I rarely delve into politics head on in my writing because let’s face it… no one really wins and everyone leaves the room with one less friend depending on the amount of alcohol consumed while doing so. But, this election year many things have irked my ass so here’s to my first (out of possibly many) entries leading up this November.
It seems like forever that religion has played a major role in politics in the U.S. Whether it be a politician swayed in one direction or another due to his feelings of religious conviction or clergymen openly demanding their parishioners vote according to “God’s Law,” I feel it might be about time to begin taxing all religious institutions.
Every election brings out the worst in all parties whether Right, Left, or askew and only results in pathetic name calling and scapegoating. As the 2012 election draws even closer, the Catholic Church has done more than its part in convincing me (and hopefully others) that it’s about high time the federal government stepped in to tax the religious institutions of this country or quell their open involvement in vote lobbying for particular candidates or laws. The public, politicians, media, and seemingly every other part of our society appears to have lost sight of one of the founding principles the United States was founded on. Separation of Church and State, anyone?
Which brings me to my point of exposing just a few of the sneaky (and I’m sure illegal) activities of the “Holy” Roman Catholic Church since the shit storm of this upcoming Presidential election kicked off. To begin most recently, the Archbishop of St. Paul and Minneapolis, John C. Nienstedt, wrote a little letter in his local Archdiocese’s official paper The Catholic Spirit urging his churchgoers to vote in favor of a state constitutional ban on same-sex marriage declaring, “Our effort to support God’s unchanging plan for marriage is not a campaign against anyone but rather a positive effort to promote the truth about marriage as a union between one man and one woman.”
Sounds like a load of horse shit to me. Are you legally allowed to voice your religious opinion to the masses? Absolutely. But, not when it comes to rounding up donations amounting to $1 million dollars and using it to support the campaign in favor of the ban, as reported by The Minn Post. Hmmm… Shouldn’t you be more concerned about starving children in this country rather than who I decide to kiss and kick it with? Just sayin’, queen.
The Catholic Church continues to make a fool of itself and even further displays why it and all other houses of worship should be taxed or told to heel when it comes to politics. Christ, even the State of Washington was so overrun this past summer by such obvious donation collections for an equal marriage law overhaul that the state’s campaign finance watchdog told the Church to cut that shit out. Alas, that didn’t stop the parishes from weaseling their way around clear violation of the law. Even with countless slaps on the hand from the state, these “men of the cloth” have also previously used their churches as official signature collecting centers when the effort was first launched to put the marriage equality law to a majority vote. Is there no end? I could continue but I’m not that much of a long winded Mary.
Do I think the entire Catholic Church is evil? No. I was raised Catholic. Are there certain principles that everyone should consider? Yes. Be nice and help one another. Is the hierarchy bullshit and unswerving opinion of the Church what should govern us or trick other citizens into thinking without a mind of their own? Bitch, I’m not even gonna answer that. So ends my tirade. When voting, please use your own mind and beliefs and not those of pedophiles dressed in black and maroon gowns; no matter how fabulous they look. And take that dollar off that donation plate. That could be used for dollar pizza.
