Commercial Religion

The other day I was thinking that the Catholic church really parallels a publicly traded company (stock symbol: GLT?) with a board of (men only) directors (Vatican) and an executive CEO (Pope). And the shareholders are those congregants who have bought into the dogma, hoping for a stock split into an elitist idea of heaven.

If you've ever owned stock in a company or had an account with a broker, you've probably received in the mail privacy policies and forms to nominate new board members. Unfortunately, democracy does not exist in a papacy...but commercialism does, and the cost of the commercials are passed onto the shareholders despite what they think.

Recently TV commercials have been aired calling to the public as the church attempts to increase market share. The website of the "media firm" responsible for the marketing: CatholicsComeHome.org

I'm not entirely sure where God fits into this marketing. They seem to really focus on giving those who have left the church the thumbs up to "come back to the family". Ya know, the dysfunctional one that screwed them up in the first place.

I'm not sure how well this will work out for the church's business plan, but I'm sure their accountants are watching the books and their stock closely.

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I'm not even going to mention the comments that Pat Robertson, a faux Christian, said about Haiti and their alleged "pact with Satan", resulting in the recent earthquake which he insinuates they deserved. He is a ridiculous antiChrist asshole.

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The other item I wanted to mention today was in this article. Apparently, Pope John Paul II had been whipping himself (a la Opus Dei?) as well as sleeping on the floor and depriving himself of food to the extreme during Lent to try and attain "Christian perfection". Hmm. I am pretty sure NO ONE (meaning no human) can attain Christian perfection (or any perfection) unless Christ grants it. It is not something attained so much as it is something given as a gift, just as one does not have the ability to save their own soul through belief. Jesus did that for us by dying on the cross. If people are able to save themselves through belief, then God's only son, Jesus, dying on the cross was not 100% successful as it did not save *the world* from its sins as stated in the Bible. Also, you are supposed to love your neighbor as yourself. Was Pope John Paul II whipping his neighbors, too? Also, Lent is not in the Bible, Jesus and Lent are totally different. It was a man-made season the Church came up with to help spur the economy of yore. Look it up.

Also in this article it is stated:

"The Vatican must now confirm that a miracle attributed to John Paul's intercession occurred in order for him to be beatified - a step which many Vatican watchers have suggested may come as early as October."

Wait. So they can SCHEDULE "miracles" to occur in order to canonize someone? Am I reading this wrong? And how, exactly, do they define a miracle? The convenience that Pope Benedict is moving Pope John Paul up on the beatification ladder is a bold move for the head of the board of directors. Maybe Pope Benedict is bullish on the market; maybe the miracle will occur if their valuation soars from their marketing efforts and they see their stock rise.

Sigh. Where is God's place here? God's message to love one another is lost in 2 minute Catholic Churchianity TV ads. It is simply spreading the message of business. Cha-ching!

Too Judgey

2010 is here and I'm grateful to see it. Happy New Year, everyone! And, we're off...

All I can do is shake my head at this pundit. Is someone this irrational honestly taken seriously? Really? How do they not get sacked by their network after making this type of statement? Oh, I forgot, it is on Fox News. They never fail to disappoint the rest of us. Tsk, tsk. And I'm in a graduate class right now that covers the very idea of media reporters NOT sticking to the news and issues, but rather continue to market their own station/show. STICK WITH THE NEWS.

Yes, Mr. Hume, show the world that you will use Tiger Woods' failing to make yourself appear so high and mighty...and "judgey". Sell your show. SELL IT! Just like you try to sell the Christian faith here. Because Christian husbands don't cheat on their wives...and if they do they are immediately or more easily forgiven than cheating Buddhist husbands. And because switching faiths is as easy as switching cable stations.

HUME-TO-TIGER ADVICE FAIL.


This video is from Fox's Fox News Sunday, broadcast Jan. 3, 2010.

Buddhism is inferior to Christianity when it comes to forgiveness of sins, according to Fox News pundit Brit Hume. Tiger Woods should turn his back on Buddhism and become a Christian to be forgiven for cheating on his wife, Hume told Fox News' Chris Wallace Sunday.

"The extent to which he can recover seems to me depends on his faith," said Hume. "He is said to be a Buddhist. I don't think that faith offers the kind of redemption and forgiveness offered by the Christian faith. My message to Tiger is, 'Tiger turn to the Christian faith and you can make a total recovery and be a great example to the world."

Woods is the most famous among several American celebrity Buddhists. Richard Gere, Herbie Hancock, Steven Seagal, Leonard Cohen, Tina Turner and Orlando Bloom were recently called the most famous Buddhists in the world. The list goes so far as to argue Tiger Woods is more famous than the Dalai Lama himself.

Hume's statements are particularly ironic given the recent sex scandals encountered by an assortment of Christian politicians.

Two noted journalists criticized Hume's remarks.

At his Daily Dish blog, The Atlantic's Andrew Sullivan wrote, "The pure sectarianism of this comment - its adoption of the once-secular stage of political journalism to insert a call for apostasy - is striking. It even seemed to catch Bill Kristol off-guard a little." MSNBC anchor David Shuster left a number of Tweets at his Twitter account.
Agreed... it was inappropriate
I respect everybody's faith, different from mine or not. But don't use a Sunday news show to preach your faith. Analyze the news.

In the interest of fairness, that sunday show should make time for a member of Bhuddism given Brit's criticism of that religion.

Think Progress also notes, "Hume’s colleagues on the Fox Business network decided to do a little digging into his claims. The Don Imus show crew reported that Hume doesn’t quite have his facts straight on Buddhism."

According to Imus, "Well, we checked this morning and unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately if you are a Buddhist, there is a path to recovery and redemption. Right? Well yes there is. The idea of redemption — nirvana under Buddhism — is achieving the state of being freed from greed, hate, and delusion."

Think Progress adds, Imus’ co-host Charles McCord tried to defend Hume by arguing that he was merely stating that Buddhism didn’t offer “the kind of path to redemption”; rather, it’s a different path. Imus responded, “But wouldn’t one infer from what he said…is that there was no path to redemption?” “You could,” agreed McCord.