tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4699701021609132279.post301836566734785241..comments2024-01-27T20:14:55.379+00:00Comments on House of Inanna: Hypocrisy and bigotry - a marriage of true mindsIdrishttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06799921912795975330noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4699701021609132279.post-18174283420423982412008-12-25T07:25:00.000+00:002008-12-25T07:25:00.000+00:00Well done for not mentioning Pope Joan! I like th...Well done for not mentioning Pope Joan! I like the picture you paint of a Garden with a cast of thousands. How much more wonderful a myth that would have been! And I also love the story of the special chair in the Vatican.<BR/><BR/>On another note, in his official Christmas message, Benedict has spoken of the defence of children from abuse with no mention of his own actions as inquisitor-in-chief in which he instructed bishops that they - and not the secular authorities- had jurisdiction over abusive priests. <BR/>See http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2005/apr/24/children.childprotection<BR/><BR/>He is reputed to be a formidable theologian and I therefore assume that his interpretation of canon law was accurate. English secular law, for example, long contained the concept of "benefit of clergy" which was finally abolished as late as 1827. Such a concept must surely have originated in canon law. This, however, is no defence. A law which thus facilitated the abuse of children should, surely, have been challenged and changed rather than restated and re-enforced. <BR/><BR/>I can feel another rant coming on....Idrishttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06799921912795975330noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4699701021609132279.post-50499597665272687772008-12-24T11:20:00.000+00:002008-12-24T11:20:00.000+00:00The mind boggles! I've been thinking about th...The mind boggles! I've been thinking about this since yesterday and am no closer to imagining the kind of apocalypse that a few people of indeterminate gender might cause on a planet of billions. Maybe Benedict fears that the Garden of Eden story wouldn't be so great without "real" men and "real" women - no more Adam & Eve? Well, there's always Adam & Lilith (whoops, they disowned that one). Adam & Steve? Eve and Lilith (that one sounds interesting ....) A Garden with a cast of thousands?<BR/><BR/>He's talking of the dangers of "blurring the distinction" as though this is something that we could achieve by so-called political correctness alone. And with an enthusiasm worthy of Sarah Palin's spiritual advisors, ignoring all the findings of modern science, philosophy, you name it. <BR/><BR/>The danger in blurring the distinctions, surely, is political. How can the Church keep women in their subservient place if we can't be 100% sure how to define "women"? How can a celibate priesthood keep itself safely masculine without essentialist definitions? At this stage I begin to believe the old story about putative popes having their goolies checked on a special throne .... do they hang well, or is a rough (approximate) beast trying to slouch into the Vatican powerhouse?<BR/><BR/>All this is doubly interesting, as two days previously Benedict chose to praise Galileo - who after being forced to recant his theories spent most of his life under house arrest thanks to the Church ... maybe in another four or five hundred years they'll adopt gender theory. If they survive that long - for as you so rightly say - all this comes from a Church which did little or nothing about the abuse of children until they were forced to ...<BR/><BR/>You'll notice I managed all that without a single mention of Pope Joan!<BR/><BR/>Geraldine Charles<BR/>http://www.goddess-pages.co.ukGeraldine Charleshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08671689383688564178noreply@blogger.com