World Youth Day - Yay! (or NAY)

World Youth Day starts today here in Sydney and goes until Sunday July 20. That's ONE BLOODY LONG DAY!

As The Frenchman texted from the streets of Sydney the other day "Sydney is hell: Christians everywhere!"

And to top it off The Pope is here to spread more misinformation to the ignorant masses. I'm afraid anyone who still condemns the use of condoms in a world where HIV is rife (especially Africa where the church has a strong hold) is in my eyes murderous and cannot be considered fit for the role as a leader of any kind. His homophobia and reluctance to deal with issues of sexual abuse by priests is just mouldy icing on an already rotten cake. 

Why do people let men like this lead them? Why do they have such high office and why do people still listen to them? 

I just don't understand.

At least one local priest is willing to object (click here for article) - why is he so in the minority?

Accordingly we have decided to add a new 4 letter word to our list of swear words, POPE. Use it anywhere you might otherwise use any other 4 letter word and put it in it's rightful place. 

What the pope? you say. 

Give me a popeing condom, I don't give a pope what the Vatican says. 

Happy Youth Day.

If you're still in Sydney - it's too late to get out. 

if this is religion...

Maybe I should rethink... take a look at the new mormon's cute misionsary men calendar!

The Dark Side

Oh my God! What the hell?

The last time I went to church on a Sunday morning - I was 23. While looking up at the sunlight streaming in through the high windows, trying to stay awake through a sermon that really awoke nothing within me, I was wondering what the hell I was doing there. Worse still, my friends were playing beach volleyball just a km or two down the road.

I wasn't out - I didn't want to be gay - but was figuring quite rapidly that it wasn't really a decision for me to make. I still recall one family friend standing up in church making some scared plea to vote for the christian democrat party in the coming state elections to stop the passing of some pro-gay law (which was really more pro equality). I remember thinking then and there - this really isn't the place for me. I'd waited long enough to have that sensation that I needed to be baptised, that I had the faith - (yes it was a Baptist church) - and figured it was time to look to the dark side... all the good Christians seemed to have been to the dark side and come back with extra fervor.

So one Sunday I just went to beach volleyball instead. I never looked back. Sand between my toes, sun on my skin, and the ocean in my sights, I had never felt so free, liberated in all my life! I probably became more spiritual after leaving the church than I ever had been while attending. And no one ever asked me directly about my disappearance... not even my parents. I was shocked at how easy it was to just not go back. And I had my weekends back! No more Sundays wasted! Quality of Life just got a promotion. The dark side was looking quite bright! But it wasn't just freedom to be at the beach or wherever I chose, it was freedom from having to believe something that didn't feel right, or think in a prescribed manner. The ability to explore my own path, in my own way.

I've been back to church from time to time - but just for weddings and christenings and the like. It feels foreign to me each time now - it feels like going back to primary school - you recognise it - and feel familiar with it - but you just don't fit in there any more. And usually when I'm there I wonder at the reason for the persisting religious intolerance to gay people, and the true lack of compassion which I felt was an essential Christian value... And why is it that people will much more readily just gloss past the issue rather than address it. Perhaps it is easier to live a life of faith rather than question things that seem, at least to me, so obviously flawed.

Life without religion, for me, is fantastic.

The dark side now seems to be labelled with a cross.