When any government, or any church for that matter, undertakes to say to its subjects, This you may not read, this you must not see, this you are forbidden to know, the end result is tyranny and oppression no matter how holy the motives.
Robert A. Heinlein

As I go through a stack of news stories that I have printed out over the last few weeks I find some that stand out to me and even seem to relate to each other in my cracked cranium.

I see the Vatican is still attacking the Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown and the movie soon to come out staring Tom Hanks.
Archbishop Angelo Amato the second official of the Vatican doctrinal office which was headed by Pope Benedict before he took his new position issued a statement when speaking to the Catholic conference in Rome calling the book stridently anti- Christian… full of calumnies, offences and historical and theological errors regarding Jesus, the Gospels and the Church.
He also called for a boycott of the film.
It sounds more like there more concerned with protecting the reputation of the Church. I actually thought they were treated with kid gloves by the book considering the documented history of the Church.
The book has sold 40 million copies and this will guarantee even more sales. The movie hasn’t even opened yet but it will get a boost too.
Amato went on to state that Christians should be more willing to reject lies and gratuitous defamation.
He said that if such lies and errors had been directed at the Koran or the Holocaust they would have justly provoked a world uprising. He said that instead when directed against the Church and Christians, they remain unpunished.
This sounds to me like an attempt to condone Christians staging a possibly violent reaction to the book and movie. I find this disturbing coming from a servant of God, though it seems to be a historical pattern in most religions when they feel threatened.
Oh by the way, the book is plainly labeled as fiction.
In addition Pope Benedict has condemned geneticists who play at being God. He attacked what he calls the satanic mores of modern society, warning of an inane apologia of evil that is in danger of destroying humanity. Sounds more like fear of damage to the Church by Dan Brown’s earlier book Angels & Demons which deals with the conflict between religion and science.
In Washington about 50 prominent religious leaders including Catholic cardinals and archbishops have signed a petition is support of a constitutional amendment blocking same sex marriage. It just seems to me like another effort to revive the issue in time for the 2006 election.
Also from Early April comes a lawsuit by Christians at the Georgia Institute of Technology led by Ruth Malhotra say that their Christian faith compels them to speak out against homosexuality. The school bans speech that puts down others because of their sexual orientation. She could just go off campus and say whatever she wanted.
If I was trying to speak out against her religion in the same way that many Christians speak out against homosexuality or same sex marriage it would be considered a hate crime and I could be prosecuted.
I think that if any religious organization wants to dictate their views in the political arena they should be required to give up their tax free status and be classes as a Political Action Committee, which is what they are.
Trying to make it a crime to enter into a committed relationship no matter the orientation just shows how stupid people can be about anyone who is not just like them.
If we were all the same wouldn’t it be a boring world.
Or I could be full of shit.