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Rationalist International — #115, 2003-10-19
"India, especially Calcutta, is seen as the main beneficiary of Mother Teresa's legendary 'good work'
for the poor that made her the most famous Catholic of our times, a Nobel Peace Prize Winner and a living saint. Evaluating
what she has actually done here, I think, India has no reason to be grateful to her", said Sanal Edamaruku, Secretary
General of the Indian Rationalist Association and President of Rationalist International in a statement on the occasion of
her beatification today. The statement continues:
Mother Teresa has given a bad name to Calcutta, painting the beautiful, interesting, lively and culturally rich Indian
metropolis in the colors of dirt, misery, hopelessness and death. Styled into the big gutter, it became the famous
backdrop for her very special charitable work. Her order is only one among more than 200 charitable organizations, which
try to help the slum-dwellers of Calcutta to build a better future. It is locally not very visible or active. But tall
claims like the absolutely baseless story of her slum school for 5000 children have brought enormous international
publicity to her institutions. And enormous donations!
Mother Teresa has collected many, many millions (some say: billions) of Dollars in the name of India's paupers (and many,
many more in the name of paupers in the other "gutters" of the world). Where did all this money go? It is
surely not used to improve the lot of those, for whom it was meant. The nuns would hand out some bowls of soup to them
and offer shelter and care to some of the sick and suffering. The richest order in the world is not very generous, as
it wants to teach them the charm of poverty. "The suffering of the poor is something very beautiful and the world
is being very much helped by the nobility of this example of misery and suffering," said Mother Teresa. Do we
have to be grateful for this lecture of an eccentric billionaire?
The legend of her Homes for the Dying has moved the world to tears. Reality, however, is scandalous: In the overcrowded
and primitive little homes, many patients have to share a bed with others. Though there are many suffering from
tuberculosis, AIDS and other highly infectious illnesses, hygiene is no concern. The patients are treated with good
words and insufficient (sometimes outdated) medicines, applied with old needles, washed in lukewarm water. One can
hear the screams of people having maggots tweezered from their open wounds without pain relief. On principle, strong
painkillers are even in hard cases not given. According to Mother Teresa's bizarre philosophy, it is "the most
beautiful gift for a person that he can participate in the sufferings of Christ". Once she tried to comfort a
screaming sufferer: "You are suffering, that means Jesus is kissing you!" The man got furious and screamed
back: "Then tell your Jesus that he should stop kissing me!" Do we have to be grateful to be the victims
of this very special kind of charity? Do we have to tolerate that ignorant and helpless people are used as extras in
the inhumane and cruel religious drama of the beauty of suffering in Christ?
When Mother Teresa received the Nobel Peace Price, she used the opportunity of her worldwide telecast speech in Oslo
to declare abortion the greatest evil in the world and to launch a fiery call against population control. Her charitable
work, she admitted, was only part of her big fight against abortion and population control. This fundamentalist position
is a slap in the face of India and other Third World Countries, where population control is one of the main keys for
development and progress and social transformation. Do we have to be grateful to Mother Teresa for leading this
worldwide propagandist fight against us with the money she collected in our name?
Mother Teresa did not serve the poor in Calcutta, she served the rich in the West. She helped them to overcome their bad
conscience by taking billions of Dollars from them. Some of her donors were dictators and criminals, who tried to white
wash their dirty vests. Mother Teresa revered them for a price. Most of her supporters, however, were honest people with
good intentions and a warm heart, who fall for the illusion that the "Saint of the Gutter" was there to
wipe away all tears and end all misery and undo all injustice in the world. Those in love with an illusion often refuse
to see reality.
See also:
CBC Radio One: The Current, 2003-10-17
In an interview on CBC Radio's current affairs program "The Current", the Reverend Canon
David Anderson, president of the American Anglican Council and strongly opposed to the Episcopal Church's decision to ordain
openly gay Gene Robinson as Bishop, warned that such recognition of homosexuals in the Church could cause Nigerian Muslims
to riot in anger! (Many Nigerian Christians are Anglican.) The program host who was interviewing Anderson remarked that
that was indeed a very heavy load of guilt to place on the shoulders of gays.
See also:
Webmaster's comment:
An egregious example of blaming the victim, i.e. attributing the responsibility for religious homophobia,
bigotry and violence to gays and their allies.
Toronto Star — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2003-10-16
A farmer and fundamentalist Christian who's convinced that digital driver's licence photos are the work of the devil is
taking the Ontario government to court to avoid having his picture taken. George Bothwell, 57, cradled a gilt-edged King
James Bible on his lap and stared at the floor during a news conference yesterday as he tried to explain why he doesn't
want anyone taking digital photos of his face.
...
He believes biometrics—the use of identifiers such as fingerprints, retina scans and face recognition—is
specifically cited in the book of Revelations as the work of agents of the devil.
Toronto Star — Toronto, Ontario, Canada, 2003-10-16
WASHINGTON - Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld and the chairman of the military Joint Chiefs of Staff are publicly
defending a newly appointed senior officer with a reported penchant for casting the war on terrorism in religious terms.
Lt.-Gen. William Boykin, whose promotion and appointment as the new deputy undersecretary of defence of intelligence
was confirmed by the Senate in June, has said publicly that he sees the war on terrorism as a clash between Judeo-Christian
values and Satan, the Los Angeles Times reported Thursday. Appearing in dress uniform before a religious group in Oregon in
June, Boykin said Islamic extremists hate the United States "because we're a Christian nation, because our foundation
and our roots are Judeo-Christians. ... And the enemy is a guy named Satan."
...
Discussing a U.S. army battle against a Muslim warlord in Somalia in 1993, Boykin told one audience, "I knew
my god was bigger than his. I knew that my god was a real god and his was an idol."
Webmaster's comment:
These nuts are in control of the most powerful military machine on the planet.
And you thought Al Quaeda was crazy.
Telegraph — United Kingdom, 2003-10-15
The biggest scientific experiment on prayer has failed to find any evidence that it helps to heal the sick.
Doctors in the United States will today disclose that heart patients who were prayed for by groups of strangers recovered
from surgery at the same rate as those who were not.
The three-year study, led by cardiologists from Duke University Medical Centre in North Carolina, involved 750 patients
in nine hospitals and 12 prayer groups around the world, from Christians in Manchester to Buddhists in Nepal.
...
Over three years, 750 patients awaiting angioplasty, a procedure to clear obstructions from their arteries, were recruited
for the experiment. Names selected at random by a computer were sent to the 12 prayer groups, who began praying immediately
for their recovery. Neither the hospital staff nor the patients and their relatives knew who was being prayed for.
The prayer groups included American Christian mothers, nuns in a Carmelite convent in Baltimore, Sufi Muslims, Buddhist
monks in Nepal and English doctors and medical students in Manchester. Prayers were even e-mailed to Jerusalem and placed
in the Wailing Wall. An analysis of the results found that there were no significant differences in the recovery and health
of the patients who were prayed for and those who were not.
Washington Post, 2003-10-15
The Supreme Court announced yesterday that it will hear the dispute over the phrase "one nation, under God" in
the Pledge of Allegiance—but without one of its most conservative justices.
The court said it would review a San Francisco-based federal appeals court's ruling that the pledge's reference to God turns
daily recitations by public school children into an unconstitutional, state-sponsored religious ritual.
But in a surprise move, Justice Antonin Scalia recused himself from the case, leaving only eight justices to reach a decision.
If there is a 4-4 vote, the lower court ruling would be affirmed.
Scalia offered no public explanation; justices customarily do not specify reasons for recusing.
But Michael A. Newdow, the atheist opponent of the pledge who is acting as his own lawyer, filed papers Sept. 9 with the
Supreme Court, asking Scalia to bow out because the justice had spoken critically of the 9th Circuit ruling at a Religious
Freedom Day event Jan. 12 in Fredericksburg.
On that occasion, Scalia cited the 9th Circuit decision as an example of what he considered mistaken attempts to
"exclude God from the public forums and from political life."
Newdow, of California, argued that this violated the code of conduct for United States judges, which says that "a
judge should avoid public comment on the merits of a pending or impending action.""Under such circumstances...one might reasonably question his impartiality," Newdow wrote.
...
He launched the case in federal district court in 2000. He argued that the Constitution prohibits both the wording of the
pledge—which was altered in 1954 to include the words "under God" by an act of Congress—and a California
law, similar to those in other states, that requires public elementary school students to start their day with a teacher-led
recitation of the pledge.
By averring that the United States is "under God," Newdow argued, the pledge establishes monotheism as an
official doctrine, to the exclusion of polytheistic or atheistic beliefs.
...
In his 30-page petition asking the court to overturn the 9th Circuit ruling, President Bush's solicitor general, Theodore
B. Olson, noted that the mention of God in the pledge is consistent with the views of 12 justices of the Supreme Court who
said in past cases that such phrases as "In God We Trust" on coins do not amount to official religious doctrine.
Yet the court declined Olson's suggestion...
...
The case is Elk Grove Unified School District v. Newdow, No. 02-1624. Oral argument will take place at the court early in
2004, and a decision is expected by July.
See also:
Telegraph — United Kingdom, 2003-10-09
The Russian Orthodox Church has demolished a chapel where a priest conducted a marriage ceremony between two men.
The Chapel of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God was apparently knocked down after local churchmen decided it had
been defiled.
The "marriage" of Denis Gogolyev and Mikhail Morozev in Nizhny Novgorod scandalised the Orthodox Church
and created outrage among ordinary Russians. The priest, Fr Vladimir Enert, was unfrocked after the men said they paid
him a £300 bribe to ignore a ban on same-sex marriages.
A spokesman for the Orthodox Church said the chapel had to go as it had been desecrated. Some local officials said it
was due for demolition to make way for new, larger church, although this would not open until 2005.
A spokesman for the Nizhny Novgorod Patriarchate told The Telegraph: "The chapel was dismantled because it is no
longer needed." But he admitted that the "marriage" may have "sped up the process".
See also:
Webmaster's comment:
It is common knowledge that traditional Christians hate gays (oh, excuse me, they hate the "sin",
not the "sinner"). But this act of destroying even the building where the marriage occurred is extreme beyond
comprehension.
The Guardian — United Kingdom, 2003-10-09
The Catholic Church is telling people in countries stricken by Aids not to use condoms because they have
tiny holes in them through which the HIV virus can pass - potentially exposing thousands of people to risk.
The church is making the claims across four continents despite a widespread scientific consensus that condoms
are impermeable to the HIV virus.
A senior Vatican spokesman backs the claims about permeable condoms, despite assurances by the World Health
Organisation that they are untrue.
The church's claims are revealed in a BBC1 Panorama programme, Sex and the Holy City, to be broadcast on Sunday.
The president of the Vatican's Pontifical Council for the Family, Cardinal Alfonso Lopez Trujillo, told the
programme: "The Aids virus is roughly 450 times smaller than the spermatozoon. The spermatozoon can easily
pass through the 'net' that is formed by the condom.
...
The WHO has condemned the Vatican's views, saying: "These incorrect statements about condoms and HIV are
dangerous when we are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people, and
currently affects at least 42 million."
The organisation says "consistent and correct" condom use reduces the risk of HIV infection by 90%. There
may be breakage or slippage of condoms - but not, the WHO says, holes through which the virus can pass.
Scientific research by a group including the US National Institutes of Health and the WHO found "intact
condoms... are essentially impermeable to particles the size of STD pathogens including the smallest
sexually transmitted virus... condoms provide a highly effective barrier to transmission of particles
of similar size to those of the smallest STD viruses".
...
The church opposes any kind of contraception because it claims it breaks the link between sex and procreation
- a position Pope John Paul II has fought to defend.
In Kenya - where an estimated 20% of people have the HIV virus - the church condemns condoms for promoting
promiscuity and repeats the claim about permeability. The archbishop of Nairobi, Raphael Ndingi Nzeki,
said: "Aids... has grown so fast because of the availability of condoms."
...
In Lwak, near Lake Victoria, the director of an Aids testing centre says he cannot distribute condoms
because of church opposition. Gordon Wambi told the programme: "Some priests have even been saying that
condoms are laced with HIV/Aids."
Panorama found the claims about permeable condoms repeated by Catholics as far apart as Asia and Latin America.
Webmaster's comment:
The Catholic Church's policy on AIDS is nothing short of criminal.
BBC, 2003-10-09
The claims are made in a Panorama programme called Sex and the Holy City to be screened on BBC One on Sunday.
It says cardinals, bishops, priests and nuns in four continents are saying HIV can pass through tiny holes in condoms.
The World Health Organization has condemned the comments and warned the Vatican it is putting lives at risk.
The claims come just a day after a report revealed that a young person is now infected with HIV every 14 seconds.
According to the United Nations Population Fund, around 6,000 people between the ages of 15 and 24 catch the virus every day.
Half of all new infections are now in people under the age of 25 and most of these are young women living in the developing world.
Health experts around the world urge people to use condoms to protect themselves from HIV and a host of sexually transmitted
infections. However, the Catholic Church has consistently refused to back such calls. The Vatican is opposed to contraception
and has advocated that people change their behaviour instead.
...
Catherine Hankins, chief scientific advisor to UNAids, condemned the Church's comments.
"It is very unfortunate to have this type of misinformation being broadcast," she told BBC News Online.
"It is a concern. From a technical point of view, the statements are totally incorrect.
"Latex condoms are impermeable. They do prevent HIV transmission."
The WHO also attacked the Catholic Church's comments.
"Statements like this are quite dangerous, " a spokeswoman told BBC News Online.
"We are facing a global pandemic which has already killed more than 20 million people and currently affects around 42 million.
"There is so much evidence to show that condoms don't let sexually transmitted infections like HIV through.
Webmaster's comment:
The Catholic Church's policy on AIDS is nothing short of criminal.
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