Author: Ophelia Benson

  • Magdalenes Should Get Compensation Too

    The church should compensate all the people whose lives it wrecked. That’s a lot of people.

  • TES Says How Great Steiner Schools Are

    Yes, anthroposophy seems a bit odd, but not to worry, because.

  • Holfordwatch on Steinerism and Bad Science

    Relying on bad science to justify educational choices is a truly sorry situation.

  • Uganda Bans Female Genital Mutilation

    About three million women and girls undergo FGM globally every year; nearly 140 million already have.

  • Ugandan MP Alice Alaso Welcomes FGM Ban

    ‘It’s a very bad practice. It’s cruel, it traumatises people, it’s led children to drop out of school.’

  • Jesus and Mo and the Bloody New Atheists

    Always asking how we know what we claim to know – it’s so obnoxious.

  • Jesus and Mo Want Tolerance

    And the barmaid to cover up.

  • Victims Left Cold by Pope’s Statement

    ‘No one has taken responsibility for what went on in Dublin. There is no accountability.’

  • 16 Organizations Rebuke Yale Over Motoons

    ACLU and others sign statement chastising Yale for not including the cartoons in Jytte Klausen’s book.

  • Sense and Nonsense About ‘Evil’ and ‘Rationality’

    On the peculiar form of naïve rationalism that currently labels itself the ‘rational actor’ approach.

  • Accountability

    The victims of the Catholic church also see the pope’s eyewash as self-serving and beside the point – and above all as a gross evasion of accountability.

    Marie Collins, who was abused in 1960 by a priest when she was a patient at Our Lady’s Hospital for Sick Children…pointed out the statement “doesn’t deal with the past. No one has taken responsibility for what went on in Dublin. There is no accountability.”…Andrew Madden, who was abused by Ivan Payne when he was an altar boy in Dublin’s Cabra parish…[said it was] “self-serving nonsense”…and he for one, as a survivor, hadn’t asked for prayers. “And they say they listen to survivors?” The statement was “an attempt to deflect attention away from accountability”.

    That’s certainly how it looks to me. There is something more than a little sickening about the head of an organization responding to a report of that organization’s long-term systematic protection of abusive employees by making a big fuss about his own emotions while completely failing, not to say refusing, to take any real responsibility. It’s as if the pope thinks that all he has to do is make a display of his own appropriate feelings when really his feelings are entirely beside the point; what is wanted is accountability, and the feelings of one guy are no good as a substitute.

    Both he and Ms Collins said what was necessary now was for the five sitting bishops named in the Murphy report to resign. “All bishops in place over the period investigated by the commission should step down,” said Ms Collins. “They are collectively responsible for what went on in the diocese. It all happened on their watch. They must take responsibility.”…Andrew Madden dismissed the pope’s intention of writing a pastoral letter to the Irish people with a “big deal!” comment. He too felt the five serving bishops named in the Murphy report must resign. They had been “responsible for covering up for paedophiles,” he said, and should “go, go, go”.

    See? Emoting is no good, showy apologizing is no good, talk of prayers and pastoral letters is no good. They have to take responsibility – and, remarkably, they’re not doing it.

    One in Four chief executive Maeve Lewis said she was “deeply disappointed” at the pope’s statement. “His reaction is wholly inadequate…We had hoped that the pope might apologise for the culture of secrecy and cover-up by Catholic Church authorities documented by the report and that he might accept responsibility for his role in the creation of that culture,” she said. His response echoed “that of the Irish bishops in attempting to focus blame for the destruction of countless lives on individual sex-offending priests rather than accepting accountability for the role of the Catholic Church authorities in recklessly endangering children,” she said.

    It’s not just a few individual bad apples, it’s the institution. It will be a chilly day in hell before the pontiff admits that.

  • Diddums

    Really. Really. There is a limit.

    After meeting Ireland’s most senior Catholic clerics in Rome, Pope Benedict said he shared the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in the country.

    Don’t insult us. Don’t insult everyone over the age of two. Don’t insult the victims of your horrible tyrannical authoritarian unaccountable church. Don’t talk self-serving self-flattering nonsense. Don’t pretend you’re all shocked and upset and distraught now when this crap has been going on for decades upon decades! Don’t pretend you’ve only just found out about it. Come on, Ben – you know we know that’s ridiculous – so don’t insult us.

    The Vatican said ‘the Holy Father was deeply disturbed and distressed.’ Well poor baby, but why was he not deeply disturbed and distressed before? Why did he not give a rat’s ass while the report was in progress and the Vatican ignored all its questions? To say nothing of while the abuse and the cover-up of the abuse and the perpetuation of the abuse via refusal to do anything about it, were going on? Why is his distress so god damn late? Why is he bothering to do a Bernie Madoff, pretending to be all sorry and repentant after it is no longer possible to conceal and deny and hide?

    ”He wishes once more to express his profound regret at the actions of some members of the clergy who have betrayed their solemn promises to God, as well as the trust placed in them by the victims and their families, and by society at large.” The Vatican said the Holy Father shared the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland, and that he was united with them in prayer at this difficult time in the life of the Church.

    No he doesn’t! [jumps up and down in fury until the windows rattle] He doesn’t, he doesn’t, he doesn’t! It’s all soothing oil, it’s all sleazy self-exculpation. He does not share the outrage, betrayal and shame felt by so many of the faithful in Ireland because he and his Vatican are what the outrage, betrayal and shame are all about. He doesn’t get to make himself another subject; he’s the object. He’s not one of the victims, he’s the top perpetrator. He has an unbelievable gall claiming to feel all this sorrowful emotion when he is the head of an institution that did everything it could to protect itself and did nothing to protect children who were assaulted by its priests. He shouldn’t be talking eyewash about his emotions, he should be saying the Vatican behaved like a criminal organization. He should resign. They should all resign. They should fold up their tents and go do something useful.

    And knock off the ‘Holy Father’ crap, too. With a father like that, who needs enemies?

  • Pope ‘Distressed’ by Irish Child Abuse Report

    Now that it’s all been public, he expresses ‘his profound regret.’ Too late, diddums.

  • Greta Christina on the Atheist Ladies’ Auxiliary

    Women don’t want to argue about what’s true, we just want to get along. Not.

  • Religion and Jurisprudence

    Six of the nine Supreme Court justices are Catholics, but it’s impermissible to talk about that.

  • Spain: Men Planned to Stone a Woman to Death

    Nine men kidnapped a woman, held her prisoner, and sentenced her to death by stoning for ‘adultery.’

  • The Many Ways Africans are Dying

    The Nigerian author, Ben Okri in his book, A Way of Being Free, said, “There are many ways to die, and not all of them have to do with extinction. A lot of them have to do with living. Living many lies. Living without asking questions. Living in the cave of your own prejudices. Living the life imposed on you, the dreams and codes of your ancestors.” I quite agree with him. The author did not make specific reference to any nation, race or continent. But any time I read this piece, it seems to me as if he is addressing Africans. Because I think Africans are dying in so many ways, in ways that many of them do not know. And some of them who know, do not care. Or they think that the situation is too bad to make a change.

    Africans are dying but have not gone into extinction, and may not in the foreseeable future. So Africans are dying while they are living. Sounds like a contradiction? No, not at all. As Ben Okri said, dying in this case has to do with living. Africans are dying because Africans are living many lies. Africans are living without asking questions. Africans are living in the cave of their own prejudices. Africans are living the life imposed on them by others. I would like to explain this further.

    Africans are dying because most people in Africa are living false lives. People are afraid of being themselves, of living their own lives, and of asserting their own uniqueness and originality. Many people are living under illusions and deceptions. The real tragedy is that over the years, these lies and illusions have been institutionalized and normalized to the extent that no one dares change them or challenge them. They have become a way of life. Many people are unwilling to tell the truths, face the truths and live the truths about themselves. Since Independence, most countries in Africa have not made significant progress because Africans have been living in the paradise of lies – lies about why they fought for independence and opposed colonial rule; lies about why they want democracy and self-government. African economies have been in tatters because Africans and their leaders have been living many lies about their ability to manage their resources and about whom to hold responsible – erstwhile colonalists or our homegrown dictators and inept politicians – for the mismanagement and underdevelopment in the region.

    Africans are dying because most people have refused to ask questions about themselves, about the policies, programs, institutions, and ideologies that guide and govern their lives. Many people in Africa have refrained from critically examining their cultures, religions and traditions even when there is an obvious need for critical evaluation and revision. Instead, people prefer holding onto already made answers and solutions, even when these answers no longer answer their questions. And these solutions no longer solve their problems. Many Africans are afraid of asking questions because they think when they do so, they will die or they will lose the little privillege they enjoy – not knowing that the real death or loss is in not asking questions, in swallowing everything hook, line and sinker. So Africans are dying because in most communities virtue lies not in critical inquiry or exmained life but in a life of dogma, blind faith and conformism.

    Africans are dying because, over the years, the people have transformed the continent into a cave of prejudices and misconceptions. And these include prejudices about themselves and others. Prejudices about what they have and want and what others have and want. Prejudices about anybody or anything new or different, any lifestyle new or different from what they know and what they are used to. Africans continue to judge themsevles using the biases and misjudgement of those who do not see anything good or noble in them, or those who are out to exploit them. Africans are dying because their prejudices cannot allow them to think and to reason clearly. Their biases cannot allow them to know their value and understand the worth of what they have and how to relate what they have and what they want with what others have and want. Prejudices cannot allow Africans to harness their talents and fully realize their potentials and promises. Instead the continent continues to waste most of its talents, and fritter away the little resources they have And these are resources they lay claim to as a result of the value placed on them by those who want the resources, not by those who own them.

    Africans are dying because most people are not living their own lives. People are living others’ lives, alien lives and fake lives. Africans are living lives imposed on them by their fathers and forefathers. Many people do not strive to realize their own dreams, but those of their ancestors. Hence Africa is mired in the past. People look back to the ancient days with nostagia and to the future with despair. People oppose any initiative that will mark a radical departure from the past. They denounce any dream that is not in line with the dream of our ancestors. Africans are dying because they are living lives imposed on them by prophets, imams, gurus and marabus, pastors, bishops, sheikhs and sangomas; lives sanctioned and sanctified by outdated holy books particularly the Bible and the Koran.

    Africans are dying due to lack of foresight, insight and thoughtfulness.

    Leo Igwe is is Executive Secretary of the Nigerian Humanist Movement.

  • Women Challenge Irish Abortion Ban in Court

    Lawyers argue that the ban breaches several articles of the European convention on human rights.

  • See-no-evil Piety Controls the Abortion Debate

    By making women fearful to open their mouths, the anti-abortionists have won already.

  • Are We Better Off Without Religion?

    Gregory Paul’s research suggests that popular religious belief is caused by dysfunctional social conditions.