Let Me Count The Ways

I think Pope Benny has a big steaming pile of poo instead of a brain.

• Homophobia

• Transphobia

• Misogyny

• Slowness to act or speak out against abusive priests

• Flirting with creationism

• Continuing to condemn the use of condoms to stop the spread of infection even within marriage
  

and those are just a few things that came to mind while I was driving to the shops this morning.

To say that transsexualism or homosexuality is a threat to the future of mankind is so completely laughable it's not funny. Comparing that "threat" to the destruction of the rainforests just goes to show just how many green shield stamps short of a teasmaid he actually is. Because even if he was in any way remotely right, which he isn't I must hasten to add, we dull old heterosexual breeders are carrying on breeding as if there was no on coming gay apocalypse. (edit: and there is quite a bit of fabulous breeding going on as well)

But just underneath his LBGT phobias lies good old fashioned misogyny and patriarchal attitudes. According to the Guardian:

"Speaking in a holiday address to the Curia, the Vatican's central administration, Benedict said yesterday the church viewed the distinction between men and women as central to human nature, and "asks that this order, set down by creation, be respected".

However the differences set out by nature aren't really that huge once you get beyond the obvious like boobies and willies. F'instance intellect and loquaciousness are the same between the genders and things like spacial awareness and what is called emotional intelligence vary more within each gender than they do between the genders. No, what he means by "this order, set down by creation" isn't what has evolved through natural selection but rather what the bible sets out. Where men are men and women are submissive, barefoot and pregnant. He's scared of the gays and lesbians and trans -men and -women because they show "this order" to be what all objectively thinking people know it to be: Bollocks.

So why is Benny coming out with this nonsense and who is he aiming it at? Well I don't think he's aiming it at us in Western Europe we are probably beyond the pale. No I think he's aiming it at Africa and South America, in both continents Fundamentalist Protestant Evangelists are making great headway by offering a simplistic black and white picture of the world and salvation which includes homophobia, transphobia and patriarchal views of the roles of men and women. Benny is just trying to out stupid the fundies. Next thing he'll be saying is that the bible is inerrant. However even taking the potential politics into account it still doesn't stop me from feeling ashamed that I was a cradle Catholic.