I am very much a product of the modern world in terms of my Spirituality and religious leanings. For the most part i have none to speak of. I have "moral's" and a sense of right and wrong, and like to believe in all kinds of un-proven possibilities like Alien's or Faster than light travel, but i don't with any concrete certainty believe in a higher power.
There have been many instance's where i may doubt my lack of belief. Where something beyond my comprehension, a stroke of good like, fate etc are in my favor or at my request verbally or mentally to myself, i have gotten out of tight situations etc in faux desperate prayer. And yet i don't believe in a Higher power, and even less so believe what religions tell me or others.
The Catholic Church and most Judeo-christian and Islamic teachings in no way speak to me. I believe in Science and many of it's theories. I believe the earth is billions of years old and the universe a few billion older.
I believe that life Evolved on this planet from the edge of volcanoes and the ocean floor and over billions of years and uncountable dead ends and mistakes we ended up with US. Homo-Spapien-Sapien.
The smartest and most resourceful of all the apes and the one species that's affected this blue marble the most.
And yet as the only sentient species on the planet we think we're not a miricle unto-ourselves. Because we could not explain our very existance we came up with several possible soloutions to the void in our Hearts and minds that make us feel tiny and insignificant in the wider scheme of things. We had the gumption to think "WE" were created in a Single God's image. Or we were merely pawns of several spiteful and all knowing aspects of nature and society that played games atop high mountains with our very live's.
The Belief in One all powerful God has been a massive shaping force of Western Society and by extension the entire world.
And the Catholic Church as been one of the longest of this type of belief.
Running Schools, Governments, vast wealth and the moral concience of many important decisions the Catholic Church has Reigned over Western Society in some way shape or form since the 4th century, and indeed earlier.
In recent years, with smaller numbers in their oppulant churchs and liberation of how citizen's around the world conduct themselves and view themselves, the church has lost influence.
When power and governments changed in Several countries the church was there to pick up the pieces. To be the confesion takers and the nurse's they filled a void when people looked over the horror of their actions and needed guidance.
When Ireland finally achieved a somewhat total freedom and sovereignty from the British Empire, the fledgling state of Scholars, nationalists, playwrights, rebel's and terrorists took help from anyone they could. They treated the British as reluctant friends and the Church as a massive support structure in which to rely on to offset the cost of state education and other vital instatutions.
But Before the Brits left they had a very British system of Bureocracy, they checked regularly what the Church was up to in these varies institutions. When they left, so did this type of inspection. The Church was viewed by the naive masses as incapable of doing any wrong.
A brotherhood of Abuser's and deviant men slowly formed in some aspects of the churchs, and not isolated at all, existed throughout the world in the 20th century. The Irish priests however, just like the Irish in their great famine and poverty fueled disporia, were spread far and wide.
To missions in Africa and to Irish Communities and Doicies in America and beyond.
The level's of abuse that the church's staff inflicted on their congregations, the future beleivers who would irrefrably damaged by the abuse suffered upon them.
The nature and cause of this abuse varries. It is most definetly nothing to do with Homosexuality as some within the Church will claim.
Many of these abuser's were abused themselves, or kept from knowing the truth about sexuality and healthy and acceptable sexual interests. With warped and suppresed views of sexuality and damaged psychological and psycho-sexual views of the world around them these men and sometimes women used their position of power as a church figure to express thier warped views and deviencies and thus spread the abuse.
I could never excuse their actions. But i can understand their route cause's.
Many of these people were swept under the rug. And question of doubt was quickly hushed and the offending party moved out of sight to another seat of power. Where they were either out of the way or free to abuse yet again.
For some 70 years of the 20th century and possibly stretching into the churches more distant recent past, the cycle of abuse and the scandal's that came with it continued.
But over time the amount of abused parties increased and the church's numbers, and the people's faith in them dwindled. The truth could no longer be hidden.
The current Pope was even involved in the Body of the church responsible for investigating suchs claims. Strangely enough the same office that conducted the Spanish Inquisition. A body that wiped the Muslim's out of western Europe and tried to quash the emergence of Protestanism and other Church's that sought change.
This year alone the abuse claims and scandal has esculated to the point that the whole Catholic world is shocked and appalled and seemingly no corner was untouched by this scandal.
The Churches Doctrine, belief and claims are constantly comming under heavy fire by and increasingly judgemental media that seeks to damage the church's reputation further than it already has been.
The attitude towards AIDS in Africa and the wider world is also of grave concern.
Under Catholic teachings Contraception is immoral and wrong.
Condom's despite being 99% effective in preventing Conception, Sexual Transmitted Diseases and HIV are considered to be a pointless deterent to the plague that is HIV/AIDS. In Africa the spread is in the church's thinking stopable through Abstinance and good moral conduct etc etc.
And yet due to poverty and the monopoly on possible treatments by western companies millions of people die each year from infections they would otherwise have been able to fight if it were not for the immuno-suppresion of HIV-AIDS. The Church in many aspects is failing these people and yet it still asks for them to believe in them as represntatives of God.
At the start of this post i showed a picture from the latest episode Dr Who. Where a reformed "Church" is featured in the form of Soldier like Representative's of a Anglican type Protestant Church. This future Church being more of a crusading Achiolgical and Anti-Xenological force that protects the "faithful's" interests in this far flung future.
Now obviously that's not the kind of change anyone could propose. Afterall it's the usual high concept, little explaining that Sciencefiction and especially Dr Who usually dishes out to put a quick smile on the fan-boys. But change none-the-less.
The Catholic Church is aproaching an empass where it's past mistakes are tarnishing any hope of redeeming it's current form. It is also loosing out any moral high ground or strong relivance in today's modern world.
Society has changed so much that few Religions have time to catch up. And yet despite our liberation, our independance, our individualism and our materlialism we have lost some semblence of moral intergreity and spirituality ourselves. And with few strong and trustworthy people of influence left to turn to many people are left with a hole in their existance.
Psychology and materialism can only mend so much. Spirituality may include Sport, Music and other group gatherings but there some among the greater society that need Religion. And With one of the Largest church's falling apart, and Evangelism, Islam and even the Cult of Scientology being less than attractive options for some people, change is neccissary.
What form i can not say. But i welcome it.
No comments:
Post a Comment