Free will

So Pope Benedict is yet again sharing thoughts on gay marriage.

I'm certain this is what he will be remembered for. He was a bulldog against gay anything before becoming Pope, he remains so.

A few quotes for the tl&dr crew.

“People dispute the idea that they have a nature, given to them by their bodily identity, that serves as a defining element of the human being,” he said. “They deny their nature and decide that it is not something previously given to them, but that they make it for themselves.”

“The manipulation of nature, which we deplore today where our environment is concerned, now becomes man’s fundamental choice where he himself is concerned,” he said.

“When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God,” Benedict said.

Now to be a priest of the Catholic church, one must accept a life of celibacy. Priests are modeled after Jesus, who was never married. As it is a sin to have sex before marriage, it is therefore determined that Jesus never had sex. And so his priests are celibate. 

In Genesis, God tells Adam and Eve to "go, be fruitful and multiply". Ergo, have babies. Go have wanton sex and populate the world. Therefore, it is in humanity's nature to have sex. And lots of it. To be celibate is, therefore, to manipulate one's nature.

But all this is not a new argument  and let's face it, we'll be arguing with the Catholic Church about this until we are blue in the face. It will be a very long time from now before any of this becomes allowed. It is only recently that the church told its followers that gays are to be treated with compassion, you know, like your neighbour's two legged dog. 

No, my concern in these comments is summed up by the last quote I shared. I'll share it again.

“When freedom to be creative becomes the freedom to create oneself, then necessarily the Maker himself is denied and ultimately man too is stripped of his dignity as a creature of God,” Benedict said.

Ah, here is where we come to the crux of it. We may have freedom of choice, but we really only have one right answer when it comes to any decision. What would God do?

We are made in God's image; and so we must strive to live our life as God intended. Married to our husband/wife, as many children as we've had sex, a white picket fence, wearing a hat on Sunday and eating fish on Friday. Anything that deviates from this are stemmed from decisions influenced by the devil.

Victims

There's a lot of talk about rape recently on the social networking sites, and it's getting me pissed off.

Not that I think it shouldn't be talked about; on the contrary. I'm pissed off that the entire conversation is directed at women.

One of the things being sent around is a list of tips to avoid being raped. It includes keeping your hair short, carrying your keys in your hand, etc.

Even the photo included in the message causes us to look at this girl, knowing she is about to be attacked. Why? Well obviously because that guy is wearing a ski mask. All rapists wear ski masks. But her skirt is above her knees, she has long hair, she's going for a walk near an abandoned building!

Now I'm not saying we shouldn't talk to women about rape. We absolutely should protect our sisters and daughters as much as we can. We cannot, however, ignore talking to our brothers and sons about it.

For me it comes down to this: Instead of giving our daughters tips to avoid being the victim, we should be teaching our sons to not be assailant. Raise your sons right, your daughters can live without fear.

It baffles me why men aren't pissed off at all this talk directed at the women. Why aren't they pissed off that it is assumed a man cannot control his base urges, that he is naturally a rapist? Realistically if I think about it, it's likely because if a man ever stood up and said, "hey! I'm not a rapist! I can control my pants, stop putting us all in the same box!" women's groups would go BATSHIT and claim the problem is being ignored. After all, if we can't blame the men for this, who can we blame?

Everyone needs a scapegoat. No disaster can happen without some finger pointing going on. In this case, it's being pointed at the victims far too often. And quite frankly, one might as well say "she asked for it".

The first post

Numero uno. The inaugural post. Again. Those who know me know this isn't my first blog, nor my fist post; in fact I have too many blogs. So the best thing to do is start completely fresh, right?

Seems I already have several blogs in various places that I can't access, since I used e-mail addresses that I don't remember, much less the passwords for them.

Anyway. I do have a very public blog, and those who know me know where to find that. This one is intended to be slightly more anonymous. I'll talk about daily stuff, most likely boring things, but these are things I want to write about. No one said you had to read this.

There you have it. I don't lead a very exciting life. I'm a stay at home mom who spends too much time on the internet, gaming, and knitting.

The most exciting thing that happened today? My husband asked me to knit him an ass pillow. No joke.