THE RELIGIOUS EXEMPTION

Imagine if a new organization were formed to comment on the various political and social issues of the day.  Now imagine if that organization's founders openly declared that no woman would ever have any position of authority there.  Oh sure, women could join the group, play a role as secretaries and other minor positions, (and, of course, donations from women would be accepted), but every decision ever made by that group would be made by men and men only, from the top down.  And that this group of men would announce that any use of birth control is wrong, and that women's only choices in life are either celibacy or a marriage in which they will inevitably be constantly pregnant.

Now imagine if an educational organization that sent tutors to help out children in low achieving schools were rocked by scandals over some of those tutors being accused of molesting the children they were supposed to be helping. To make matters even worse, what if the administrators who ran the organization were aware of the accusations made against those tutors, and did nothing to investigate those accusations, even going so far as to send accused tutors from one school to another without a word about the allegations against them endangering innocent children.  Picture this going on for decades, with literally hundreds of pedophiles molesting thousands of children without punishment.

Now look at the Catholic Church, an organization that has done all of the above and more (the Inquisition, part of the church for centuries, tortured and killed thousands for the crime of heresy, but that was a long time ago, so I guess we're supposed to ignore that).  There is no way that any secular organization with a list of horrible behavior anywhere near the Catholic Church's could possibly survive.  Why do we give religious institutions such leeway?  Why are they allowed to openly discriminate and ignore crimes in a way no corporation could?

Religion is, quite simply, such a deep primal thing, something that has such a hold on so many people, that just turning away from it is almost unthinkable for them, no matter what. Many of the first artistic images created by ancient humans were religious in nature, and every civilization has created some kind of belief system in gods and/or goddesses, with some even willing to sacrifice their lives to a higher power.  That is how much strength religion has over people; it defines us to our very core.  And that especially goes for an institution like the Catholic Church, which has a history that goes back centuries and that has spread to every corner of the globe.  That's why it's entirely possible for someone to condemn the history of the Catholic Church, be sickened by the recent molestation scandal, completely disagree with the church's stance on birth control and abortion, and still attend church each week and drop money in the collection plate.  The good feeling that human beings have evolved to get from spiritual belief on a personal level, a feeling that is usually engrained in us as children, often beats the sick feeling one gets when viewing a church's history as a whole.  The logical part of our brain and the spiritual part do not often agree, which  can lead to such seemingly contradictory behavior. 

But there is a slow but steady drumbeat of people in first world countries moving away from religion.  Although the Catholic Church still stands at over a billion members worldwide, more and more people are responding "none of the above" when asked their religious affiliation in both the US and Europe.  And perhaps more pointedly, many members of a church are openly disagreeing with that church's teachings, like when the heavily Catholic country of Ireland voted in favor of gay marriage and abortion rights recently  Despite the grip religion can have a hold on people, scandals like the ones the Catholic Church is going through can take their toll.  Personally, I hope that these continuing scandals, along with the world's evolving views on women's rights and homosexuality, lead institutions like the Catholic Church to start changing their views or fading slowly away. I for one won't miss them.