Good old Valteron has taken on the reputation of local anti-Catholic bigot, it would seem. So just to make it clear, I am actually an equal-opportunity bigot. I have been on other sites in which I pointed out the revolting cruelty and sexism in the Koran, for example.
Many people have been horrified by Fred Phelps and the Westboro Baptist Church when they picket the funerals of dead American servicemen. They also picket the funerals of gays who die of AIDS with signs to remind the families of the deceased that their loved one is burning in Hell.
If you want to see more about Phelps and his Church, google Westboro Baptist Church. They have a lovely little section dedicated to Matthew Sheppard, (the gay kid who was beaten to death and left tied to a fence rail a few years ago), pointing out that he is in Hell for all eternity. You can actually see his face in the flames and hear his cries of anguish.
The funny thing is, people keep acting as if Phelps was some sort of strange and unusualo thing in religion. The only thing unusual about him is that he is so blunt about it.
The Pope and the Catholic Church, for example, firml believe that homosexuiality is an “intrinsic moral evil”, and a “grave moral disorder”. Quite simply, they believe gays who have sex and do not confess their “sin” are going to burn in Hell for all eternity. It is as much their doctrine as it is the doctrine of the Westboro Baptist Church. The only difference is that the Pope is too smart to walk around with a sign that says “Thank God for AIDS” or “Fags are going to burn in Hell.”
But the present Pope, as Cardinal Ratzinger, IS on record as saying that gays do not care whom they infect as long as they get their sex.
So Phelps is an anti-semite as well? Okay, then what do you think of this viewpoint? Who said it, Hitler or Himmler, perhaps?:
“Jews’ synagogues should be set on fire, prayerbooks destroyed, rabbis forbidden to preach, homes “smashed and destroyed,” property seized, money confiscated, and these poisonous envenomed worms should be drafted into forced labor or expelled for all time… . Jerusalem was destroyed (many centuries ago, and at that time we Christians were harassed and persecuted by the Jews throughout the world … So we are even at fault for not avenging all this innocent blood of our Lord and of the Christians …We are at fault in not slaying them.”
Surprise! It was Martin Luther, the founder of Lutheranism, in his pamphlet *Von den Juden und ihren Lügen * (On the Jews and their Lies), published in 1543.
Any Lutherans out there?
Care to discuss the sexism in Islam sometime? Try the Koran, Surah 4, verse 34, where it actually says that a man may beat his wife if he even “fears” rebellion from her. Or the terrorism like 9-11 that could not have existed without Islam?
When will we stop pretending that religion is really a force for good and that the untold evil and misery it perpetrates are just weird exceptions?
Personally, my favourite quote is by Nobel Prize Winner Steven Weinberg who said: “Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it, you’d have good people doing good things and evil people doing bad things, but for good people to do bad things, it takes religion.”
Ask yourself this: Could you get several dozen atheists or agnostics to hijack planes and fly them into two tall buildings, murdering thousans of innocent people, by promising them 77 virgins in Paradise if they do so? Nope. It takes religion, folks!
