I thought this was a joke at first but apparently not:
WESTMINSTER, UK, August 15, 2008 (LifeSiteNews.com) – A priest of Westminster, the leading diocese of the Catholic Church of England and Wales, has written that promiscuity, whether homosexual or heterosexual, can lead to dire spiritual consequences, in addition to the dangers to physical health.
Promiscuity, as well as homosexuality and pornography, says 73 year-old Fr. Jeremy Davies, is a form of sexual perversion and can lead to demonic possession. Offering what may be an explanation for the explosion of homosexuality in recent years, Fr. Davies said, “Among the causes of homosexuality is a contagious demonic factor.”
I grew up Catholic. Most priests I met were either not really there, just going through the motions–stuck in a role/job they didn’t like but with no idea how to escape–or very reasonable human beings with a practical and engaging mindset. (See for example the second of these two video readings from my memoir, And Now We Are Going to Have a Party.) I had the whole Catholic experience, including convent school, and never encountered a wingnut like this. Wow. The nuttiness is almost awe-inspiring. Except, of course, if left unchallenged it can lead to things like the Spanish Inquisition and witch burnings. I seriously hope Westminster sends this lunatic to a comfy and secure retirement home where he can mumble his muffin quietly in the corner and the nuns make sure he takes his meds.
While you’re reading the article, listen to “Antiworld” by Nina Hagen, from 1982’s Nunsexmonkrock:
Nicola Griffith 
Oh, nutjobs like this make people in my family even more rabid. I agree that he needs retirement. Now.
The article was mind boggling but what is even more frightening is the website. The principles listed and I quote “LifeSiteNews.com attempts to dispel confusion and ignorance, enable constructive dialogue and help informed decisions to be made and appropriate actions to be taken for the good of all.” Really. By the way, thanks for the Nina Hagen song, I haven’t heard that in years.
janine, yes, but people like that *like* others to get more rabid. Today, though, I’m feeling optimistic, thinking that in two generations there won’t be anyone like this left.rory, I couldn’t bear to go look at the website. As for Nina Hagen, stayed tuned this afternoon for me. (Love her stuff, love it. Kelley rolls her eyes and says, “Hah, she barks like a *dog*!” which is, of course, true, but…)
This is very frightening to me, only because i would like to think this type of thinking has been long gone. While the internet is great for spreading knowledge and combatting ignorance, it’s also a forum for these crazies. You’ll notice that these sites never have open comments available.
I’m sorry you find this frightening. I was appalled back in 2003 (? I forget the exact date) when the Vatican announced a new training course for exorcism. But religion is essentially irrational, so I don’t know why I expected 21st C Catholicism to be more sensible. Yes, wingnuts close their comments because they *know* they’re right. They have no interest in discussion. And, honestly, why would any sane person want to debate this crap, anyway?
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Oh, I have encountered even nuttier people. But then, I had a bigger pool to draw from (statistics say 74%-89% of Mexico’s population is Roman Catholic). Thanks for throwing in phrases like “mumble his muffin quietly in the corner”. They’ll keep me laughing even if I have nightmares.I like < HREF="http://www.krishnamurtiaustralia.org/articles/bohm_introduction.htm" REL="nofollow">Jiddu Krishnamurti<>. He was a very lucid man. He said things like, <>“Our gods have really no meaning at all, and religion has become merely a series of beliefs and rituals without significance. Their influence is conditioning, like any other organized influence, whether it be the communist, Christian, or the Hindu. The influence of dogma, belief, ritual, is tyrannical, limiting because it conditions and therefore makes the mind small, petty. Being confronted by immense problems, we are meeting them with our conditioned minds, and so we make these vast problems stupid and petty, thereby increasing the problems.”<>
I used to like Krishnamurti too, and I still want to read more of his work. But then I read a book-length dialogue between him and David Bohm, and it was sheer wackiness from beginning to end, and not in a fun way. I blame it on Bohm; Krishnamurti usually makes more sense.Nicola, I agree that religion is irrational, but so is everything else. Rationality floats on a sea of, well, non-rationality. And scientists are not, in my experience, any more rational than hardshell Baptists.I was baptized but not (thank Cthulhu) raised Roman Catholic — didn’t even know it until my Catholic sister-in-law told me gleefully that my mother had told her about it. Fortunately I escaped that indoctrination, but then I also grew up in the rural Midwest in the 1950s and 1960s, which was not exactly a haven of enlightenment.
I’d like to clarify my statement about religion being irrational.All *feelings* and all *beliefs* are, by definition, irrational. If you have evidence for something, you *know* it’s true, you don’t have to believe/have faith. Feelings, being emotions, are the opposite of ‘rationality’ (whatever that is–I’m not entirely convinced it exists).I wasn’t saying people who believe in god/s are crazy. I don’t believe in god but have met many reasonable people who do.Wingnuts are those whose beliefs are, in my opinion, dangerous, and who try to force those beliefs down others’ throats. I can’t bear coercion, of any stripe.