I'm not "anti-Catholic". I'm just pointing out that this is a church, based upon the military structure of the Romans, that has a history of repression. That's ironic.
This continues with the virtual enslavement of 3rd World females to reproductive roles with a reprehensible policy on birth control. Most educated Catholics wink at the policy and ignore it. When a religion is central to a culture (like in Mexico) it is unconscionable to think that the Church has not changed its stance.
I feel that organized religion (Jewish, Muslim, Fundamentalist, mainstream Protestant, and Catholic) has a lot to answer for. They are not very tolerant and usually when they have taken extreme positions, they've been wrong. Oh, yeah, I forgot - they apologized. You happened to be Catholic. However, if you were Muslim, I'd have similar questions and rebukes for you, but on different topics, like the toleration of killing of raped women, or female "circumcision" (mutilation is a better name).
I think that Jefferson keeping slaves does lead on to wonder what kind of blindness allowed him to do this. You have to realize that while slave-holding was "normal" here, in most of Western Europe it wasn't. So, here we have an education, compassionate man who has a hole the size of a continent in his vision. |
