The Catholic Church is a Force for Good?

What is ironic, on a side note, is that the states (generally) where religiosity is the highest, were also the states were Obama got the lowest percentages, and where he lost electoral votes. The opposite is true of states with the lowest percent of religious people, where Obama led, and where he got both the popular vote, and the electoral vote. I don’t think this is at all coincidental. For a while now though, that the church (Insert Religious Power Structure Here) as always acted as not just a “religious support” but as a political power and are a force to be reckoned. And they aren’t content to keep their beliefs to themselves as well as a consensus that they will not be content until everyone is living under their moral code. They will gladly enshrine into law whatever their brand of “God” endorses.

But the problem, like any sacred belief, is that making it so prevents you from challenging it and seeing it intrinsic moral value. It’s not “just a different set of morals”, because moral value isn’t derived dogma. Things moral or not outside of belief, that value reflected in the ways that we treat other people on their motivation. In that sense, there is much about religious belief that is immoral. The church may sponsor good, but it also fosters moral atrocities. There is no sound reason for learning to be moral from a system/church that has contradictory morality. The states that voted against Obama weren’t just those more religious, but were more racist, sexists, anti-women, and anti-gay (oft connected to religious belief).

One group of American’s values secularism while the other does not, even though their freedoms depend on it. The Catholic Church is no exception to this fight, as it has fought against secularism consistently and frequently. It resists change, and it accepts government funding; all the while expecting to be both “a tax free enterprise” and “do as it sees fit with said money”. The church, whether it be the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, or the Catholic, or the Southern Baptist, is not a force for good. Their charity often ends up cleaning up messes that their dogma is directly or partially responsible for. Furthermore, they expect others to compromise, but refuse to compromise (the kid in the schoolyard who doesn’t play well with others).

They may put up a front, but don’t fool yourself, they want you to be judged according to their outdated morality, and for you to be punished in accordance with violations of their sacred law. Laws which they prop up as divine while failing to realized that it isn’t Godly morality, but their own constructed moral code values. Many of the various churches in America are not just religious, but political voices, and without doubt played a huge role in this election. The present a clear and present danger, not only harm to others, but also contradictions to what we have learned about moral behavior in reality. The devoutly religious don’t just follow a belief system, they are empowered by their faiths to enforce those beliefs on others and to punish those who don’t believe and follow particular deity.

We don’t use religious morality as the guide for a moral society anymore than we use the moral guidance of a benevolent psychopath whom both committed atrocities, and great acts of kindness. Religion may have worked in primitive times, but no longer. Lastly, they would likely not stop at converting or destroying the non-religious, but include also the differently religious. Failure to understand that is foolish.

LikeLike