I'm getting pretty sick of the Catholic right wing wackos who are intent..

[FormerRepublican]

...on legislating everything that goes on in American bedrooms! Jeez, Louise - are we allowed NO privacy anymore?

Was reading this article on how Missouri is cancelling funding for birth control for low income women. How idiotic is this? A prime quote:

""If you hand out contraception to single women, we're saying promiscuity is OK as a state, and I am not in support of that," Phillips, R-Kansas City, said in an interview."

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/local/14098907.htm

So all low income women now are single? WTF?

I'm not Catholic, I don't believe in Catholic views regarding abortion/birth control/oppression of women, and I'm getting pretty sick of all the Catholic right wing wackos who are intent on legislating their religion into MY life! They have every right to believe whatever they want and to practice their religion in their own lives, and I fully support that. But I freaking draw the line at making Catholic moral principles the law of the land! The Catholic church has been pushing this sheet into every government they can for YEARS and I'm tired of it! There are plenty of Catholics who don't believe in this sheet either, but the righties push it down everyone's throat anyway. If these guys are so intent on legislating a theocracy, they need to freaking move to the Vatican and get the freak out of our bedrooms.

What are they going to do next - legislate when and how we can have sex? Apply at the local diocese for permission and pay $2 for a special indulgence?

:mad:

[Mz Pip]

1. Birth control prevents abortion

This is not rocket science.

If these wackos really really really really want to prevent abortion then they should be advocating funding for contraception, family planning info and easy access to both.

Their agenda is about control, not about preventing abortion.

Mz Pip
:dem:

[TallahasseeGrannie]

2. I didn't know there were so many Catholics in Missouri

I "get" the concept of not having the public pay for things they consider immoral, but personally I think war is immoral and I have to pay for that.

[benddem]

3. It isn't just Catholics

and I'm not defending their role in this atrocity...but Right wing zealots of all religious persuasions think sex is dirty and don't want people to have it. It's ok though if they do, but just don't enjoy it. It is also about control of women. Just remember what they want is State enforced pregnancy.

[AX10]

4. I'm a repentant Catholic. After the 04' election...

I repented my Catholicism. The church (child molesters) only cares about abortion and gay bashing. I don't want to be part of their right wing perverted hate-breed.

[Itchinjim]

5. I am a lapsed Catholic in part because of these lunatics.

They have taken over the church at every level, from the Vatican to the smallest parish council. The liberal element of the church has been silenced and shut out. It's a shame too because historically there is a large progressive streak in Catholics.

[Dream of the Flood]

9. Let them try to take over in my town

I live in a fairly liberal town. Let them try to preach their lunacy in my church. Our priest never preaches about the hot-key issues. I don't know what his personal views are on abortion and the like, but if he ever were to put a word in edgewise, I think he'd lose about two thirds of his congregation. And it is a very well attended church.

[Dream of the Flood]

6. Not just the Catholics

Catholics are not all lock step. It's the Christian fundamentalists that we really need to be concerned about. Catholics are the laziest when it comes to following what their leaders say. Catholics are split mostly down the middle as far as being conservative/liberal. I'm Catholic and liberal. I'm not defending Catholicism. It's just I think people get Catholics confused with the larger constituency of the Christian right who are mostly opposed to the Catholic church and its teachings because, in their view, the Catholic church does not strictly follow the bible and makes up its own dogma.

I'm not saying many of their teachings are any less archaic than those of the Christian coalition, nor am I saying that the Vatican and her bishops don't have any political power. Clearly it does, but the Catholic church is not the same thing as the Christian right who are largely non-affiliated born again cults. Even though there are Catholics and protestants who affiliate themselves with the Christian right, you are at least likely to find Catholics and protestants who are liberal. The scary folks are the ones who deny evolution and belong to these activist non Catholic/Protestant mega-churches.

Many Catholics don't agree with their leaders. There are even priests who openly disagree with much of what comes down from the Vatican.

[Jersey Devil]

7. I pretty much concluded the same thing when I was 14 years old

and which is why I am a lapsed Catholic.

The amazing thing to me is the huge number of people who continue to attend mass every week and dutifully (and as piously as they can attempt) listen to the sermons of right wing zealots on issues like choice but not believe or practice a word of what is preached to them. They go to mass and remain silent when things they disagree with (like the Catholic Church's prohibition of birth control)are preached to them and then go home and take their birth control pills and it doesn't seem to bother them that these acts are totally hypocritical and dishonest.

Why do they continue to attend church? My conclusion is the same as the reason why Bush was elected for a second term - fear. Just as they voted for Bush because they were told if they didn't they might die, they go to mass because they are told if they don't they won't go to Heaven.

[Dream of the Flood]

10. Out of Tradition

Look, I attend once in a while. It is the tradition I was brought up in. I find relaxation in taking in the architecture and stained glass. It helps that our priest, as I mentioned before, knows his congregation are mostly lefties and stays away from preaching against abortion, birth control and other controversial issues.

But think of it this way too. You have a family member who has alot of flaws, but some good points too. You still love them. Well, I won't say I go that far with the church, but you get the analogy. That is how I reconcile it. The church does much good in the world. It also has done much harm. It turns a blind eye to the problem of sexual abuse among the clergy. It feeds the poor and homeless. It promotes scientific discovery (a Catholic Priest who was also a physicist, Fr. LeMaitre, worked with Einstein and Hubble to discover such phenomenon as the expanding universe). It has also persecuted scientists as heretics. It has spoken out against the Iraq War (albeit only in words, but it was it's official position) but it has also waged war as in the crusades. It speaks against capital punishment, although, unfortunately against abortion as well. It isn't perfect, but it is my church. I don't fear hellfire for not going--I'm not superstitious, but I am spiritual, and I feel at home in it.

Sorry if that makes me a sheep in the eyes of some. I am a Catholic, but that does not make me any less liberal.

[Jersey Devil]

14. My wife believes as you do

and I can understand your reasoning. Yes, the church does do many good things. But for me personally it has gone beyond the line for which I can support it.

[LiberalUprising]

17. The Bible Is A Proved Hoax

Peace can never come to earth as
long as people have faith in hell for they will always try to solve their problems by
sending those that disagree with them to hell.

http://www.hoax-buster.org/

[DanCa]

8. Try confronting them face to face as I do.

Last year I had a Cardinal say to my face that I desrve parkinson's because, "I want to harvest babies for my own end." This is in refrence when in a meeting I had about stem cell research. I have been called everything from an embryo broker, to an embryo farmer and a child killer all because I want to be able walk without the fear of falling. God I used to love going to church as a kid, now I can't attend Christmas Eve mass with my family thanks to these whack jobs. God when will these people wake up and realize that there just tools of the Republicans

Note my anger isn't attended toward the good christians on this page at DU whom I love dearly.
I am just tired of extremist in every form dictating their will on others.

[CatholicEdHead]

11. I am hanging on by a thread with this going on

I am staying in to try to do my part to fight back.

As said above this does cross religious lines, but many of the religous right nuts stole Catholic doctorine and spun it towards their own ends.

The far right Catholics are often the "Orthodox/Tradtionalist" Catholics who think they can thrive by dotting every i and crossing every t. They have more allegence to Rome than to the US. They are or choose not up on the dark church history when dealing with country governments.

[demosincebirth]

13. It doesn' matter..they always lump us together.

Many think that we all follow like sheep.

[Bridget Burke]

12. It's not just the Right-Wing Catholics....

Roman Catholicism is popularly associated with a strict anti-contraception position, but this strictness only dates to Pope Pius XI’s 1930 encyclical Casti Connubii. Before this, there was more debate on birth control, but it was generally condemned like abortion. This is because sex was treated as having no value except for reproduction; therefore, hindering reproduction encouraged sinful uses of sex. Nevertheless, bans on contraception are not an infallible teaching and could change....

Protestantism is perhaps one of the most diffuse and de-centralized religious traditions in the world. There is almost nothing that isn’t true of some denomination somewhere. Opposition to birth control is increasing in conservative evangelical circles who are, curiously, relying heavily on Catholic teachings. The vast majority of Protestant denominations, theologians, and churches at least permit contraception and may even promote family planning as an important moral good.

http://atheism.about.com/od/abortioncontraception/p/ReligionBirth.htm

The (Extremely) Protestant Religious Right has allied itself with the Catholic Church in "reproductive" matters--abortion & gay rights. Now they are getting on the anti-contraception bandwagon. Alas, the Catholic doctrines against capital punishment & aggressive war--& for social justice--are not as attractive.

Of course, the most Catholics have no problem with contraception. But they are usually pretty busy supporting & caring for the children they already have--unlike the Crusaders for Purity.

[warrens]

15. The vast majority of Catholics are liberal

The problem is, if they speak up, they get pummeled by the wingnuts like Scalia, Hansson and Novak.

[FooFootheSnoo]

16. These people are embaressing.

I see them on tv or read about them and think "I hope everyone doesn't think we are all like that!!". Catholics aren't all like this. A priest told my mother to get on birth control after she gave birth to her fifth child. I wish these kinds of people would just live and let live.

[W_HAMILTON]

18. My response to his comment...

WHO THE HELL CARES?

Who the hell gives idiots like this the right to legislate their morals onto everyone else? Sleeping with hundreds of women is as legal as marrying and being committed to one person. I don't give a damn what this backward-ass politician thinks, and I'm sure there are millions of other Americans out there that think the same. If you aren't in support of "promiscuity," DON'T PRACTICE IT. Goddamn these people are getting under my skin lately.

The same way Republicans used gay marriage as a wedge issue, Democrats should turn it around and use it as a wedge issue right back. They said "oh but if you allow gay marriages, what's to stop polygamy? And marriages with your dog!"

Well you know what? Democrats should point out that if they don't just hate gay people, they want to impose their beliefs on EVERYONE. They let gay marriages get banned. Then they pushed for laws against sex toys. Then they are pushing thru laws making abortion illegal. It's only a matter of time before they put thru laws outlawing contraceptives too.

People need to stop thinking of this as an issue-by-issue thing, and they need to point out that this ALL is about the same thing, and that's these people trying to legislate their personal and moral beliefs onto the rest of the nation, which couldn't be further from what the founding fathers wanted.

These assholes need to get "spanked" big-time in the coming election, because it's clear that they apparently think that losing the popular vote, then winning an election by a couple percentage points is enough to institute a Christian-mandate on all US citizens. This crap has got to stop.

[ProfessorGAC]

19. Good For You!

Well said. I feel the same.
The Professor

[Ganja Ninja]

20. Why direct all your rage at Catholics?

Seems to me you're singling out Catholics when it's pretty obvious the evangelicals have been leading the charge to get government into the bedroom and into the schools. The Catholics represent about as small a minority in this movement as blacks do in the GOP.

[Dream of the Flood]

21. Good Post

I think you summed up in a few lines what it took me a few paragraphs to express. It's wierd. As a Catholic, I am at odds with many of the Catholic church's teachings. Yet I am also dismayed when Catholics are lumped in with evangelicals as though they are the same thing. We have our own knuckleheads, like Bill Donohue. But they are our knuckleheads. The Christian right are a completely different bunch of knuckleheads.