Religeon’s death rattle
Pope Benedict’s recent pontificating on the use of condoms vividly demonstrates how hopelessly out of step the Vatican hierarchy is with 21st century society.
He’s in good company, though.
As with leaders of religions the world over, the other common denominator is the consistent inability to provide incontrovertible, or, indeed any, proof that a ‘god’, whatever that might be, exists….this, despite two thousand years to come up with something remotely plausible. The best physical evidence the might and wisdom of the Holy Roman Catholic church could come up with is the Shroud of Turin; a proven fake. Yet, the influence of these mysterious and highly-secretive organisations is omnipresent in ‘western’ society, from high-profile ceremonies such as Remembrance Day, state weddings, funerals to more sinister aspects such as politics, where sixty-five Anglican Bishops sit in the Upper House at Westminster, deliberating and presiding over future legislation, among other things.
Almost all religious organisations in the U.K. enjoy charitable status, which allows them to operate with little scrutiny, if any. The Church of England, via its Investment Committee, controls assets held in Property, Stocks and Government Bonds to the tune of seven hundred and eight-five million pounds (source: The Church of England Pensions Board Annual Report 2008). At one stage, the CofE enjoyed representation on the Board of Directors of G.E.C. (later to morph into BAE Systems) manufacturers of ‘Rapier’ surface to air missile system. God is, indeed, love.
My favourite, though, was the 1994 case whereby the CofE bankrupted a Warwickshire farmer over a church roof repair bill of ninety-five thousand pounds, invoked under the Act of Valor Ecclesiasticus of 1535. The case went as far as the Law Lords (see above) and the farmer’s legal bill ended up at more than half a million pounds.
It is anybody’s guess what the Vatican’s investment strategy is. There has been speculation that the Vatican Bank has been involved in money laundering, although this was never proved; unsurprisingly. However, when the Chairman of Italian Bank, ‘Banca Ambrosiano’, Roberto Calvi was found hanging from London’s Blackfriars Bridge in 1982, his murder resonated with both Masonic and religious symbology.
The failure of the Vatican, governments and police forces to bring paedophile priests to justice is utterly unforgivable, particularly in view of collusion between these three parties to cover this vile practice up in Ireland.
Now all we need is a full-blown scandal to hit Islam, where ‘female circumcision’, better described as genital butchery, of pre-pubescent girls is far too commonplace. It will be a while before it breaks, but with ever-increasing numbers of forced marriages and ‘honour’ killings, it’s only a matter of time before that house of cards comes crashing down. The serial indoctrination of impressionable youngsters at part-time Islamic schools in the U.K. using textbooks from the Saudi Arabian national Curriculum, in which Jews are referred to as ‘pigs’ and non-muslims as ‘infidels’ and ‘the enemy’ does not foster social cohesion. None of these schools are subject to OFSTED, or any other, regulatory inspection. Successive governments’ pathological fear of insulting muslims, and their particular fraction of that religion, could be something that ferments into unprecedented social unrest in decades to come.
As things stand, it is fair game to lampoon Christianity, but not the religion ‘that must not be insulted’. I hope and believe that this will change in the next couple of decades, but only once the sons and daughters of the so-called devout shake off the fear of repercussions for not toeing the party line. I, for one, can’t wait.
By NEIL PROBERTRead more at www.nwemail.co.uk
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