Stephen Fry, a British writer and broadcaster, argues that the paedophile priest scandal can be explained by the Church’s repressive attitude towards sex.
Because sex is a primary impulse, it can be dangerous and dark and difficult; a bit like food in that respect. A bit like food in that the only people who are obsessed with it are anorexics and the morbidly obese. And that, in erotic terms, is the Catholic Church in a nutshell. The twisted, neurotic, and hysterical way that leaders are chosen; the celibacy, the nuns, the monks, the priesthood, is not natural.
Repression breeds toxicity.
Worshipping the Virgin Mary, and making role models out of Nuns, celibacy is at the forefront of catholicism where sex (or rather, refraining from sex) is dubbed the be-all and end-all.
‘No sex before marriage, no homosexuality, no adultery, monogamy only, no masturbation, no sodomy, no birth control…‘
From contraception to homosexuality, premarital sex to adultery, people’s private sexual decisions seem to be the domain over which the Church likes to exercise maximum possible control.
Convincing us that we are all sinners, ‘broken, sinful, and doomed to eternal torture’, religion and its use of systematic fearmongering and brainwashing is all about control and manipulation.
We are in need of redemption, they tell us, our sexuality demanding attention since it is one of the few things in life that offers us autonomy over our lives.
If the church can control the way that people conduct their intimate relationships, then it can control every single family unit from the inside out.
If the church says that marriage is only to be between a man and a woman/that homosexuality and polyamory are ‘wrong’, then the patriarchy (the continued oppression of women) can be upheld.
Taking one step forward, we take two (hundred) steps back.
People who branch away from the church’s incredibly narrow-minded view of what constitutes ‘love’ (i.e., people who fail to abide by the rules set out by the church) can expect to be brandished as ‘sinners’, the guilt and shame inflicted upon them being enough to keep everyone on the straight and narrow.
Seeking redemption, many people give up their power (and money) to have even the smallest grasp on something that they have always had within
Freedom.
Something that they have always had, yet something that is taken away by the very thing that proposes to give them it back…
‘Freedom, TRUE freedom, is your right to do what we tell you to do. And nothing more’ religion says.
Stigmatising us and making us feel deeply ashamed and guilty for what is human nature, religion tells us that we need saving from our ‘savage desires’, for which they have the cure.
What better way to convince people that they need to buy your cure, than to convince them that something as universal as sex makes them ‘sick’?…
What religion conveniently forgets to tell us, however, is that ‘the cure’ doesn’t actually take away our desires, because they [our desires] are innate (human nature). We are therefore kept trapped in an infinite loop of feeling disgust followed by a momentary sense of relief (and it is momentary, before the cycle starts again) when we seek salvation in the very thing that we need saving from (religion).
Blind faith is dangerous when those who can get you to believe absurdities can make you commit atrocities.
Justifying slavery, white supremacy, racial segregation, homophobia, (need I go on?), the majority of messages of ‘love’ and ‘compassion’ that supposedly constitutes religion are actually bigotry and prejudice under the disguise of a smile.
As above, so below, when we are all reflections of the god we worship, Jesus Christ, there’s no hate quite like Christian love.
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