Friday, December 9, 2011

Why does the religious right hate the social safety net?

Okay, so here are the arguments I hear most often:
  1. Wealth redistribution is "unjust"
  2. Welfare, unemployment insurance, medicaid and other programs that help the needy introduce "moral hazard"
  3. Charity shouldn't be "forced"
Right, now, I'm a Catholic and I don't have a whole lot of access to protestant theology but I hear they use a Bible that, while not exactly the same, bears a marked resemblance to mine.  Let's look at these arguments by the numbers.

Saturday, December 3, 2011

Why we (Catholics) cant have nice things...

As a practicing Catholic I feel like it's my duty to point out when someone in the church says stuff that seems crazy and stupid.  Here's the latest example.

Basically, head exorcist says yoga is satanic and harry potter is the path to evil. I get that this guy basically worries about Satan's encroachments on a professional basis, so he's likely to be a little paranoid, but this is deadly crazy. 

First of all, if yoga were to lead to any religion at all (doubtful) it would lead to Hinduism, which is decidedly different from Satanism (as the Church clearly recognizes).

Secondly, and not to put too fine a point on it, the Harry Potter thing is totally crazy, and the argument about it is self contradictory. Exorcist man says that Harry Potter is bad because it might encourage people to seek out Satan to get magical powers, but he also says that Satan is all about keeping people from acknowledging his existence. Somehow HP does both, but that seems tricky since how you gonna ask daddy-devil for the accio when you ain't not believe he's there.

I'm sure this guys faith is sincere and all, but he really shouldn't be allowed to give interviews.