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	Ridiculous and Religulous: Another Catholic Sex Abuse Scandal and Bill Maher's Take on Religion By Mike Cowie Straight February 25, 2009 http://www.straight.com/article-203010/ridiculous-and-religulous-another-catholic-sex-abuse-scandal-and-bill-mahers-take-religion "Lighthouses are more helpful than churches." — Benjamin Franklin Yet another disturbing story involving sexual abuse in the Catholic Church has just come to light. This one is straight out of Southern India and includes all of the standard elements we've come to expect, such as the attempted coverup and a complete lack of compassion for the victims. According to the story in the British newspaper The Independent, a former nun named Sister Jesme has written a book detailing the illicit sex, habitual abuse, threats, downright cruelty, and outright rape that it seems is a regular part of life for a nun in the church, at least in that part of the world. A church spokesman has even admitted as much (read on). As usual, the allegations are not what's unbelievable about this story, as any thinking person should be able to imagine that this stuff is going on. I mean, seriously, the things she experienced and witnessed aren't really all that hard to imagine, are they? After all, a celibate life is not a natural human life, now is it? And it's certainly not a realistic life to expect anyone to follow, particularly not at a young age when the hormones are raging. It simply goes against human nature. I mean, when you tell a group of people to completely shut off a part of themselves as intrinsic as their sexual drive, it's just not going to happen. Well, at least not without perversion, abuse and rape as the unwanted—though wholly expected—by-product. So, yes, the abuse is obviously disturbing, but what makes this case truly shocking is the same thing that makes every Catholic sex abuse scandal shocking: The church's callous disregard for the victims' pain and suffering. Like the cops after a case of horrific police brutality, the military after the slaughter of innocents, or politicians after they've been caught red-handed in a scandal, the church's first response is to cover up and/or minimize the actual severity of the abuse that has taken place—and continues to take place. And this specific case is a classic example of that. Oh So Very Christ-Like This Sister Jesme woman, who resigned as the principal of a Catholic college just last year, claims convents have become "houses of torture". So, how exactly did the church respond to her accusations of rape and other horrific abuse? Well, for starters she claims that once she began to complain senior nuns tried to have her committed to a mental institution. Even more revealing, just last week a church spokesman named Dr. Paul Thelakkat came out and dismissed everything Sister Jesme had to say as nothing more than "trivialities". Yes, that's right, rape is but a mere "triviality". Check it out for yourself: A spokesman for the Syro-Malabar order of the Catholic Church, Dr Paul Thelakkat, dismissed Sister Jesme's allegations as a "book of trivialities". "It's her experiences, but these are things that might creep into a society of communal living," he said. Asked if the church would be shocked by the allegations, he replied: "Absolutely not. The church knows about these things." Such incredible compassion! So moving and touching—and oh so very Christ-like too. Seriously, folks, if that's the path to eternal salvation, I think I'll take some other route. Bill Maher's Religulous "The way to see by faith is to shut the eye of reason." — Benjamin Franklin On a much lighter note, but still on the topic of religion, let me just say that everyone should see Bill Maher's great new film Religulous, which just came out on DVD this past week. Even if they may not agree with his ultimate conclusions, I'm pretty sure that most people, including most moderate believers, would enjoy this comedic lampooning of religion and, specifically, fundamentalist nuts of every stripe. I would certainly hope that everyone, with the obvious exception of those whacked-out, irrationality lovin' fundamentalists, would feel at least some sort of affinity for Maher's passionate plea for a sane world based on rational thought, as opposed to one revolving around fear, superstition and a literal belief in some ancient set of fairy tales. Jews For Christ This film gives you all sorts of great characters to sit back and enjoy. You get the Jews For Christ. You get the ex-gays trying to save all the still-gays from their sinful ways. You get a peak at what Mormons and Scientologists actually believe. And you also get lots of other Jews, Muslims, and assorted crazy Christians too. And not to forget the guy, appropriately enough named Jesus, who claims to be the second coming of Christ. And then you also get, in complete contrast to all these rationality-challenged folks, a great interview right in front of the Vatican with a wonderful old Catholic priest who, like some sort of white Aaron Neville, tells it like it is and basically comes right out and states that all of the church's doctrine is just plain silly. Yes, it's got it all. Lots of laughs, lots of great characters, and all sorts of stuff to contemplate long after the film ends. So, go rent it today—unless that is you're worried that God might be angrily watching you as you watch the film about him angrily watching you. In that case, perhaps you should just get back to work trying to prove that the Earth is really only five to six thousand years old and that dinosaur fossils were simply put in the ground by God to test our faith. Such a noble, and truly human, endeavour that. Finally, on a side note, I'd strongly recommend watching all of the deleted and extended scenes in the DVD extras in order to see an extended version of the film as well as to meet even more incredible characters, including some awesome Raelians.
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