29 March 2009

Yet another reason I'm glad I left the Catholic Church

Once again, I am utterly disgusted by the antics of the Catholic Church. A bishop in Calgary expressed disapproval of a Catholic teachers fundraiser for the Stephen Lewis Foundation, and the Teachers' Federation did the politically expedient (read: cowardly) thing and shut it down.

First of all, who was the asshole parishioner who complained about this to the bishop? Seriously? What kind of asshole bitches to the boss about raising money to help people who are dying from a horrible disease?

Second of all, I am utterly appalled that the bishop would even bother with this. WTF, dude? You'd shut down support to a charity that, "supports community-based organizations that are turning the tide of HIV/AIDS in Africa. They provide care to women who are ill and struggling to survive; assist orphans and other AIDS-affected children; reach heroic grandmothers who almost single-handedly care for their orphan grandchildren; and sustain associations of people living with HIV and AIDS." What part of that didn't you like? I mean, they support abstinence, they just say if you can't be abstinent, use a condom. Oh no, God forbid. I get it, you're abstinent, so you want everyone else to be. No sex for fun!

Finally, does the church not realize that the vast majority of their followers (and I really do think that most people follow their church, not their God, sadly) don't like this kind of crap. It turns people off the church. This kind of thing is one of the reasons I left.

I'm utterly disgusted.

Just to toot the horn of my own church again, our biggest fundraiser of the year is for the SLF and the Grandmothers to Grandmothers Campaign. We're not all evil.

And just so you don't think I use that word lightly, I really do think it is an act of evil to allow and even support the spread of AIDS.

h/t to Lulu at Canadian Cynic

2 comments:

Unknown said...

Here from Feministe...

I just wanted to say, as an Albertan former Catholic... Bishop Fred Henry is a jackass. Even my very Catholic mom and godmother say that. He cares more about getting his name in the paper with his controversial stands than he cares about actually guiding his flock.

Other highlights of his include getting UNICEF boxes banned from public schools because UNICEF funds abortions (even though they do no such thing) and coming out in opposition to the HPV vaccine on the grounds that it encourages premarital sex. I wrote him a (very polite and restrained) email about that one. He replied with: "There's a lot you don't know." Thanks, jackass.

Luna said...

Oh disgusting! I was hoping he was just passively evil via stupidity. Guess not. *sigh*