Interesting Pope Article

[HDPM]

Article (http://slate.msn.com/id/2116443/)




Not the standard view of the recently departed Pope. Some may be offended. Most avoided this criticism last week, although Hitchens obviously isn't pulling punches.

[Dead]

This article is a true piece of garbage.

But it's expected. Look at who the author is.

It's this stupid alcoholic named Christopher Hitchens. He condemned Mother Teresa as a self-serving egotist.

He's also very anti-Islam and anti-religion in general.

He also supported the war in Iraq. He slammed the Pope on many things but I have not heard him apologize for this yet.

Can this stupid idiot go back to England PLEASE? He can eat out of the asses of his fellow libertarian wackos.

Stop disrespecting the Pope, you dumb alky. Go choke on your own vomit. The Pope was ten times the man you could ever hope to be.

He used to be a liberal. He was much more reasonable then. Now he is a whacked out right-wing hawk.
to your joint.

Go back to reading your Ayn Rand, HDPM.

[MMMMMM]

Dead, you sound awfully bitter for one at so young an age.

[Dead]

It angers me when people disrespect an icon of the 20th century, and a real hero. The Pope will likely be made a saint.

People should show a little respect. But, I don't expect Christopher Hitchens to.

[HDPM]

I warned you some would be offended.

Where is the line between fair criticism and disrespect when it comes to people like the Pope or Mother Teresa, whom you mentioned? I think Hitchens's article was fair criticism of a public figure, not disrespect, whether you agree with it or not is another matter.

[Dead]

Here is the line:

"Finally, if the pope is to have so much credit for the liberation of Eastern Europe, he ought to accept his responsibility for the enslavement of the Middle East. He not only opposed the removal of Saddam Hussein in 2003, but the use of force to get him out of Kuwait in 1991."

Hitchens should not be writing bullshit like this. He's really turned into a super hawk. I want to get this bitch into an Army uniform ASAP.

He is insinuating that the Pope enslaved people by opposing the Iraq Wars.

[HDPM]

I thought that criticism paled in comparison to the other stuff actually.

[Dead]

It does. How about the continuous attempts to tie the Catholic church to the Nazis. Many churches hid Jews during the Holocaust and protected them from harm.

[vulturesrow]

If by interesting you mean the same old tired tapestry of half truths and outright falsehoods, woven together with fine threads of condescension and bigotry, than that is a fair assessment of the article. For a second I thought I was reading Bernie's posts again. I actually read this when it was first posted and about 2 sentences into it I could have practically written it myself.

[bernie]

Yes, Pope Pius XII was a saint.

b

[bernie]

[ QUOTE ]
woven together with fine threads of condescension and bigotry,

[/ QUOTE ]

Which is, interestingly, much like what the church, and many offshoots preached(es)/practiced(es).

Or is their bigotry and condescensions just misunderstandings also that should just be waved aside?

b

[Dead]

What about your bigotry against Catholics?

I hear there is an organization out there that is very anti-catholic. They sound a lot like you.

It's called the Ku Klux Klan.

[ThaSaltCracka]

Shouldn't Pope be capitalized in his article?

[Dead]

[ QUOTE ]
Shouldn't Pope be capitalized in his article?

[/ QUOTE ]

Yes it definitely should, but the author is a total scumbag, and is not giving the Pope the respect he deserves, even in death.

[ThaSaltCracka]

yeah that was really all that stood out to me. The rest was just blah blah blah blah. I tell you Dead, life is not easy when you are a twenty something white Catholic male....<sigh> /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

edit: its even worse when you like the Yankees and are a Bonds fan /images/graemlins/tongue.gif /images/graemlins/tongue.gif /images/graemlins/tongue.gif

[Dead]

[ QUOTE ]
life is not easy when you are a twenty something male

[/ QUOTE ]

FYP.

[ QUOTE ]
its even worse when you like the Yankees and are a Bonds fan

[/ QUOTE ]

Guilty of both as well.

[ThaSaltCracka]

no, what I said was what I wanted it to be. Being a white male is some how a bad thing, and when your Catholic... well, you might as well start apologizing and defending everything.

[Dead]

I'm a white male, and I take a lot of [censored] for being Jewish. I can relate. Some of the stuff I hear people say about Jews-it's just disgusting.

[ThaSaltCracka]

I definitely understand, and I am not a very religious person. I have a problem with organized religion, but I still believe in nearly all of the churchs beliefs, which is odd I guess.

[Dead]

So you've never had sex before?

[ThaSaltCracka]

nearly all...

[Dead]

[ QUOTE ]
nearly all...

[/ QUOTE ]

/images/graemlins/grin.gif Good to hear.

[bernie]

The klan works in the name of christianity, did you know that?

btw...I'm not a bigot against catholics, I just don't like their church. At all. I believe I've made that clear. One can follow catholic beliefs without patronizing the vatican. Got it?

Unless you think holding something/someone accountable for transgressions is bigotry.

b

[HDPM]

This is a tough area because I think the Church is fair game for criticism. The problem is the criticism is sometimes seen as an attack on Catholics. Tough to balance IMO. I too have Catholic family members, but I think the Church is rotten. So where is the line as far as criticism goes? I am not sure.

[bernie]

Evidently the church is completely off limits.

[ QUOTE ]
but I think the Church is rotten

[/ QUOTE ]

You bigot. /images/graemlins/wink.gif

b

[Zeno]

We must respect the other fellow's religion, but only in the sense and to the extent that we respect his theory that his wife is beautiful and his children smart. - H. L. Mencken



Of all learned men, the clegy show the lowest development of professional ethics. Any pastor is free to cadge customers from the divines of rival sects, and to denounce the divines as theological quacks. A large part of his professional activity, in fact, is given over to these enterprises. Doings that would cause a lawyer to be disbarred, a medical man to lose his license to practise, and even a chiroproactor, a bartender or a whore-madam to be regarded as grossly unethical are part of his daily routine and his admirers accept them as proofs of his consecration to holy works. - H.L Mencken

[TransientR]

Christopher Hitchens would probably admit he is an alcoholic, but I haven't heard anyone call him stupid.

Your rant contained no refutations of any of his points.

Frank

[TransientR]

Nice quotes!

Geez, too bad Mencken is no longer with us. But like most good writers, his good stuff is applicable in perpetuity, such is the repetitiveness of human folly.

Frank

[Gin 'n Tonic]

"He apologized to the world of science and reason by admitting that Galileo should not have been condemned by the Inquisition... ...admissions that the Roman Catholic Church has been responsible for the retarding of human development on a colossal scale."

And will continue to be so if their opposition to embryonic stem cell research continues.

Glad to see that nothing changes in 500 years.

[HDPM]

Mencken quotations always put me in a better mood.