The New Pope Sounds Like a Real Asshole.

On Monday, Ratzinger, who was the powerful dean of the College of Cardinals, used his homily at the Mass dedicated to electing the next pope to warn the faithful about tendencies that he considered dangers to the faith: sects, ideologies like Marxism, liberalism, atheism, agnosticism and relativism — the ideology that there are no absolute truths.

“Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism,” he said, speaking in Italian. “We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”

Yes, it's better for people to be dictated on how to live according to antiquated moral laws rather than gaining a true spiritual understanding of why it serves an individual as well as a collective be be a good person. And also, all those "soft" religions are the ones that are killing each other to prove themselves superior in the name of God.

No, wait. It's those crazy fundamentalists who only see things in black & white who can't live and let live or be tolerant of the uniqueness and individuality of God's creatures. Speaking of tolerance:

He also accused the media of fueling the priest sex abuse scandals of recent years. "I am personally convinced," he one told an interviewer, "that the constant presence in the press of the sins of Catholic priests, especially in the U.S., is a planned campaign."

And Sister Jeannine Gramick, a nun who he ordered to stop ministering to gays and lesbians in the United States, called his election "devastating" for those who believe the Catholic Church needs to be more tolerant.

OF COURSE it was a planned campaign! There's a problem in the church and it needs to be addressed! You can't repress a human being of his urges and thoughts and expect him not to have extreme psychological issues. They need to allow priests and nuns to have sex, to have familes, to be gay, if they so choose. They need to be allowed to be human as well as conduits of spirituality, and I'm sure they can do this while living respectable, pious lives. A kid who self-mutilates to gain the attention of and to show his commitment to his father doesn't get more love; he gets sent to a mental institution. This whole punishment to prove commitment makes no sense anymore. Wouldn't being a true servant of God entail living a good life and leading others to do so as well? Wouldn't the first step be to allow one to be human and experience the trials and tribulations as well as the beauty and comfort of being close to those you love? I know many preachers who are amazing people, leaders in their community, amazing mothers and fathers who lead by example. They are counselors to the community and leaders. They are well-adjusted human beings who can empathize as well as love and be loved. Doesn't this just make more sense?

And it wrenches me up inside to know this is a step backwards for the gay community.

The theme of spirituality is unity and reunification. Unification between a child and a mother, a man and his community, a community and its father. Reunification of the body with the earth upon death, of the spirit with God upon resurrection. When we humans build hierarchies, we are building our own human Tower of Babel with our misguided leaders at the top. In that story, God didn't want people to stay in the same place and build this tower to heaven, so he made them speak different langauges and they scattered. And as people slowly come together through the centuries, they learn to understand each other again despite different languages, and bring together their different understandings of God.

We all scatter upon birth but as we grow older and seek out communities, we share our different life experiences and life perspectives to understand what it is to be human, and what it is that we believe in. This is the natural order of things and the way things work. You give human beings space to be, and they will find their own path through life's trials in order to reach the same destination.

The church is always trying to force things down people's throats. The problem is that so much of the Bible and religious doctrine have been used to manipulate people for political means and in the end, so much has been lost. Antiquated moral laws no longer have any relevance and the people need a leader not a tyrant father. Good things happen under gentle but firm leadership, not sadistic and rigid domination. This is the basic tenant of good parenting.

And when we have someone who's saying, let's go back to making things black & white and telling people what they have to do and what they have to be, it leaves people with no room to grow and find their own ways back to their connection with God and the collective soul.