The Church’s abuse of Irish children 23 May 2009 [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RplWGisGoXY&color1=0xb1b1b1&color2=0xcfcfcf&feature=player_embedded&fs=1] That’s one country. How about all the others? I have heard so many stories… Religion
Politics You can’t have proper human relationships unless you are a Christian 4 Apr 201018 Sep 2017 … according to Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney, who seems to think that prior to Jesus nobody ever had a decent human relationship. A secular society is right out, brother. The idea that secularism suggests that people might form relationships without the scaffolding of the church seems to worry him… Read More
Evolution The World According to Genesis: Moral Knowledge 6 Jun 200724 Nov 2022 Like any middle eastern deity, YHWHW Elohim is a fairly petty individual. He doesn’t want competition from his creations, so he blocks access to the “Tree of Life”, which is a magical tree whose fruit can make you live forever. We have two magical trees, a corporeal deity of limited knowledge and good will, a snake that talks and has intentions like any trickster god to thwart the designs of the deity, and a justification for wearing clothes, which is not a matter just of shame, but of intended purpose. Read More
Evolution Religion and imagination 5 May 2008 In a piece reported on in New Scientist, Maurice Bloch has proposed another basis for religion: imagination. Because we can project ourselves and imagine the “transcendental” relation in social and personal relationships, we can imagine that there are agents not visible or present, he claims. The paper is also a… Read More
In Canada, the government set up residential schools to “aggressively assimilate” the children of aboriginal populations. These schools were run by churches–mostly the Catholic church, but the Anglican, Presbyterian and United churches were also involved. The mental and physical abuse that happened in those schools, and the destructive affect this has had on aboriginal societies, is still felt to this day. See this FAQ at CBC:http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2008/05/16/f-faqs-residential-schools.html
Not just the natives either (though that’s arguably the larger national disgrace). The same bunch now being implicated in Ireland also ran a branch plant operation in Newfoundland: http://www.mountcashelorphanage.com/ The fallout from both these sordid episodes has been popping in and out of the news for the past 20 years or so, as one or another inquiry or compensation suit proceeds.
Canada, at least, closed the schools and offered an official apology from Parliament and some monetary compensation. There is still much to be done. The Roman Catholic Church continues to cover up. I’ve updated my link to your site. Please consider adding mine to your blogroll. Thanks.