Friday 23 April 2010

Hoodoo in Dooralong.

Homonym.
“You do
Voodoo!”
“Who do?”
“That too!”

Or, 10,000 Men Praying.

With so much publicity being attracted to predatory behaviors of some unbalanced individuals within religious organizations, it may be time for Catholicism to rethink its insistence on celibacy. Evidence indicates that forcing human beings to deny natural instincts distorts their moral boundaries.

Looking behind the abusers, one must wonder how many non-abusing, but 'celibate' men and women go through their lives carrying the guilt of homosexuality, masturbation or at the very least, ‘shameful thoughts’.

However, sexual abuse is not the only aberration closed societies, religious and otherwise, produce when they exclude the averaging influence of the wider human community.

One only has to recall the Jonestown tragedy to be reminded of the hundreds of lives lost, including children, who as Richard Dawkins points out, are not Labor/Liberal/Christian/Muslim/Hindu children. They are just children, not yet having the maturity to choose political party or religious affiliation. But they were killed along with their demented parents, all victims of a closed sect whose thinking became so skewed that it led to the suicide-murder of hundreds of their own.

Of course, skewed thinking occurs wherever people choose faith over evidence and close their minds to challenging information and ideas. Closed minds can produce bizarre results. Here is one. It concerns the then recently deceased (ex) Australian Attorney-General in the Whitlam Government, (picture) who successfully changed the Family Law Act to introduce no-blame divorce, removing the need for farcical games, played to establish fault if none existed to comply with the law as they attempted to end toxic marriages.

This conversation happened.

Time: A week after Murphy’s death from cancer.
Place: On the roof of our Community Hall, me helping the tradesman rewire its outside light fittings.

He said: "We got rid of Murphy!"
Me: (expecting a joke) "Murphy’s Law?"
He: "No, Lionel Murphy. Ex Attorney-General, anti Christ. He changed God’s divorce laws!"
Me: "He died from cancer. What do you mean you got rid of him?"
He: "Ten Thousand Men Praying!"
(I'm supposed to join the dots.)
Me: "I've no idea what you're talking about."
He: "Every day at the same time, ten thousand men pray to God for the same thing. We’ve been praying for Murphy's death and we got him!"
Me: "WTF! That's outrageous!"
He: (apparently not hearing my outrage) “We're going after Bob Hawke next!”

Now, thirty years on, we can safely claim that ten thousand men praying was not enough to knock off old Bob, ex ACTU President, ex Prime Minister, ex drunk and full-on larrikin, who is still going strong, enjoying his golden years with his lover and partner, Blanche d’Alpuget. However, when Bob does finally kick the bucket, despite, by my calculation, over one hundred million unsuccessful man/prayers for his early demise, the spiritual terrorists will claim credit.
Such is the nature of delusion.

10 comments:

  1. You can't argue with faith, that's why I don't even bother debating with these type of people - you get absolutely nowhere. It's not just religion either, there's all sorts of non scientific beliefs that are unbendable, even in the face of evidence. I think the issue of pedophiles in the church is more complicated and I read an article recently that argued it had nothing to do with the celibacy issue and may just reflect the prevalence of pedophilia in society (if you just wanted sex, there would be plenty of adults who would sleep with priests).

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  2. I agree Gabrielle, there are many cases that support what you say. For example: What allegedly happened at All Saints College Bathurst (where the school chaplain and several teachers were charged with colluding to sexually abuse students over many years) had nothng to do with celibacy and everyting to do with pedophiles using vulnerable children left in their care by trusting parents! And don't you just love the name of the school?!

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  3. Yeah 'All saints', what a joke. I found the article from a psychology blog on 6 points about sexual abuse and the clergy, very interesting http://ow.ly/16SEVr

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  4. Here is a link that might work http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/do-the-right-thing/201003/six-important-points-you-dont-hear-about-regarding-clergy-sexual-abus

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  5. You'll have to cut and paste it - how strange that links don't seem to work on your blog comments.

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  6. Thanks Gabrielle, it worked and well worthy the read. Certainly burst s few bubbles! So, the outcry is more about the hypocrisy than the traffic! By the way, I think All Saints is Anglican.
    Anyway, the blog was mainly to alert people to the activities of the 10,000 Men Praying movement and their murderous intentions. Haven't been feeling too well myself lately! Ha Ha!

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  7. Gabrielle: links can be added to blog comments, but you need to use a formula. I've sent you an email with the formula, because if I type it here, it will just turn into a link and you won't see the formula.

    Stafford Ray: You have met some really incredible people in your time. It's a wonder you didn't fall off that roof!

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  8. ' Lionel Murphy '
    Radical, Humanitarian, Civil Libertarian, Egalitarian, Reformist ..
    The list goes on . A most ' Remarkable Man '
    Thanks B to U Stafford for ' Remembering ....
    R.I.P. Lionel....

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  9. Another penny just dropped. it may be that the 10,000 Men Praying group are Maranatha Christadelphians. If anyone knows, do tell!

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    ReplyDelete

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