The recent decision by a majority of voters in Ireland to support the inclusion of marriage-equality in our constitution continues to echo around the world, particularly amongst dismayed Christian fundamentalists in the United States. The positive outcome in the referendum is viewed by many in that quarter as a defeat in the alleged – and presumably global – “cultural war” being waged against their faith by an alliance of “secularists” and “sodomites”. However, while I can understand the religious literalism that makes some Catholics and Protestants object to homosexuality (while blithely ignoring other, more inconvenient, biblical restrictions), I find it difficult to comprehend the antipathy to women, and to mothers in particular, that so many have embraced in recent years. There seems to be a deep-sowed distrust of the “female”, whether biological or spiritual, that is positively Medieval in form amongst an increasing body of contemporary Christian “thinkers”.
Note this critical analysis on the changes in the Roman Catholic Church by R.T. Neary, chief of the “Pro-Life Massachusetts” group, writing for the conservative website Renew America:
“Seminaries were over-flowing, but few Catholics were willing to point out a feminization which had started to take place in the clergy. Rock-ribbed pastors were becoming less evident, and the sermons, now homilies, became more folksy. Stories about the influence of a priest’s mother on him became more common. Mention of the influence of his father was a rarity.”
So are mothers now viewed as a dangerous and debilitating threat to Christians of the extreme right? Is this a revival of the long-gone days when all women were marked as the daughters of Eve, untrustworthy and corrupting, in contrast to the Christ-like sons of Adam? However the reasoning of Neary is about to get worse – far worse – as he explains away the last decade of child-abuse scandals in the RC Church, particularly as it relates to the city Boston.
“In reality, a small but very influential element of homosexually-oriented men had moved up in the ranks and ultimately formed a powerful cadre. It was not too difficult for them to recognize each other. They became a powerful, sub-surface force, ultimately controlling the 2nd level of the hierarchy in the Archdiocese of Boston. They gradually became more daring and many of them predatory.
After the so-called “clerical abuse scandal” was exposed in 2002 in the Boston area, it became evident that homosexual priests were creating problems in many dioceses in the country.
Despite the media’s determined commitment to label it differently, homosexuality – not paedophilia – was the nature of this cancer. It metastasised – and eventually became widespread.
Had the scandal been correctly labelled for what it was “a homosexual predator priest scandal” – ephebophilia, for those who understood its meaning – that would have been journalism.”
How about alethephobia, for those who understand the neologism? The fear of hearing the truth, which some individuals seem to regard as a virtue not a curse. Particularly paranoid and self-deluding religious fundamentalists of any ilk.
AN SIONNACH FIONN 
Homosexuality is hard-wired pre-birth. If one must blame, blame nature, not nurture. Some two or three percent of the population are homosexual; why not just live and let live?
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I quite agree, Chris. In a sense homosexuality is as natural as heterosexuality. It’s been around as long as homo sapiens sapiens have been around and over the course of 200,000 years it has done us no harm.
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In most of my life,especially during a varied nursing career i have tried to regard others especially patients seeking help or in my care as a human.The single common thing that we all share is our humanity.Unfortunately very many of us humans ( including many smart,kind ,intelligent,enlightened ,caring.and influential people) are incapable of perceiving their fellow humans on this common ground
Acknowledging that unacceptable behaviour ranging from abusive language and physical assault to murder needs to be addressed.we do need to remind ourselves that THE GOOD, THE BAD ,AND THE UGLY are the same as ourselves in one respect. (sounding preachy and righteous but i like to think of it as sort of meandering philosophical reflection ).We all entered this world in our basest form,,i.e. naked blind,scared,hungry and cold even though we were n”t aware of it and sounding and looking scary and ( except to our parents ) grossly unattractive..We are all at our most vulnerable the moment we are born and need total care to help us grow and develop in to thinking independent human beings
.A facility caring for drug addicts was my longest post
Caring for people who are rude, display prejudice towards others who have told me sometimes without remorse about the horrific things they did to others including murder and rape seemed to most people an less than rewarding.Amazingly i found the experience of helping someone who was reviled by much of society t and often regarded themselves as sub human to be personally enriching.The fact that i was often a first link in their return to humanity helped.A few things that made it difficult aside from limited resources were the thinly veiled prejudices of other healthcare professionals and strangely enough the hatred and prejudices the patients displayed towards each other , It seemed that badmouthing your own kind was a way of exonerating themselves
Getting to a point beyond the eighteenth century philosophy I always question the righteous and ask what is making someone say vile things about other humans while trying to hide it under a veil of “protecting the integrity ” of an organisation or institution
Mothers who are cited as being the seed of issues with problem” offspring “especially if they are single get credited with the “want” in the child,,This WANT is often plain old help with the workload that some two parent families take for guaranteed but even in two parent and economicly comfortable families there are situations where problems are dealt with by Mammy and when anyone is referring to Denis the Menace ,he is “”that problem young fella of MARYS ” Statements of this kind are often made by someone who is deluding themselves.
In writings on belief and practises in war time contact with wives was considered bad for moral,but was acceptable for them to have contact with prostitutes( near the front in WW1 sometimes) and practise but not really policy to have nurses in dangerous settings when it suited Time spent treating STDs in wartime up to then was more than the military would want to admit but at least by WW2 massive campaigns with the theme of” health for victory ” were launched evolving eventually into the NHS in post war Britain ,Today women in the army of an country are soldiers whatever task the army employs them to perform
To the patient person or one who has nt had the experience of my longwinded contributions THANK YOU
I cant say “in summarising”but i think that a big problem for today”s Catholic church, (this being clergy and congregation ) worldwide is the huge delusion that celibacy for the clergy has much merit Many with a wish to work in a pastoral capacity are just not going take that career path without a partner,An Irish Catholic bishop expressed this in a book published on retirement
ALETHEPHOBIA seems to have wide -ranging meanings but the description above i have come aross
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Thanks for those thoughts, Eileen. What puzzles me in relation to marriage equality is one set of opponents claiming that it will undermine the role/primacy of mothers, etc. while another set of opponents claim that mothers and “feminisation” is the root of all homosexual evil. That is some seriously old school rabbinical thinking. Ironically the kind that many Jewish or Islamic fundamentalists would find quite palatable.
What the world needs now, if I may venture, is more mothers knocking some good sense into their sons! 😉
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Yeah
, and with only two examples to crow about it’s still amazes me that some people think that the only way to do that is physically knocking something! Without letting your child come to harm , letting them arrive at a discovery ( under parents guidance) is often effective. You know that the job was well done when they start te
lling you to put on yor seat belt and how to drive carefully etc
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Throughout history the RCC has castigated women as though we are the enemy within whereas in reality, the rot was established many many moons ago. The whole edifice is rotten with putrid corruption.
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