Catholicism Is A Hateful Doctrine

And we’re sure the Catholic Church is anti-gay?

Catholicism’s bigotry reared its ugly head once again last week in two high profile reprehensible decisions by Catholic officials. First, in anticipation of Washington D.C.’s allowance of gay marriage which went into effect last week, Catholic Charities in D.C. announced that it would no longer provide health insurance to spouses of new employees or spouses of employees not currently enrolled in a plan with the organization. The reasoning is clear enough: gays are second class citizens and must be denied health coverage–even if it means denying straight employees insurance as well. Second, a Catholic preschool in Boulder, Colorado told a lesbian couple that their child may not re-enroll when next school year’s classes start because of their sexual orientation. As the abominable Archdiocese of Denver put it, “Parents living in open discord with Catholic teaching in areas of faith and morals unfortunately choose by their actions to disqualify their children from enrollment.”

Well fuck Catholic teaching.

I wonder if the Denver Archdiocese also checks public records to ensure that their schoolchildren’s parents aren’t divorced. I doubt it. And if they did, that would also be ludicrous.

It will be a cold day in hell when I take love and sexual advice from an institution comprised mainly of crusty old virgins. The preachers of the Catholic Church have no idea what it’s like to be married. They have no idea what it’s like to raise children; they only know how to fuck them. The ones who aren’t pedophiles still live in a celibate fantasyland—a very unnatural place where the biological urge to copulate is suppressed and labeled evil (but a necessary evil for the laity when procreation is the motive.) Hence the Church’s absurd position on contraceptives—that they are immoral—and Pope Ratzinger’s criminal assertion that condoms will only make the AIDS epidemic in Africa worse.

This transparent bigotry from the Catholic Church is astonishing given the dwindling number of church attendees in America and Europe. My late Catholic grandmother viewed the Church as a source for good for most of her life. But when a series of scandals involving pedophile priests hit the news in the early 2000s, even she was incredulous at the behavior of the molesters, as well as the Church officials who either willfully ignored the reality, or actively helped cover it up. Many Catholics like her put their hands up and finally said, “No thanks.” And yet, at a time when we’d think that the Church would be doing all it could to increase its ranks, its leaders cannot help but revert to their hateful ways, which is what the aforementioned incidents are: hate.

Religious bigotry is often excused because it generally has some biblical or koranic justification behind it. Let’s look at the Denver Archdiocese’s statement once again regarding the lesbian parents:

“Parents living in open discord with Catholic teaching in areas of faith and morals unfortunately choose by their actions to disqualify their children from enrollment.”

Translation:

“We hate fags and anybody else who violates our antiquated notions of morality.”

For those who do not think that this blacklisting is grounded in hate, then what do you call it when one group punishes banishes a child for who his parents are? Just because there is an emotionless, bureaucratic-sounding excuse behind the bigotry does not make it any less hateful or disgusting. In fact, it makes it worse. At least people with irreligious prejudices do not hide behind the dogmas of the bible or the koran to attempt to vindicate their Neanderthal worldview.

While I have a hard time understanding why any adult would ever call himself a Catholic, I particularly will never understand why any adult would ever call herself a Catholic. Women are, after all, second class citizens in Catholicism. The Church teaches that women are deficient because they cannot serve as ministers. It’s a total sausagefest. (Should it really surprise us that priests used helpless children as an outlet for their repressed sexual urges?) In the United States, the Catholic Church boasts the largest female membership of any officially sexist organization. Millions of women regularly attend mass, tithe, and count themselves among the faithful. How is this possible? Imagine an American or European political party of which anyone can be a member, but only men may run for office. The party would be a laughingstock, if not a reviled assemblage of chauvinistic buffoons.

The Catholic Church would be a laughingstock were it not for its sizeable following. But as mentioned, thankfully Church attendance is on the way down. The percentage of self-identifying Catholics in America has been stagnant as the Church remains unable to adapt to the changing social landscapes because of its rigid dogmas. In 2009, only 45% of Catholics said they went to church at least once a week (and even some of those were probably overstating), down from 54% in the mid-1970s, and 75% in 1955. The number of priests in America has gone down steadily since 1975. All signs point to a terminal Catholic decline. Although the Church has been making inroads in Africa, its power is waning. The once mighty institution that tortured and murdered those who dared to hold differing religious opinions, has been reduced to a shell of its former self; a curious novelty act in which the main players wear flamboyant attire and practice pagan rituals such as flesh-eating and blood-drinking.

I’ve never cared for cannibalism, or sexism, or homophobia for that matter. If you are a person who calls himself or herself “a Catholic,” then I strongly urge you to consider what that means. I personally know many Catholics who do not share the abhorrent views of their Church, but nonetheless continue to identify with it. How much disagreement must there be before there is a clean break? How many others must be discriminated against before Catholics across America and the world declare, “I no longer want anything to do with this organization”?

Hopefully not many. It is high time for a mass exodus from the Catholic Church, leaving behind only the most hardcore haters. As I see it, the main element that lends respectability to the Church is the laity, who collectively do not care much for doctrine, but describe themselves as Catholics merely out of habit. That pattern must be broken as soon as possible.

- Max