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tsatske -> RE: Playboy's nude Virgin Mary (12/16/2008 8:34:24 AM)
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regardless of what the essay in the link says, there are, and should be, virtually no limits on important freedoms such as speech and press. That a magazine chooses such a photo spread is not an issue for me - that is a free market issue. If someone forced me to look at it, I might have an issue with it. otherwise - I see no problem.
I do have a problem with the officially sanctioned American Bigotries, however. The Catholic church has bad history - so does every church, btw. Some of the atrocities come from times when it was virtually the only church and was simultaneously the government. Government, as an institution, has bad history too, but, while a few Anarchists exist as social theorists, they somehow aren't in the majority. America has a horrible history of atrocities done in our name, some being done now. And while many of you will speak out against such things, we remain, for the most part, patriots.
Why is it okay to show blatant bigotry to certain groups in the US - while screaming against bigotry? 'because those groups are bigoted' is an ass-backwards answer - and sometimes requires the careful rewriting of history to point out only the points that support your position, while ignoring others.
Catholics have a healthier attitude towards sex than many protestant fundies. (and Protestant fundies are, btw, another group that liberals, who decry all bigotry, feel licensed to express bigotry towards.) As far as Catholic Bigotry, yes, there has certainly been a goodly amount of it in their history. But, did none of you have to read 'Black like Me' in school? During the civil rights movement, while many Protestant churches joined 'White Leaders' organizations and other white power groups, Blacks everywhere knew they could turn to the Catholic church for help and support. Pre-antebellum, though there were Catholic slave owners, many Catholics released their slaves or refused to own. The Catholic church held the idea that Blacks were human, and entitled to be churched. The result, 100 years later, is a large Black Catholic population
My beloved sister's fundie church is a place more filled with love than many fundie churches, but I still hold many issues with it. One is their insistent refusal to preform 'Infant Baptism', which is simply a rite of dedication, (though a sacrament), but, while using baptism as the rite of Adult decision, they will dunk 5 year olds. 5 year olds who do have 'unsaved' parents. 'Hinder not the children', they quote, when i take issue with the practice. The Catholic church will not allow children who were not raised Catholic to convert, without parental permission, until they reach the age of Majority. That means children raised in Catholic orphanages (world wide some of the best orphanages around, competing with the likes of the Masonic orphanages), though given a Catholic education, can not make a decision for the church until they turn 18.
It is not without merit to call such bigotry racist. You notice that the mag was published in Mexico? that they use the Virgin of Guadalupe, the patron saint of Mexico - and one of the few appertains or representations of any member of the holy family or holy trinity as clearly non-white? Why not use the virgin of Medjogoria and publish in Europe or the US? Racism is Racism, and as long as we have 'sanctioned' Bigotries, Racism will hide in their cloaks.
No, I don't sanction any legal action against such a spread. If the model is cute, I might buy the magazine. My own religious and spiritual beliefs holds irreverence as a holy thing, for me, at least. However, I don't use that as an excuse to directly attack others, and it is particularly bothersome to me when such attacks are defended and upheld as a right and moral thing to do, because they are one of the officially sanctioned scapegoats of our society.
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