools, and plans to accomplish this via education; just as increased dissemination of information and increased discussions in the public realm helped to reduce racial tensions between whites and blacks during the 1900′s. It seeks to reinforce our shared humanity as a vehicle for reducing bullying. Who would have a problem with as honourable an objective as this?

Well, catholics for one.

The teachings of the catholic church make the unfounded determination that homosexuals are sinful beings, insofar as they act on their homosexual urges. The catholic church believes these people, if they are to be considered good people, must recognize that it is not in their nature, or in the nature of any person, to be homosexual: the desires and urges they have are aberrations of nature, the result of the devil working through them. In fact, the official position of the catholic church is that homosexuality is a crime on par with pedophilia (of which the catholic church knows a thing or two) and incest. I have previously referenced the post Holy See’s UN representative says people should not suffer violence or be punished because of their sexual orientation, available on ProtectThePope.com in which Archbishop Silvano Tomasi states:

for the purposes of human rights law, there is a critical difference between feelings and thoughts, on the one hand, and behavior, on the other. A state should never punish a person, or deprive a person of the enjoyment of any human right, based just on the person’s feelings and thoughts, including sexual thoughts and feelings. … But states can, and must, regulate behaviors, including various sexual behaviors. Throughout the world, there is a consensus between societies that certain kinds of sexual behaviors must be forbidden by law. Pedophilia and incest are two examples.

According to the catholics, then, homosexuals are not sinners for being homosexual, they are sinners and their behaviour deranged or evil to the extent that they act on their thoughts and feelings. On the one hand, Tomasi tells his audience that the church acknowledges the inherent worth and dignity of all human beings…but then makes the provision that this in reality only extends so far. Even if the roman catholic church does not condone violence towards these people, it does encourage its sheep to alienate and to treat these people as second class citizens; the Vatican teaches catholics to be ignorant towards homosexual persons – and this ignorance leads to persecution and the denial of rights which are forms of violence.

And real, everyday catholics listen to the commandments of the Vatican and embrace these teachings in their own lives. (The following discussion is based on an editorial from an Ontario resident on thenewsstar.com titled Catholics must protect freedoms.) According to people like Hamilton, Ontario resident Paul Kokoski, the gay liberation movement‘s latest ploy is to attack religious freedom by having homosexuality discussed in both public and separate (catholic) schools, under the guise of reducing school bullying. Kokoski argues that this amounts to giving those with homosexual tendencies preferential treatment in regards to bullying; he also accuses the gay liberation movement of morphing into something analogous to the Ku Klux Klan. Kokoski goes on to write:

Bullying can be curtailed without homosexual indoctrination. Further, it is ludicrous for homosexual activists to suggest that defending the Catholic faith means a denial of the homosexual person or his right to obtain help. Do parents think these things of their children when they exercise “tough love” whence their children behave badly? Hardly! In fact, the opposite is true. No parent who truly loves their child will allow him or her to do everything they please.

I would be interested to learn how it is Kokoski believes that the bullying and mistreatment of homosexuals can be effected without education: after all, it is education from the family, religion and society that is currently justifying the abuse and violence directed towards homosexuals and the LGBTQ community. Listen Kokoski, you have to step beyond your catholic ways if you are going to address the public – you cannot just say that there are other ways to reduce bullying without education; you must also explain what these other ways are. Kokoski must also provide justification for his claim that the changes to Ontario’s Education Act amount to homosexual indoctrination.

Contrary to what catholics like Kokoski would have you believe, the catholic church demonstrates zero understanding of what it means to be homosexual; it also has a historical tendency to treat homosexuals with a lack of sympathy and respect. When these catholics sit around and tell you how much they love and respect all persons, they are no better than muslims who practice the art of taqiyya - which is really nothing more than lying to those external to your religious sect, such that the true intentions of yourself and/or your religion are not actually expressed.

Kokoski then tries to explain the catholic position: it is not that homosexuals are being mistreated. Homosexuals are treated, in the catholic worldview, in the same manner as a child who has done something wrong: a child who beats up his sister needs to be punished to learn that this type of behaviour is unacceptable. Homosexuals, in the same way, must be punished for being bad. On this view, catholics are trying to treat good people well and to punish sinners for being sinners and it is that Ontario Government that is guilty of forcing immorality on the province.

Kokoski finishes his letter by fallaciously arguing:

Ultimately, religious freedom precedes the state. It is the first freedom. It is the premise and guarantee of all freedoms that ensure the common good. The very idea of making the pope subservient to Big Brother is not only irrational, it’s utterly hateful, blasphemous and ridiculous!

Religious freedom does not precede the state: we are all, first and foremost, human. We existed as a species before religion came into being. Religious freedom is not the first right: the first right would be the right to life and security of person; without these rights, the right to religious freedom is moot. Also, religious freedom, so much as it grants each person the right to believe in this religion or that, or no religion at all, it also grants each person the right to not be subject to religious teachings and commandments against their will. This means, Kokoski, that just as you have the right to believe in whatever hokum you like, I am equally entitled to not have to be subject to one iota of your superstitious claims, just as every other person is as well.

In closing, no one is making the pope subservient to the state: the pope is naturally subservient to the state. It is the unethical and power-hungry impulses of the religious that label secular states as evil, blasphemous and the like. But when you look at the cesspool of raw ignorance and vitriol that gives birth to the religious animal, it is easy to understand why they are so concerned with appearing other than they are, while all the time pushing for total control of how each of us lives our lives.