Secret Society
Found out today that a friend of mine is having a ‘health issue‘ but didn’t have any details on exactly what. Now I know, what is so earth shattering about that? Well, on the surface nothing, except that the friend is a Priest in Pope Benedict’s Church. Let me say that this man is one of the nicest I have ever met, he even came up to my Wedding without even knowing me, but came because we had talked, laughed and shared some thoughts online. He didn’t know me, but he came because I asked.
He is one of those rare people who are what they are, and who has such a deep sense of belief, that it is impossible to not like him. And he is gay. Not a practicing gay, like I am, but if you think back to when you first wondered if you were gay, to the way seeing a nice butt in a pair of blue jeans turned you on, and wondered about it, then this is my friend. It isn’t like he dons some secret garb to sneak out to the gay bars, or even thinks about breaking his vows, but he is human. He has thoughts, like anyone else, but even having those thoughts under Pope Benedict are grounds for dismissal.
Just like that, a lifetime’s work, vocation, is placed at jeopardy simply because of the Intolerance, the Exclusion, that Pope Benedict & his Zealots practice. The argument can be made that well, he chose a job that doesn’t want Homosexuals, and to some degree they might have a point, if it wasn’t a Church, a Religion. Frankly Religion claims that it is a fact of nature that man & woman were put on earth to procreate, but at the same time they refuse to give Priests the right to marry.
All of the ancient biblical characters had multiple wives, and yet the Church preaches Monogamy, which is not the natural order of things. It refuses to let Nuns marry when according to their own doctrine, the primary goal of a woman is to reproduce. So for me, the claim of ‘natural order‘ is simply bullshit. It is ‘natural‘ for a man to seek another, as proven by medical science, just as science proved that men of color are no different than Caucasian males. Remember the fire and brimstone of the Southern Preachers supporting Segregation back in the 1950′s?
Religion itself isn’t complicated. Either you believe in a supreme being or you don’t. The rest of it is simply rules and regulations thought up by man, not by any supreme being. God is the author of the Ten Commandments, and no where in the bible does it say GOD spoke about EXCLUDING ANYONE from his Love, his Compassion. And yet my friend has to furtively let his ‘gay‘ friends know he isn’t well. He can’t send us an email directly, for fear that the watchdogs in his parish might not take kindly to their Priest writing to a ‘gaystoryman‘ or such.
Like the Salem Witch Hunts, today’s men of God, the real MEN of GOD, are forced to hide, to live in secret, and be denied the companionship, the friendship, of those who share some of their interests. That is the true tragedy of what the Religious Right have imposed on society today. They have made Religion not about GOD, but about adherence to rules made by MEN, to CONTROL MEN.
The Bible ‘may‘ be about GOD, but it is the ‘recollections‘ of men, it is NOT THE WORD OF GOD HIMSELF. I think religion forgets that, and forgets that it is based on recollections set 2000 years ago. While many quote certain passages, what about the Bible passages they don’t quote? The one’s that tell a different story, a different recollection? What was known then, and now, are worlds apart. The ancient Jewish Rabbi’s knew this, and yet it is still a controversy on whether flicking a switch is making someone work on the sabbath, and many still sit in the dark.
And they really aren’t alone in that darkness, are they Pope Benedict?
