Of all the reams of nonsense written about the Pope and condoms, Fagburn thought this essay on the BBC News website by National Catholic Reporter's John L Allen was the most illuminating; 'Why condom comments are no earthquake in Catholic teaching'Allen argues that the Pope's words have been "sexed up" by the media, and explains why they mean little and change nothing.
Nobody seems to have found out if Pope Benedict actually said/meant "a male prostitute" - but according to Catholic teaching a male prostitute could wear a condom all along because homosex can't be procreation, which means it's wrong full-stop, and HOMOSEXUALS ARE ALL GOING TO BURN IN HELL anyway.
• Cartoon by Peter Brookes in The Times.
Update: From BBC News "Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said he had personally asked the Pope if there was a serious, important problem in the choice of the masculine over the feminine.
"He told me 'No'," Fr Lombardi said. "The problem is this... It's the first step of taking responsibility, of taking into consideration the risk of the life of another with whom you have a relationship."
"This is if you're a woman, a man, or a transsexual," he added.
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What about male prostitutes that have sex with women?
ReplyDeleteEveryone seems to be taking it as a given that "male prostitutes" only have sex with other men.
And are male prostitutes exempt from this particular rule when they're off the clock, so to speak, or just when they're working?
It's a minefield, isn't it?
I'm glad I'm not a religulous nutter.
I wonder what stephen Fry is saying... :)
ReplyDeleteAlso, I have a strong feeling the original words on the cartoon said not "scale" but "size", and were changed for reasons of decorum.
ReplyDelete"Size of the issue" would have been funnier.
ReplyDeleteBetter still: "I'm not sure you appreciate the size of my cock".
ReplyDeleteIt does seem to be a real shift with the clarification today - the Vatican are still in the middle ages though.
ReplyDeleteHere's Chaz Bufe from 20 Reasons to Abandon The Bible'...
ReplyDelete17. Christianity is homophobic.
Christianity from its beginnings has been markedly homophobic. The biblical basis for this homophobia lies in the story of Sodom in Genesis, and in Leviticus. Leviticus 18:22 reads: "Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination," and Leviticus 20:13 reads: "If a man lie with mankind as he lieth with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination: they shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them."
This sounds remarkably harsh, yet Leviticus proscribes a great many other things, declares many of them "abominations," and prescribes the death penalty for several other acts, some of which are shockingly picayune. Leviticus 17:10–13 prohibits the eating of blood sausage; Leviticus 11:6–7 prohibits the eating of "unclean" hares and swine; Leviticus 11:10 declares shellfish "abominations"; Leviticus 20:9 prescribes the death penalty for cursing one’s father or mother; Leviticus 20:10 prescribes the death penalty for adultery; Leviticus 20:14 prescribes the penalty of being burnt alive for having a three-way with one’s wife and mother-in-law; and Leviticus 20:15 declares, "And if a man lie with a beast, he shall surely be put to death: and ye shall slay the beast" (which seems rather unfair to the poor beast). (One suspects that American Christians have never attempted to pass laws enforcing Leviticus 20:15, because if passed and enforced such laws would decimate both the rural, Bible-Belt population and the cattle industry.)
Curiously, given the multitude of prohibitions in Leviticus, the vast majority of present-day Christians have chosen to focus only upon Leviticus 20:13, the verse calling for the death penalty for homosexual acts. And at least some of them haven’t been averse to acting on it. (To be fair, some Christian "reconstructionists" are currently calling for institution of the death penalty for adultery and atheism as well as for "sodomy.")
Throughout history, homosexuality has been illegal in Christian lands, and the penalties have been severe. In the Middle Ages, strangled gay men were sometimes placed on the wood piles at the burning of witches (hence the term "faggot"). One member of the British royalty caught having homosexual relations suffered an even more grisly fate: Edward II’s penalty was being held down while a red hot poker was jammed through his rectum and intestines. In more modern times, countless gay people have been jailed for years for the victimless "crime" of having consensual sex. It was only in 2003 that the Supreme Court struck down the felony laws on the books in many American states prescribing lengthy prison terms for consensual "sodomy." And many Christians would love to reinstate those laws.
Thus the current wave of gay bashings and murders of gay people should come as no surprise. Christians can find justification for such violence in the Bible and also in the hate-filled sermons issuing from all too many pulpits in this country. If history is any indication
the homophobic messages in those sermons will continue to be issued for many years to come.
http://www.seesharppress.com/20reasons.html#numberseventeen
Bum.
ReplyDeleteBeware of Men in Dresses!
ReplyDeletewww.hewdge.com