Quarter Life Crisis

The world according to Sven-S. Porst

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Pope fun

346 words

I’m not sure how much noise this makes outside Germany - because people were too busy dealing with a few centimetres of snow, electing another horrible government or upholding questionable state secret practices elsewhere - but ‘our’ pope (a.k.a. Papa Razzi) seems to have to de-excommunicated one of the nuttier of his co-believers.

Apart from being in one of the more radical christian sects, said co-believer bishop Williamson thought it was a good idea to claim that the Nazis didn’t kill people in gas chambers. Which not only stamps him a moron - with hoardes of historians of all viewpoints having documented the opposite - it’s also something which gets you arrested around here. To be honest those laws agains Holocaust denial always strike me as odd because they’re against the idea of free speech, but they surely don’t restrict the free speech of any sane or ‘decent’ person. [The problem there being of course that the idea of what is ‘decent’ varies and that things shouldn’t be forbidden just because some people disapprove of them. Probably such laws should be seen as a sign of fear of countries vis-à-vis their people, who might forget history all too easily.]

Anyway, when all this pope + Holocaust denier thing came out, shit hit the fan in the local press and many people were shocked. Even catholics found this distasteful and politicians saw the need to criticise the pope. But in a way, it’s hard to see where the real problem is. Big moronic organisation extends their little finger back to even more moronic ex-member; And that in the context of (monotheistic) religions where the issue of hating all other religions - or at least hoping the ‘others’ will all go to hell or some such place - seems to be de rigeur; I would have assumed this isn’t all too surprising or shocking, but apparently it is.

It’s unclear what people expect of global megacorporations like churches. Last I checked weekend entertainment and kindergardens seemed to be it. But now the mess starts being political.

February 11, 2009, 10:18

Tagged as religion.

Comments

Comment by dan: User icon

Psst. Don’t mention the war!

February 16, 2009, 18:43

Comment by Dave2: User icon

It made headlines here in the US as well (I blogged about it). What’s so hard about this is that Pope John Paul II did so much to try and repair the reputation and relationships of the Catholic Church world-wide, and his successor is systematically destroying any progress that was made. It makes me feel bad for friends and family who are in the church, as they’re the ones who are having to live with the consequences.

February 16, 2009, 19:02

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