Putting aside my recent blog wherein I disputed the degree of power attributed to God, I am a Catholic, non-practicing, because it was in the main responsible for allowing the great artists of the Renaissance to flourish, giving pictorial grandeur to a religion the mostly illiterate faithful could finally understand why they had embraced it unwittingly. Though I disagree with its unwieldy authoritarianism, there is no disputing the symbolic beauty of Catholicism. In paraphrasing James Joyce, if you must be religious why be half-baked about it?
That said, I am particularly peeved that American Catholics are tilting to the Christian right, buying into its dastardly defiance of Jesus Himself. The self-proclaimed leaders of this misguided sect has taken the religion of the poor and meek by transforming it into a lackey following for the rich. Its scathing, blustery, deceitful crusade against the most vulnerable is about as non-Christian as Islam. It dares suggest that the lunatics of 9/11 was in retaliation for all the immoral practices of the US; it has branched out into a so-called “Christian Zionism” because Israel must be protected for the second coming of Christ; they encourage demonstrations — sometimes violent — against women in distress heading for abortion clinics; it refuses to exhibit even an iota of compassion for gays; it defies the Prince of Peace by belligerently supporting a president as commander in chief who proudly ignored statesmanship by taking us to war on a whim; it continues to praise Bush’s “compassionate conservatism” that was conceived with a wink at Karl Rove during the previous campaign; it applauds denigrating legitimate war heroes, including the venerable Colin Powell who has been cast aside and humiliated by the administration; it openly chants “Praise the Lord, pass the ammunition and screw the environment and domestic needs.”
Who are these people who possess the effrontery to rewrite the Scriptures to fit the politics of the times? The Scriptures — in spite of my reading them as poetry — are timeless and profess to put into the mind of the reader serious love for a better humanity, highlighted by the Sermon on the Mount. Therefore, I resent that these usurpers defy His edict: “Give not that which is holy unto the dogs.”
Though all people abhor the idea of abortion from a distance, those who are involved in this nasty business, I give the benefit of the doubt that they honestly believe they cannot handle it, but that doesn’t mean that pro-life or pro-choice is not to engage in compassionate assistance in alternatives, including financial, for those who decide on life. As for the other wedge issue, those of us who are parents and are gifted with straight kids should not make us feel superior, but rather feel a truly Christian love for the parents who have gay children and thereby do our best in supporting parent and child in a tormenting scenario.
That’s what Christ would do because he’s a compassionate liberal and so are most Christians, including Catholics.
Copyright © 2004 Richard R. Kennedy All rights reserved. Revised: April 3, 2004.