Recognizing Intolerance, The Easy Way.

Chances are, this has happened to you too: You start feeling slightly uncomfortable while listening to somebody, like there's something wrong with something they've just said, but somehow you can't quite put your finger on it.

Take, for example, Pope Francis' recent remarks on Homosexuality:

"The problem is not having this orientation, it is lobbying," he said. "That's the most serious problem I think.

"If someone is gay and seeks the Lord with good will, who am I to judge?"

That's great news, right? The Pope promoting tolerance of Gay people - perhaps there is actual change happening in the catholic church! Except, I can't seem to get rid of that funny feeling. Am I just prejudiced after years of criticizing the Pope? Have I become so used to the role of condemning everything the Pope says that I now feel the need to find something wrong with every statement he makes, even good ones? Am I being queasy for no reason here?

Well luckily, there's an easy way to test this. It works like this: Most of us have extremely well trained alarm-bells with regards to racism - It's just one of those things most of us have very little trouble spotting. So, to exploit that fact, all we need to do is to take the above statement, and change its content from gay vs straight to black vs white. While otherwise keeping the wording intact. The result looks something like this:

"The problem is not having black skin, it is lobbying," he said. "That's the most serious problem I think.

"If someone is black and seeks to act white with good will, who am I to judge?"

Suddenly, the reason for my uneasy feeling becomes very clear.

I highly recommend doing this every time somebody makes a public statement regarding any minority. Especially when what they're saying is designed to make them seem open-minded and tolerant. Gays, atheists, women - whatever they're talking about, just write down the exact statement and then replace the minority with "black". I promise, you'll be shocked what kind of statements you almost let people get away with.

The Cause of Church Pedophilia

Jokes about pedophile priests are probably as old as the church itself. It's always been an open secret that children are being molested in churches, even long before the giant wave of law-suits against abusive priests and nuns dragged the matter into the spotlight of public attention about a year ago.
I've written before about why exactly abuse is such a wide-spread phenomenon in the church, but one point in particular is worth being made again. While there was a huge outcry in the media about celibacy, and many demands that the custom be dropped, nobody ever seemed to wonder what other reasons there might be.
Nobody ever considered that the huge number of sexual deviants in the church might be a direct result of the churches' appearance.

However unpleasant it may be, please do try to put yourself in the shoes of an adolescent male who realizes that he gets turned on by children. Who realizes that, as he grows older, the age-gap only grows larger and larger. Consider this: It must be a painful process to realize you are part of a group that is despised by society unlike any other, that you are on your way to become one of those creepy strangers that Mommy always warned you about.

Pedophiles are tortured souls.
They know perfectly well that if they ever tell anybody about their urges, they’re socially doomed. They will instantly lose everything: Their job, their friends, their family, even if they haven’t even done anything wrong yet, even if their only crime so far were nothing but thoughts. Nobody will even pity them.
In such a situation, what possibilities are left to you? Suicide? Consulting a shrink? If people are your main problem, perhaps turning to personal help doesn't seem such a good idea.
So you turn to God.
It's the obvious choice: The church promises forgiveness for even the worst of ‘sins’, it promises acceptance, and most importantly: The custom of celibacy seems to promise that these are people who are in control of sexuality, who know how to defeat the urges that torture you. The church appears to be the panacea to these people, a solution to all their problems. The one way to live a benign life, to be left alone and not hurt anyone, perhaps even do good.
Devoting your life to god is not just the obvious, but for many also the only option.