irreligion « uncommontary

Finally, A Tiny Speck Of Justice: Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena Charged In Baby-Stealing Operation, Refuses To Testify

April 16, 2012 by Jack Jamison Leave a comment

In a small news story, the Huffington Post reports on the case involving some 300,000 stolen babies. This is big news in other countries, but here in the US, it’s not exactly front page news.

MADRID — An 80-year-old Spanish nun has refused to testify at a court hearing about her alleged involvement in the stealing of newborn babies from their parents and selling them to other families.

Spanish police have investigated hundreds of cases amid allegations of baby trafficking dating from the years after Spain’s 1936-39 civil war and supposedly a few even in the mid-1990s.

Authorities were alerted by an association of people searching for lost relatives. The group alleges the scheme involved a nationwide network, including doctors, nurses, midwives, nuns and intermediaries. Mothers were told their babies had been stillborn.

Sister Maria Gomez is the only person subpoenaed so far. She appeared in court Thursday and told the judge she would exercise her right to remain silent.

Reuters reports that Sister Maria Gomez is charged with “illegal detention and falsifying documents.”

According to Newser, one mother of a stolen infant alleges that Sister Maria Gomez also threatened to steal her other child.

Spanish nun Maria Gomez Valbuena (C) leaves a court in Madrid on April 12, 2012, after refusing to testify before the judge for her alleged involvement in a case of stolen children. (PEDRO ARMESTRE/AFP/Getty Images)

“Stop asking me [where the baby is] or else I will also take away your other daughter and you will go to jail for adultery,” the mother claims Sister Maria Gomez said.

The BBC explains that thousands of babies are thought to have been stolen under Francisco Franco’s dictatorship with the aim of removing children from their “undesirable” left-wing parents and placing them under the care of “approved” right-wing families.

via Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena Charged In Baby-Stealing Operation.

We’re talking about a baby-stealing operation that continued into the 90′s. Priests, nuns and doctors were involved. One nun has been found to have over a million dollars in her bank account.

The people running the operation told the parents their baby was dead, that they couldn’t see the body, and sold the baby to paying customers. They then falsified all the documents.

I find these crimes so heinous, so offensive and reprehensible, that for the life of me I cannot fathom why it is not front page news around the globe.

300,000 children. It will be hard to follow the trail, since all the facts have been covered up, but just imagine what it would be like to find out you had been one of these babies. You were stolen from your mother and sold to the people you thought were your parents. The people you know as your parents bought you from a baby stealing operation.

In the case of single mothers, that would make at least 600,000 people whose lives have been forever altered beyond belief. If you include the parents who bought the children – who may not have known they were complicit – that would make around 1,200,000 people affected. And once again, the horror is laid at the feet of the Catholic church.

Will the church demand justice for the victims? Will the vast wealth and resources of the Catholic hierarchy be used to help those harmed, bring families back together, and see that justice be done to all those responsible? Not bloody likely. The pattern they have followed for hundreds and hundreds of years is to cover up, to deny, and to protect the wealth and power of the church at all costs. And it costs the victims of their crimes most.

Aged nun accused in Spanish baby-stealing cases (worldnews.msnbc.msn.com)
Spanish Nun Refuses to Speak at Baby Theft Hearing (abcnews.go.com)

Filed under human rights, irreligion, opinion, religion Tagged with baby stealing, bbc, Catholic, catholic church, catholic cover-up, catholic nuns, catholic priests, huffington post, Maria Gomez Valbuena, Nun, spain, Spanish Nun, Spanish Nun Maria Gomez Valbuena

The Morrigan and the Rage of Women

March 27, 2012 by John McAndrew Leave a comment

Boudicca/The Morrigan/Amazons

From the essay, Amazing Rage, by Barbara Mor, co-author of The Great Cosmic Mother. The essay is found in The Beacon Book of Essays by Contemporary American Women, Boston 1996.

Morrigan means “Great Queen,” but you can see: this is not anyone’s idea of a legal, regal lady. The Irish chose wildness as their metaphor, particularly vis-à-vis the linear Anglo conquerors. They also chose female power over female beauty. In all descriptions, the Morrigan is a pugnacious sight. . . .

You see my bias. I love this Hag. One good leg, one eye, one tooth: the Stubborn One. Fist in the chest that clenches, opens, clenches again as the world’s relentless pulse goes through it. Politics is not pretty. Earth today is not altogether serene. Nor is the Morrigan. Feisty; but she is frustrated. For this reason: she is the Earth. She cannot sell out, exploit herself. Take dishonest shortcuts to survival. Source of all wealth, power, work, real value, she cannot therefore turn herself into quick cash, properties, paper assets, profitable junk, or bombs. She is not a necrophiliac dealer, a stockbroker, a land developer, a sharky hustler of trends and markets. She cannot pimp her own flesh: her home, her body. Nor her children: animals, trees, humanity. Nor her imaginative power: her dreams. She pays herself lousy wages, indeed.

She can only boil in her belly, turning from day to night through all weathers, while the rage for poetry and justice flies out of her, continuously, circling and cawing in a mood of black wings. And hope that we are Her Daughters: to see, and listen, and do the same.

When they say anger is not spiritual, they lie. When they say spirituality and politics don’t mix, they lie again. Politics can be a dream of the body. And the body of the Earth is definitely spiritual. And definitely has a right to rage. Her righteous rage. Earth can be made sick, beat up, enslaved, can die: she has a right to defend herself. She is not obligated to be nice, negotiable, nonargumentative, nonthreatening. She does not need to Look Good: she is Real.

A short, amazing, nearly feral essay. If you can find a copy of the book, buy it, especially, but not only, for this essay.

I leave you with two related quotations.

“Depression is rage spread thin.” (attribution uncertain)

“Rage, rage against the dying of the light.” ~ Dylan Thomas

Filed under culture, environment, irreligion, opinion, Women's Rights Tagged with Barbara Mor, Boudicca, Celtic, Dylan Thomas, Gaelic, Goddess, Great Cosmic Mother, Ireland, Morrigan

Taking Down Mother Teresa

March 8, 2012 by John McAndrew 1 Comment

I recently saw this article linked on Facebook. It calls Mother Teresa a fraud, opening with this passage by one of my favorite authors, Christopher Hitchens.

“[Mother Teresa] was not a friend of the poor. She was a friend of poverty. She said that suffering was a gift from God. She spent her life opposing the only known cure for poverty, which is the empowerment of women and the emancipation of them from a livestock version of compulsory reproduction.”

Sorry, all, and especially you, Hitch, but I don’t buy it. Were some of her beliefs and practices wrong, to the best of our knowledge? Sure. Her aversion to contraceptives, for example. As an agnostic – and former Catholic AND fundamentalist – I obviously don’t share her metaphysics. But give me a big break. People hold differing beliefs that inform their policy stances all the time, and they sometimes turn out wrong. Remember when environmentalists opposed prescribed burns in forests? Give her credit for holding the hands of poor and sick people and living her life among them. I’ve read and enjoyed God Is Not Great: I love a good diatribe. But Mother Teresa gave people in extremis great comfort in language they understood, and the author of this article wants to criticize her for what she didn’t do, or because she didn’t do it the way he or she would have?

When my mother was dying three years ago, she had one very bad night, moaning and writhing in her bed. She was painfully thin, and her body and mind were shutting down. It was torture to watch and not be able to do anything. I recited the Hail Mary to her, and she grasped that like a drowning person grabs a rope, or at least what appears to be a rope, and cried out, “Help, Mary!” We provided her with painkillers and hospice care, but at that moment what she needed was, apparently, someone to sing her the lyrics of the song she needed to remember, to throw her a lifeline she recognized.

Mother Teresa was human, and made mistakes. Duh. We do, too. Duh. (What am I? Ten?) But if the best thing we have to do with our time is to take pot shots at a woman whose life was given to comforting the poor and dying in the way that she believed would best help, then we need to pick up some new hobbies.

Filed under belief, inspiration, irreligion, religion Tagged with Hitchens, Mother Teresa

The Personhood Laws: The Defining Issue Of The 2012 Election

February 22, 2012 by Jack Jamison 11 Comments

With the anti-abortion movements’ help, everyone else in the country may get a chance to weaken the Christian right’s power for a long, long time.

Oklahoma is about to be the first state where the “personhood amendment” is going to pass, setting the stage for the law to go to the Supreme Court. The right is counting on a Roberts Supreme Court, along with a 5 person Conservative majority, to usher in the overturning of Roe V. Wade. But before that happens, America will get to decide whether we’re going to be governed by the Christian Bible or basic human rights.

This is the leading edge of a slippery slope back to the 1950′s America for which old white men and Rick Santorum are nostalgic. The Oklahoma personhood bill declares life begins at conception and provides embryos and fetuses with “all the rights, privileges, and immunities” of other citizens. Anything anyone does to interfere with that – causing the death of the “person” – would constitute murder. And there are a myriad of other legal ramifications:

The Senate approved the bill which some say is an attempt to outlaw or restrict abortion rights but it also has unintended consequences, according to the mother of 5-year-old Gavin Gayanich.

“We did several years of fertility treatment to get him. I feel like I won the lottery every day. I wake up every morning and this is what I have because of in vitro fertilization and this bill will prevent us from getting another child,” Julie Gayanich said.

Representative Mike Reynolds said Oklahomans are looking for clarity on this issue.

“You couldn’t change the language to say that life begins at conception except in the case of rape. That doesn’t make any sense,” Reynolds said.

via Personhood Amendment Passes In Oklahoma Senate – News9.com – Oklahoma City, OK

There are two bills in Oklahoma: the one that passed the Senate on a vote of 34-8, and the one that the House has not yet passed. The House bill, in addition to doing everything the Senate bill does, bans birth control choices like Plan B and fertility procedures such as in vitro fertilization that may result in the destruction of fertilized eggs (think of Octomom choosing not to have all 8 fertilized embryos transferred to her uterus). Additionally, it allows NO exception in cases of rape or incest. In Oklahoma, if your father, uncle or brother rapes you, or you are a coed at Oral Roberts University who is the victim of a date rape, the House bill requires that you bear the fruit of that attack for nine months until it is born. That means through morning sickness, prenatal check-ups, the first visible baby bump and the inquiries of friends and neighbors and family members . . . I am so sorry.

And it’s not just Oklahoma. Personhood bills are currently working their way through the legislatures of Iowa, North Dakota, Montana, and Texas.

It’s not about being pro-life. There can be an honest disagreement about defining the moment or event when life begins. These bills are not restricted to defining personhood as beginning at conception instead of at birth. It’s about women’s rights to govern the sanctity of your own bodies – basic human rights. This may be the most hypocritical issue of the Right: one of the main tenets of the GOP is keeping government out of our lives. Yet when it comes to reproductive rights they want to be right in the bedroom. (Now would be a good time to read The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood.)

If this were about preventing abortion, Rick Santorum, California Rep. Darrell Issa, all the Republican presidential candidates and the nine clerics – all men, one for each month of pregnancy – who testified about how against their principles it is to require them to provide contraception – these people would be the foremost advocates of contraception and sex education, because those two things prevent pregnancy. But they oppose contraception and sex education. These men (and, oddly, some women) are not content to forbid abortion: they also will forbid the best ways for sexually active women to prevent abortion: contraception and sex education. If you do have sex – even if it is against your will – they want you to take your chances and bear the consequences. What?? The hell??

As an aside, there is another common way for sexually active people to avoid unwanted pregnancy and consequent abortions: gay sex. I don’t think I have to explain the right’s position on gay sex. But someone should remind the presidential candidates and clerics that sex between men, and sex between women, is entirely abortion-free (assisted reproductive technologies excepted).

I think we can count on the right not to be able to paint themselves out of this corner. Rick Santorum is currently leading in the polls, and that’s a good thing. Using the Christian Bible to govern our country may resonate with the GOP base, but it’s very likely to turn off everyone else. Even Mitt Romney the Waffle King can’t afford to lose the Christian vote. If GOP leaders come to their senses, they’ll tell the personhood movement to pipe down but be assured that the GOP will take care of them. How many pro-lifers (especially women, who are overwhelmingly saddled with the responsibility of birth control) will think going back to the rhythm method is a great idea? In the privacy of the voting booth, even Mississipi, the state with the highest percentage of Protestant Christians, at 81% (plus 6% Catholics) according to a recent Gallup poll, resoundingly rejected the personhood law. (Mississippi also has the nation’s lowest percentage of Atheists and Agnostics at 5.8%.)

It will take a fight, and if progressives and women’s rights supporters can get the word out, we can finally have the basic human rights argument that this country needs to have: the Christian Bible or the Constitution. With which will the political center of the country stand?

If we let the GOP hang themselves, I’m betting – and hoping – this is the issue they’ll do it with. And that just may break the Christian right’s stranglehold on our country for a long time to come.

Let us pray.

By Jack Jamison and John McAndrew, uncommontary.com.

New Virginia Personhood Laws Outlaw Birth Control – and Oh, Yeah – Can Penetrate Women Without Their Consent (uncommontary.com)
Battle Over Personhood: Is There A “War” Brewing? (erasetheneed.wordpress.com)

Filed under human rights, irreligion, opinion, politics, religion Tagged with 2012 Elections, Christian fundamentalist, Iowa personhood, mitt romney, Montana personhood, North Dakota personhood, Oklahoma, oklahoma personhood bill, Oklahoma Senate, personhood bill, personhood usa, religion, republican, Rick Santorum, Roe V. Wade, Santorum, sexual politics, Texas personhood, women's rights

Santorum: The Only Candidate In American History To Have A Policy Position On Anal Sex

February 22, 2012 by Jack Jamison Leave a comment

www.spreadingsantorum.com

Filed under human rights, humor, irreligion, opinion, politics, religion Tagged with Christian fundamentalist, democrat, freedom from religion, humor, LOL, politics, progressive, religion, republican, Rick Santorum, Santorum, www.spreadingsantorum.com

On Rick Santorum: “A Model Catholic”

February 17, 2012 by Jack Jamison 2 Comments

“Rick Santorum is a nice smiley fanatic. He does not believe in evolution or global warming or women in the workplace. He equates gay sex with bestiality (Rick “Man on Dog” Santorum). He equates contraception with the guillotine. Only a brain-dead party could think him a worthy presidential candidate. Yet he is praised by television pundits, night and day, for being “sincere” and “standing by what he believes.” He is the principled alternative to the evil Moderation of Mitt Romney and the evil Evil of Newt Gingrich. He is presented as a model Catholic. Torquemada was, in that sense, a model Catholic.”

via On Rick Santorum’s Piety: “Torquemada was, in that sense, a model Catholic” | Religion Dispatches.

Rick Santorum Launches Ad Featuring Something That Looks Like the Other Santorum [Video] (jezebel.com)

Filed under irreligion, opinion, politics Tagged with Catholic, catholic church, Christian fundamentalist, freedom from religion, Newt Gingrich, religion, religious conservative, republican, Rick Santorum, Torquemada, www.spreadingsantorum.com

Women’s Health and Contraception Experts Testify to Congress at Request of GOP

February 16, 2012 by John McAndrew 2 Comments

Five Transsexual MDs/Ministers Testify Before Congress

Now, before all my liberal readers jump to conclusions, I have been able to find little to no information about these five men. There were actually nine men scheduled to testify in this hearing led by Congressman Darrell Issa. It is about the intersection of – some would say conflict between – religious liberty and a woman’s need for available, affordable contraception. It’s difficult, from the photo, even to make out the names of these five who are testifying, so Googling to learn about them is impossible.

We could, of course, assume that these are all misogynists, representatives of the most patriarchal, fundamentalist branches of their respective religion. But we don’t know that. The fact that they are all men of the cloth does not preclude the possibility that they are each medical doctors and post-op transsexuals as well. We just don’t know. How the GOP could find nine transsexual MDs who are ALSO religious leaders is a story I hope will soon be told. I’m not saying that all of them are post-op transsexual MD ministers. Maybe only a plurality of them are. Or just a few. That would be more likely, even in a nation of over 300 million. It’s possible, I suppose, that none of them are, but that is highly unlikely. What would be the point of having nine natural born men, some of whom may be celibate – or even pedophiles, for Christ’s sake – testify about the intercourse between contraception and dogma, if the only thing they know about preventing conception is avoiding sex, or only having sex with those who are not likely to make you pregnant? That would be absurd or, potentially, obscene.

Filed under belief, culture, GLBT, human rights, irreligion, News, opinion, politics, sex Tagged with Catholic, contraception, Darrell Issa, misogynist, Nancy Pelosi, patriarchy, pedophile priest, planned parenthood, post-op transsexual, Rachel Maddow, Santorum, susan g. komen foundation, Taliban, transsexual

THIS IS WHY Catholics Are Still Hypocrites Who Support Child Abuse

February 8, 2012 by Jack Jamison Leave a comment

If you are a good Catholic (or just an average Easter / Christmas kind of Catholic who just thinks Jesus is love and the Pope’s a sweet confused old man) this should outrage you at least as much as it does me:

In 2002, at the height of the outcry over the sexual abuse of minors by Roman Catholic priests, the Archbishop of New York, Edward M. Egan, issued a letter to be read at Mass. In it, he offered an apology about the church’s handling of sex-abuse cases in New York and in Bridgeport, Conn., where he was previously posted.

“It is clear that today we have a much better understanding of this problem,” he wrote. “If in hindsight we also discover that mistakes may have been made as regards prompt removal of priests and assistance to victims, I am deeply sorry.”

Now, 10 years later and in retirement, Cardinal Egan has taken back his apology.

In a interview with Connecticut magazine published on the magazine’s Web site last week, a surprisingly frank Cardinal Egan said of the apology, “I never should have said that,” and added, “I don’t think we did anything wrong.”

He said many more things in the interview, some of them seemingly at odds with the facts. He repeatedly denied that any sex abuse had occurred on his watch in Bridgeport. He said that even now, the church in Connecticut had no obligation to report sexual abuse accusations to the authorities. (A law on the books since the 1970s says otherwise.) And he described the Bridgeport diocese’s handling of sex-abuse cases as “incredibly good.”

All of which has Cardinal Egan, now 79 and living in Manhattan, drawing fire from advocates who say he has reopened old wounds.

via Cardinal Egan Criticized for Retracting Apology on Sex-Abuse Crisis – NYTimes.com.

If you aren’t all out marching in the street, demanding that your diocese not only refute these remarks, but agree to follow the laws here on earth and report and help prosecute any further abuse, then you are complicit. The hypocrisy of that, and the complacency of the Catholic Church and its flock (they’re apparently called sheep for a reason) makes one thing crystal clear to those of us not blinded by faith: if and when Jesus The Christ comes back, he’s not setting foot in any of your temples, unless it’s to help burn them down. Even the most pious among you can’t twist His words enough to make it sound like Jesus would support child abuse in the name of “the greater good” the church has supposedly done. Think he’s going to lift you up to heaven? You stood idly by while children were raped, their rapists were protected, and then moved to other areas where they could continue their crimes. Didn’t know about all that? You do now, so you’re guilty of allowing all the people involved to go free. What are you doing about it? Praying’s not enough. I haven’t read the whole bible, but it seems like God can be kind of vengeful about this sort of stuff.

So, until you empty out the coffers, melt down the golden scepters, and sell the Gucci loafers; until you find every last one of the harmed, pay for all the compensation and therapy they deserve for the rest of their horribly affected lives, and then root out, expose and prosecute all the evildoers and their accomplices – including the Pope – then and not until then can you begin to pretend to lead in the footsteps of Christ.

But, hey, that’s hard – it’s a lot easier to attack me and not take responsibility for any of that. Besides, what could a godless atheist like me know about What Jesus Would Do? Would He stand for this hypocrisy? Maybe he was just a man after all.