TheHermit wrote:
<snip letter> [in effect, "get bent"]
You know, I was going to comment on the Pope's visit to St. Louis. I meant to ask, why does anyone actually listen to this old fool?
I must admit, I am biased. For years, I have nursed a perverse and irrational hatred for the man, who I don't even personally know. I can't help but despise him anyway. It could be what he represents and his following that detest me so much, but no- truthfully, I really just loathe *him*. This reason may be silly, but I think it has something to do with when I was having a period of recurring nightmares about the Pope. In one odd but not entirely far-fetched dream, it was sometime in the distant future, and he had become a widespread Pop Culture Star. He was on a stage, dressed in his traditional snow-white ensemble and beanie cap, crooning into a microphone. He was singing some sort of terrible Lounge Act, kind of like "Tiny Bubbles", and the crowd of teenagers was LOVING every second of it. Suddenly, the youth of the world loved and idolized him, much in the same way certain rock/movie stars are. This *is* my worst nightmare. Out with anyone different and in with organized religion and horrible, Vatican-sanctioned music! Oh no! In this future, the general population had become one homogenous, brainwashed, blonde-haired-blue-eyed mass, waiting with bated breath for his every command, which included the prohibition of "rock music" and anything remotely Goth/Satanic(1). Considering his message and his current adoration , this isn't completely out of the range of possiblity.
It also bothers me that one man alone is so worshipped and seen as holy, when there are so many other people that are far more deserving of being publicly admired for their actions and words. The Pope should not be celebrated as being more 'sacred' and 'holy' than the rest of us, merely because he's in a high religious position. In fact, I think it's downright sick.
And so, every so often Pope John Paul II comes to America to get his ass kissed by numerous Catholics and political figures, and the press makes a big fuss about it. What a bore, I say. It's always the same old message he has: "Abortions are evil, so is birth control, as are most young people, don't fornicate, say no to drugs and alcohol, obey God, eat your vegetables, and oh yeah, I promote World Peace."
This anti-abortion preaching is really rich, especially coming from someone who lost the ability to impregnate or copulate sometime last century. For all we know, the Pope has a fine collection of internal organs nestled in Mason jars which are sitting on a shelf in his wonderful palace in Vatican City, Italy, however he certainly does not possess *my* uterus or the right to control it. The thought offends me, considering that I have *no* part in his religion, yet he wants to dictate the laws/legislature in a country that's not even his own, and where I live.
In my opinion, this man is a fraud, a fool, and an arachic, old ornament that serves no real purpose except as a wrinkled, white-robed figurehead for the Catholic Church. I bet he would make a better egg beater than a religious, spiritual leader. Every so often he feeds the public these empty, predictable speeches about how righteous and "good" him and his morality are, and we're supposed to gobble them up like the devoted simpletons most of his worshippers are. Why should we give honor to an insititution that is so obviously behind modern times that it is ridiculous? It took the Vatican something like 559 years to offically "recognize" that Man is not the center of the universe, and the Earth does indeed revolve around the Sun. According to this, it should be sometime after the year 3000 when they admit that homosexuality is OK. Would you want these people running your schools- or even bagging your groceries?
Pope John Paul II just fiercely tweaks something inside me. That's all I have to say.
~kjs
(1) I don't consider myself remotely Goth, however a judgmental person who does not know me and encounters me on the street would probably think so. The thought of purple/magenta hair and dark velvet being outlawed frightens me.