Perspective

This is for the CRONES and all their supporters out there.

You are forever prattling on and on about how oppressive the Vatican is, and how misogynistic the hierarchy is. Because you aren't getting your way on becoming priests and bishops.

Well.

I watched the following video today, and it angered me. It provides perspective on how fortunate you are to be women in the Catholic Church (WARNING! Video contains disturbing images of a woman being flogged repeatedly).



This woman was flogged by Sudanese police because she wore pants. Pants! This punishment is permitted in Islam - the so-called 'religion of peace'. Imagine how they would treat you for sporting some of the outfits you wear from time to time.

Oh yeah - and no one in the Roman Catholic Church is calling for any womynpreest who puts on an alb or chasuble to be flogged. You're being told you can't play at being priest - that's all - but you aren't being physically assaulted and tortured. Your feelings are hurt? Well, that's your own d*** fault - the price of admission for pride and disobedience.

And another thing...

You claim you're being denied your right as a baptized Catholic, to participate fully in Christ's priesthood. You accuse the Church of prohibiting women from realizing their call from God. You say you're being attacked for your beliefs, persecuted because you dare to speak out against the hierarchy.

B as in B, S as in S (as Fr. Z likes to say). This is real persecution...

From One News Now: (published 9/22/10)

Reports of violent attacks against Christians are coming in from India and Pakistan.

"A pastor and his wife were returning home from a prayer meeting when they were stopped by masked communist guerillas," Jonathan Racho of International Christian Concern tells OneNewsNow about an incident in India. "They decapitated the pastor, and also, they assaulted his wife."

In addition, in response to a Quran burning in the U.S., Muslims in Kashmir burned down a Christian school that provided education for 550 children from 150 villages. A church in Punjab was also destroyed.

Meanwhile, five young men in Pakistan stopped a pastor who was returning from preaching the gospel.

"Pastor Emmanuel Bashir was [asked] by the young men...'Why do you preach that Jesus Christ is Lord and nobody can get salvation without Jesus Christ?' Then the pastor replied, 'We will never stop preaching about the Lord Jesus Christ, and we will tell about Him to all the nations.'"

At that point, the pastor was attacked and left with broken ribs and a broken hand. Racho stresses these cases should remind Christians in America to lift up in prayer their brothers and sisters in nations like India and Pakistan where Christians are being persecuted for their beliefs.

Here's more, from The Christian Post: (published 12/4/10)

A 17-year-old girl in Somalia who converted to Christianity from Islam was shot to death last week in an apparent “honor killing,” area sources said.

Nurta Mohamed Farah, who had fled her village of Bardher, Gedo Region to Galgadud Region to live with relatives after her parents tortured her for leaving Islam, died on Nov. 25. Area sources said they strongly suspected that the two unidentified men in Galgadud Region who shot her in the chest and head with a pistol were relatives or acting on their behest.

“Reports reached the relatives in Galgadud that Nurta Farah had converted to Christianity,” one source said. “The suspicion that the family is responsible is a solid one. The sister was killed in Abudwaq, a district in Galgadud Region, and the place where the incident took place is about 200 meters from where the sister was staying with relatives.”

And let's not forget the Church attack in Baghdad this past November, where two priests were killed along with dozens of church-goers by a group of Islamic fundamentalists.

I never hear you speak out against these atrocities, or issue press releases condemning these actions. Fellow women - beaten and killed, treated as less than human. Fellow Christians and Catholics being murdered because of their faith. And yet...and yet you continue to whine and complain about how evil the Vatican is because your demands aren't met, and you shriek "persecution!"

Give me a break.

You remain silent on the violence because to speak out against Islam might invite real persecution - it's much safer to harangue the Church, because the worst you can get is ex-communication - which is actually an expression of charity, not that you see it as such.

So count your blessings that you're a member of a faith that doesn't call for murdering its apostates or flogging its transgressors. Until you start taking a stand against real persecution and real violence, STHU. You get no sympathy from me for the perceived injustices you endure. Compared to what countless men and women endure every day around the world, your "sufferings" are frivolous. Each time you complain, you dishonor the sacrifices of the martyrs and the memories of those who held fast to their faith to the last.